Women in Leadership.

A local production of PBS Michiana WNIT is presented in partnership with Mr. Jerry Hammes Mr. Hammes is proud to present this program in memory of his late wife, Dorene Dwyer Hammes and all the women who continue to impact our community for the better.

Additional funding provided by NIPSCO, the South Bend Clinic, and First Source Bank.

Thank you Responding to people in emergency situations where every second counts takes a special kind of person, and three Michiana women are filling those shoes.

Victoria Armstrong, a young firefighter from the Michigan City Fire Department.

Martha Velez, an EMT with Southwestern Michigan Community Ambulance Services in Niles, Michigan.

And Jillian Ashley, Assistant Chief of the Michigan City Police Department These real life superheroes are bringing safety, security and compassion to people's darkest moments.

911.

What is your emergency Come lean on me.

Gonna lean on you.

Gonna power up and power through gonna rise strong.

Gonna rise strong.

I'll be your ground and you'll be mine.

When we stand together, we do just fine .

Gonna rise strong.

My name's Victoria Armstrong.

I'm at Michigan City Fire Department.

I'm a firefighter.

This is my second year, and this is my station.

Station one.

I've always been like the tomboy of the family.

I'm the only girl out of five brothers.

When I was young, my older brother, was actually, like, super into firefighting.

It's not very like thrown in the young girls faces that firefighting is an option.

Little girls don't get firefighter action figures or firefighter costumes.

And it's not like, oh, you want to be a firefighter when you grow up then, right?

That's so cool.

That's not it.

I thought I would have to go and do something more like be a doctor or something like that to impact the world.

But this is like hands on, like, making a change.

And I love it I was raised by a single mother, so she was a mentor to me, and she inspired me to be strong and independent and know that I can do anything that I put my mind to.

That's why I'm here today doing what I do But it was a long process to get to where she is today.

First thing, you have to go and take a written test and you have to pass that one first.

And you're allowed to move on to the physical part of the journey.

Do the physical part, which is completely demanding.

It's a CPAT which is a physical agility test that we take to determine if we're able to do the job, which I would like to say is no different for women to men.

And I've done it.

So women are very capable of doing it.

After you do all of this and you're accepted on the department, they send you down to an academy, and at the end of it you do a graduation ceremony and it's like kind of a relief.

It's like, I'm here, there's no going back.

And from that day forward, she never looked back Helping people on a medical call or even on fire calls.

It's that's somebody's like darkest days, a nd just knowing that I can come in there and at least try to make them feel better in that moment, it's it's a driver and I love it.

One of my first calls actually was a full arrest.

It was very intense.

It was eye opening.

I knew what I was getting into.

I knew like this is what I wanted to do.

But you never really know until you're in that situation how you're going to react.

And people tend to have the fight or flight.

You can't have that here.

You got to fight like you're here.

You're taking care of somebody.

You're here in their darkest moments.

So you have to make sure you're on your A-game.

It was intense.

I just knew I had to snap into it and get it done.

And as bad as it was, clarified that this is what I wanted to do.

The determination of Victoria and her fellow firefighters would help them get through another crisis that was unlike anything they had ever seen before.

I came on in the smack, like right in the beginning of COVID, actually.

I came on March two years ago, which is when COVID was really on the rise.

It was a lot different.

There was lots of normally there's more events or more like training that we do in a sense of like how the job is done.

They weren't even training the same like , everything was changed.

The way you just simply go on a ride, like to a call changed.

We're gearing up.

We're putting on full Novak suits We're putting on gloves and masks and bonnets and shoe coverings.

And it's like a hazmat scene but for a medical call.

You're seeing a lot of people who are getting COVID and a lot of people from the outside don't really get to see that day to day, So they don't notice how bad it actually is.

But going on the calls, you see exactly what it is.

There's so many people and families impacted by COVID.

It was tough.

It was a crazy time to come on.

I feel like everything was just so different.

There's a lot of mental strength it takes to become a firefighter and you need family behind you.

And that's why even on the department, we're a family., because you need that support system.

We go through a lot of things together.

We spend 24-hour periods of time together.

We're doing everything we can to be prepared to.

Sometimes we could be just relaxing and doing something together, but in the snap of a finger, we could be at a fire or anything like that.

So we just make sure, like, we take care of each other.

We do.

We play a lot of games together.

Anything we do a lot of bonding really.

We play games together, we eat together, we do our chores together.

It's just a community here.

Like, it's it's awesome.

Some of the bonding in the firehouse includes some lighter moments, like deciding who's going to cook for the day and then sitting down to enjoy that meal together.

I am one of the better cooks so the department and the guys enjoy my food.

