Most EMTs are white. A new program in Hartford aims to attract and train diverse candidates by paying them to learn.
By Jessika Harkay on July 13, 2021
Growing up, Thierry Gation never pictured himself as an EMT because none looked like him.
“Most of the EMTs I saw were Caucasian. I never saw EMTs that were Hispanic or that were African-American, or anything else. It wasn’t until I started working at hotels in New York, and I started working in different places, where we’d call 911 that we’d see EMT’s of different demographics,” Gation said.
But Gation is now on track to become a certified EMT and embark on a new career, thanks to a new program created by the The City of Hartford and American Medical Response, the medical transportation company. The “Earn While You Learn” program paid a group of students to earn their EMT certification earlier in the year, in hopes of diversifying a field with little diversity. In 2017, only 5% of EMTs were Black and 13% were Hispanic, according to US News.
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