Helping Communities Save More Lives Through Education and Mentorship
Since its inception, Medic One Foundation has proudly supported initiatives that elevate emergency medical care—and few partnerships better reflect this mission than our long-standing relationship with the Resuscitation Academy Foundation (RAF). As one of the program’s original funders, the Foundation has watched the Resuscitation Academy grow from a regional innovation into a national leader in cardiac arrest education, mentorship, and system improvement.
This spring, the Foundation’s Board of Directors approved a $100,000 grant to the Resuscitation Academy to support their latest initiative: Saving Lives Through Education and Mentorship. This critical investment will help modernize and expand their educational curriculum and launch a robust mentorship network aimed at reducing disparities in cardiac arrest survival across the country.
Every year, more than 350,000 people in the U.S. experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Survival rates vary dramatically depending on where a person lives—ranging from less than 5% in some communities to more than 50% in others. The Resuscitation Academy has been a national force in narrowing those gaps by training first responders, EMS leaders, 911 telecommunicators, and community health partners in evidence-based practices that save lives.
The new grant will support two key efforts. First, it funds a comprehensive update of the Resuscitation Academy’s curriculum, adding new modules focused on pediatric and in-hospital resuscitation, opioid-related cardiac arrest, and inclusive training methods. These materials will be more interactive, aligned with the latest science, and better equipped to serve the increasingly diverse agencies that turn to the Academy for guidance.
Second, the grant launches the Resuscitation Academy Mentorship Program (RAMP)—a first-of-its-kind effort to connect program alumni with expert mentors. The goal is to help alumni agencies overcome obstacles, apply best practices, and improve patient outcomes. Special emphasis will be placed on mentoring communities with the lowest cardiac arrest survival rates. The program builds on the success of the Academy’s Lighthouse Communities, nine U.S. regions that have dramatically improved survival outcomes and now serve as national role models.
“Where you live shouldn’t determine whether you survive a cardiac arrest,” said Kim Duncan Martin, Executive Director of Medic One Foundation. “This grant reflects our belief that every community deserves access to the same level of training, support, and lifesaving care.”