A lot of times, like, we joke like, Oh, it's not because you're a woman, like because it's cliche, but that tends to happen.

I just enjoy cooking and some of the guys just shouldn't cook.

I love them, but they just shouldn't.

Shouldn't be in the kitchen.

Yeah, W omen can also add a whole new dimension to the job of firefighting.

It's diversity.

If you have people from different backgrounds and different upbringings, they're going to have different thoughts and they're going to show you a different way, maybe to do things, a different mentality.

I think we bring a nurturing kind of side to the department, but with only 4% of career firefighters being women, it creates some challenges as to how they are perceived.

I have a super, like, amazing crew that I work with, but it's not everybody doesn't have the same mentality about women being on departments, not necessarily like my department alone.

It could be people in the community or just just anything.

So sometimes the words can get to you or the being discouraged by different comments can be hurtful.

Victoria has a favorite quote that helps her get through those times.

I do.

It's simple, but it's "No Rain, No Flowers" If I didn't go through the words that were said or the different treatments or anything like that, I don't think it would.

have gave me as much as a fire to like, I can do anything I want to do!

It kind of , it made me who I am today.

So "No Rain, No Flowers" is my favorite quote.

I personally, like I said, I was blessed to have an awesome crew and my shift has been amazing about opening the doors and just making sure I feel comfortable.

And I think that it's not like that everywhere.

So I'm super blessed.

Contemplating what it might take to open doors for other women.

Victoria gives her thoughts on the matter.

I think it's kind of tricky, a little bit of a stigma behind like the fire service being so tough.

I mean, we are tough, but women are tough, so we can do just as much as anybody can.

I think it needs to be shown in media.

m ore women faces on on the front line.

I know any opportunity that I get on the department to do charity or be out in the public and let people know that we're here.

I take advantage of that every step of the way because I just know that there's so many young girls that see me.

I will get...

There's little kids in this neighborhood that will see me and they're like, oh, my goodness, there's a girl like like they don't know.

Our PIO officer set up an event for us to go down and speak to young women who wanted to be first responders, whether it's Police Officers, EMS, Fire.

I was like, that's awesome.

We have to go out and do this.

So we all decided we're going to do it as a crew or a group of women.

And we took an engine down to the event as just women.

Every seat, the captain seat was a woman.

The operator seat was a woman.

In the back end seats were women I genuinely felt like driving that engine down there, just as a female crew was a change in history.

I truly do.

awarded Firefighter of the Year.

The young woman who grew up with no female action heroes has become one herself and is changing history.

Come lean on me.

Gonna lean on you.

Gonna to power up and power through.

Gonna rise strong.

Gonna rise strong.

I'll be you're ground and you be mine.

When we stand together, we do just fine.

Gonna rise strong.

I'm Martha Velez and I'm an EMT basic.

I got a late start in getting into EMS started in fire service at first and they started the first responder program on the fire department.. And so I got to the point where when you get on accident, scenes, instead of just standing back and doing the fire part of it, I wanted to get a little bit more involved.

So ended up taking a class.

And when they started the responder service there for that and then kind of evolved from there.

And then just had something was pushing me that I wanted to more.

I want to help on this end of it too, you know.

To achieve her dream of becoming an EMT.

It meant a lot of time in the classroom and time practicing Real-World scenarios.

You walk in, they'll tell you a scenario and there's your patient and you have to act like it's a real thing and which is a little bit awkward and hard to do sometimes when you're sitting there going but there is no blood.

But to Martha, actually getting on the job and starting to help people was the best way to learn.

You know, there's a lot of lifting, a lot of, you know, a lot of strenuous wor were crawling into cars that are tore up trying to get to the patient and you just learn as you go.

To me, it looked like you learn as you go.

The physical demands may be daunting, but on Martha's team working together always helps.

Luckily, we work at a service that, you know, helps a lot to try to keep injuries down with back injuries and, you know, arm, shoulders, neck and all that stuff.

So we get equipment that helps us with that.

And I've worked with a lot of partners that are really, really helpful when it comes to lifting.

We work together as a team to lift, so that helps a lot.

You're with these people.

24-hours at a time.

We work 24-hour shifts, so I'm with my partner 24-hours.

You develop friendships, you develop closeness, you know, you feel like family.

I'm sure you've heard it before you know, hey It's some type of family.

We can fight among each other.

But don't you say anything but my family.

Type of deal.

Those bonds don't just help when it comes to lifting.

They can also be an important part of dealing with the emotional toll of the job.

You've got to learn to kind of put it aside while you're actually doing the job, in my opinion, anyways.

Then afterwards, you know, you can sit back and go, Huh?

And then I find that a lot of us find that, you know, talking to our coworkers or somebody, you know, that's been in there, gone through the same things, helps out some.

