I am Jo Gaskill, a firefighter at Poole White Watch, but soon starting my promotional journey as a temporary Crew Manager at Redhill Park Green Watch.
I passionately promote the fire service as a brilliant job opportunity and career for women, and support our female operational staff once in post and throughout their employment with the Service.
I am largely enabled to do this through my role chairing the Operational Women’s Group – which meets quarterly, bringing together all our wholetime and on-call operational women to discuss important topics that affect our everyday working lives, as well as raising awareness of all sorts of opportunities within the Service.
It’s a forum where we discuss developments within the Service and capture views on changing strategies to feed up to our Senior Leadership Team. Chairing the group also means I get invited to project meetings covering all areas of the Service to share the views of our operational women.
I also represent the Service at, and get involved with, a range of networks, conferences and other external agencies that allow us to keep abreast of national and international movements in firefighting.
Through the Fire Brigades Union, I completed a counselling course to provide me with the tools to support friends and colleagues when in need. I also support the White Ribbon campaign, to help raise awareness to end violence against women and girls.
After losing both of my parents, I spent time with an amazing bereavement counsellor who helped me get back on an even keel and encouraged me to find my wonderful Irish Terrier, who herself passed a therapy dog assessment last year so is able also to support a range of people in various settings, from schools and hospitals to nursing homes.
I joined DWFRS in 2016, after graduating from Aberdeen (and Michigan State) Universities. I was then employed in the charity sector as a project manager and fundraiser for about 15 years before becoming self-employed in the fitness industry. Out of work, I run, cycle, surf and kite-surf.
I will happily support and motivate anyone looking to join the fire service, as it is an amazing job offering an incredible amount of diversity, and I am particularly keen to encourage women, simply because we need more of you!!!
I will draw on my experiences as a woman, firefighter, manager, women’s representative and fitness professional to help you get the right information and experience to start your career as a DWFRS firefighter. So, if you feel I am the right person to help, get in touch, we can have an initial chat and take it from there.