And then we also have critical stress debriefings that if it's really bad, they'll call in the teams and they'll come in and sit in a circle and you talk it all out.

And that helps a lot, too.

I went through a few of them and didn't really think, you know, I don't need that.

But once you sit through one of them, it's like, yeah, maybe I did.

So that helps.

Approximately 22% of EMTs suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

You don't realize what that takes out of you until, you know, like one of them I sat through when they started telling you the symptoms that you can have.

And I just went and they looked at me and I said, Oh, that explains a lot.

You know, the the lack of sleep, the appetite changes the, you know, the feeling more stress, more anxious.

And, you know, I just thought it was just me, you know, going through everyday things you know, you don't realize it is kind of goes back to falls back to what you see sometimes.

Another big cause of stress has been the COVID 19 pandemic.

Our recall volume was just hitting like 3000 calls a year and this last year was 8100 it was it's been rough it's just the constant changes.

We don't get into a real good routine but we were blessed like our director and our ops manager worrying about keeping us with the protective gear that we needed and constantly, you know, getting the stuff we needed to get the job done.

A lot of us are working a lot of more overtime to cover the lack of people working and the hours.

Call volume has made it more stressful for less sleep.

So we're a lot more tired.

I think it takes a certain type of person to be able to deal with a lot of the stress and a lot of the different calls you know, and people say it's you're calling because you gotta be able to , be able to think on you're feet.

Be able to deal with the different changes in a call that can happen at any time.

And it can be going great one minute and then next thing you're going, Oh, and you're trying to do everything you can.

You have to be able to handle stress.

In the past, some may have thought that women didn't have the qualities to make it as an EMT, but Martha says that's changing.

We have, when we're at full capacity, we have 18 full time people.

Right now, we're at 16 and five of those of us are women.

But there are more, you know, women.

You're seeing more I see more , two women as partners Before, it was usually you know, it was more of a male dominated thing but now it's more women getting into it.

And according to Martha, women bring something special to the job.

Most of us women are a little bit more, have more empathy, maybe.

Can, you know, help diffuse some situations.

And, you know, especially when you're working with female patients and stuff like that, you can help them out.

I mean, I've seen some of the guys do pretty well, too.

So, I mean,.

and others just kind of sit back and go, this is you.

So, to that point, you know, we're more nurturing, more helpful, more you know, helping diffuse some situations sometimes.

With only about 30% of EMT being female, though, the industry is still male dominated But Martha says women shouldn't let that stop them.

You gotta be kind of kind of be able to step up, be strong step up and get in there and and not be afraid to speak your mind.

Since it was a male dominated place.

But I mean, more and more women are getting into it.

But, you know, don't be afraid to say, hey, this is you know, I was looking at this.

If you come in here and you're too timid, you've got to be able to get in there, be able to think on your feet, especially when you get out there on calls.

You'll have your partner's back and work together as a team to get things done.

This has to be a job you love.

You don't go in it for the money.

You have to come in and be one of the people that really wants to make a difference and hopefully make a difference.

And Martha Velez is definitely one who is making a difference.

Come lean on me, Gonna lean on you.

Gonna power up and power through Gonna rise strong.

I'll be a ground and you be mine.

When we stand together, we do just fine.

Gonna rise strong.

My name is Jillian Ashley.

I am the Chief of S ervices for the Michigan City Police Department in Indiana.

I've been on the department for 15 years.

I've been in this role for a little over two years.

I have been living in Michigan City now for a little over more than half my life.

I would say we moved here when I was almost 17-years old.

I was in the 10th grade.

I'm telling you, I came kicking and screaming because I actually lived and grew up in Brooklyn, New York.

So I had my whole life sort of planned out for me there.

But, you know, I always say God knows us best, and so I ended up in Michigan City.

My mom decided to move, and that's where I began my law enforcement career.

Jillian began a life of service at the young age of 17, where she served her country for eight years before getting her degree in law enforcement.

I've always wanted to be in law enforcement.

Thus, that's the reason why I got my degree in criminal justice.

But I did not see myself ever in a uniform.

And you know actually patrolling the streets in enforcing the law that way.

My desire was always to be a judge, But, it would be her husband a local minister who encouraged her to apply for the police department.

He must have saw something to me that he thought, I can actually do this job.

And that's why I'm here today., really.

Coming into law enforcement.

I didn't know what to expect.

I will tell you that my when I first told my mother that I was going to be a police officer with the city, she was a little scared for me.

of course, you know, I think that's natural.

But she was also concerned with the fact that she never saw anybody that looked like me that was actually going to be enforcing the law.

So that was another issue that she had.

But those concerns would be alleviated when Jillian found support in her police family.

But I would honestly say that since I've come to the Michigan City Police Department, all of the people, all the people, my training coworkers, you know, that I work side by side each and every day, the representation, the support that that was received in training, it was always there.

And so it really is when I say law enforcement really is a family oriented affair, if you will, I can really attest to that.

And that support would be needed for the difficult job ahead.

You know, police officers have a unique experience of life, I would say, in that most people don't realize what we see on a daily basis and sometimes is not always the prettiest thing.

So, you know, it's not the, it's not what we were brought up to see.

And it's it's those things that your parents shielded you from.

Well, police officers being sometimes the first responders.

you know, that is what we see.

We see the worst sometimes in humanity.

All of that plays into an officer's mental capacity, stress level.

It does take a toll.

That's the reason why it is very important.

that it is a constant reminder for self care.

If you actually talk about it, you know it's better, you know, and holding it in and internalizing, you know, a lot of things is sometimes not the best advice Jillian believes women bring a unique skill set to the job.

What we bring to the table is a way of communicating.

And I think sometimes, especially to our male counterparts, where the ones that we may not be as strong as, you know, but yet we bring another level of of stability.

You know, I think that we complement one another.

I believe that communication is the key to all things, especially when you are on the street.

You know, you have to be able to talk to people.

And if you don't have a good communication, communication skills, then you're in trouble out there because most of the time we have to calm people down.

I believe women bring that to the table.

Women in law enforcement, you know, we have the ability we are nurturing naturally.

And it is that very nurturing ability that can come into play during a crisis.

I recall it's been many years ago now, but I was a detective and I got called in because one of the one juvenile had actually slipped in a sand dune and he actually was underneath the sand.

They could not find him.

And that made national news.

And I remember having to come in and do interviews.

And one of the things that I would say is that I was able to be with his mother and his father.

And we sat in that in every room or we just talked.

And that's the gift of being able to communicate and while others were out, you know, at Mount Baldy just searching for him, I was there to sort of be a calming voice.

So when we got the news that he was found and that he was going to be well, that was probably one of the best days ever.

That little boy whose parents, Jillian, comforted during a crisis is now a thriving teenager.

Yeah, that was the best I would say the best.

There are also challenging days in law enforcement, and one of them had gripped the nation in 2020. during a time of the George Floyd protest being African-American, female or African-American in particular, in law enforcement was a challenge because again, it's one of those things where, you know, you see this is not how we train.

And so to see that I remember I was actually sitting in my living room and me and my husband was watching it unfold and I just felt so remorseful because I'm in law enforcement and it makes you question sometimes everything, you know, how does this happened and why is it happening?

And, you know, and then it makes you appreciative too though, of the citizens.

I mean, trying to do what they could to assist.

And so, I mean, I applaud them for taking out the phones and recording.

I welcome all of that.

Because one thing about it is if you're doing things right all the time, there's no reason to worry about, you know, any backlash or repercussions as a result of you doing your your job and you're doing it well.

But when you don't do it well and nobody knows about it, then that can be a problem as well, too.

So I welcome all of it.

But like many cities across the country, Michigan City, too, would soon feel the repercussions of that event.

So we had probably over a thousand, or so, people, protesters come on May 31st that year and we had every officer was mandated to work.

They have a right everybody has a right to voice their opinions.

You know, we just ask always that it's always peaceful and that we don't have any type of rioting because that's when police would have to act then.

But yeah, we we were very fortunate.

I'm happy that I chose Michigan City Police Department as a career And she is always advocating for other young women to choose this career as well when she visits high schools and community events and she has some advice to women seeking a career in law enforcement.

You don't have to be rough.

You don't have to be tough.

You can just be who you are and you'll be good enough.

And so that would be the advice that I would get.

You know,, if you don't allow this career or your environment to change you as a person, that is the most important thing that will take you far.

Just be who you are.

You are enough that is my advice that I would always give you are enough.

You are enough, you're enough.

That may also be what the community of Michigan City might say to Chief Jillian.

Ashley....You're enough.

But set backs, they don't set me back.

It's been a long time running.

Just gonna keep Gonna keep it.

Keep it coming.

Come lean on me.

Gonna power up and power through Gonna rise strong.

Gonna rise strong.

I'll be your ground and you'll be mine.

When we stand together we do just fine.

Gonna rise Strong.

Come lean on me.

Gonna lean on you.

Gonna Rise.

Strong.

Women in Leadership.

A local production of PBS Michiana WNIT, has been presented in partnership with Mr. Jerry Hammes Mr. Hammes is proud to support this program in memory of his late wife, Dorene Dwyer Hammes and all the women who continue to impact our community.

For the better.

Additional funding provided by Thank you.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.