First Responder Support Network

08/28/2026

Only a few more days to grab your Early Bird Tickets! Ends September 1st 🎉

Join us for the First Responder Support Network Inaugural Gala, a powerful evening celebrating the courage, sacrifice, and resilience of our first responders. Public safety leaders, community supporters, corporate partners, and philanthropic guests will convene for a night of connection, recognition, and impact while enjoying an elevated reception-style experience featuring an open bar, gourmet food, and live music.

A short program of first-hand stories, honoree/volunteer recognition, and a fund-a-need paddle raise will help support FRSN’s trauma informed programs for first responders and their loved ones.❤️

The celebration will continue with an after party, desserts, dancing, drinks, and live music by Martian Luther

DATE: Wednesday, October 28, 2026 (National First Responders Day)
TIME: Starting at 5:30pm
LOCATION: San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center’s Green Room
ATTIRE: Cocktail attire, dress uniforms
TICKET PRICE: $200 early bird; $250 regular; $150 for first responders; $50 for After Party only

Purchase a reserved table for 8 and guarantee your group can sit together throughout the evening. A limited number of reserved tables are available. Individual gala seating is open and available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

EARLY BIRD PRICING ENDS SEPTEMBER 1!

Purchase tickets & learn more about sponsorship opportunities here: https://www.frsn.org/events.html

Thank you for your incredible support! 💙


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08/27/2026

Become a Volunteer Clinician with FRSN! What if your clinical experience could help a first responder or their significant other begin to heal? 💐

Hear from Dr. Ellen Kirschman, who has spent 20 years volunteering with FRSN. As a Responder/Spouse Clinician and former Lead Clinician for both our WCPR and SOS retreats, she has been an integral part of our work supporting the first responder community.

Dr. Kirschman is also the author of Counseling Cops, I Love a Firefighter, I Love a Cop, and the Dot Meyerhoff series. She continues to give back by co-facilitating our FRSN Intern Group Consultation.

In this video, Dr. Kirschman shares what her time with FRSN has meant to her and why clinicians have such an important role in helping first responders and their significant others recover from trauma and PTSI.

If you’re a licensed mental health professional looking for a meaningful way to give back, we’d love to welcome you to the FRSN volunteer team.

📩 To learn more about becoming a Clinical Volunteer, email [email protected].

Bring your experience. Make a difference. Help our heroes heal. ❤️

08/26/2026

Last week, FRSN hosted a Yoga For First Responders®️🚒🚔🚑 (YFFR) Instructor School, bringing together 20 participants, many of whom already volunteer with FRSN’s treatment programs. YFFR Instructor Training sits at the intersection of yoga, stress physiology, trauma-informed practice, physical readiness, and public-safety culture. 🧘🏽‍♀️

The training combines foundational education with an intensive instructor-training component covering the neuroscience of stress and trauma, tactical breath-work, physical drills and mobility, mindfulness and cognitive techniques, trauma-informed yoga principles, public-safety cultural competency, teaching methodology, and practical skills and performance concepts—all designed to prepare instructors to bring stress-regulation and resilience tools into responder and responder adjacent environments.

These newly trained instructors will help deliver YFFR programming within FRSN’s treatment programs and beyond. FRSN looks forward to expanding its approach to trauma care by further incorporating tools that address the physiological and somatic dimensions of trauma alongside the cognitive and emotional work that takes place in treatment. Integrating YFFR into FRSN’s programs will provide responders and responder partners with additional, practical tools to support regulation, recovery, resilience, and long-term well-being.

Congratulations and our deepest appreciation to everyone who participated in the training! Your commitment to learning these skills and your willingness to share your time, experience, and energy in service of others is an important part of strengthening the support network within our community. We are grateful for your dedication and excited to see the impact you will have through this work.🎉❤️

08/25/2026

Thank you to The Overwatch Collective for having FRSN on the podcast and creating space for an important conversation about the experience of being a first responder’s spouse or significant other.

In this episode, FRSN Clinical Director Shaunna Edwards, LCSW, and SOS Peer Director Jamie Schuster talk about our Significant Others and Spouses (SOS) Retreat and why dedicated support for the people behind the badge matters.

SOS is a six-day stress and trauma program designed specifically for current or former partners, spouses, and widows of emergency responders. It’s an opportunity to step away from the constant demands of home and work and focus on your own healing.

Through guided conversations, personal reflection, peer support, and practical skill-building, participants explore how first responder work can impact relationships and family life while gaining a deeper understanding of their own experiences, patterns, pain, and resilience.

With retreats limited to just six participants, SOS offers a safe, inclusive and deeply supportive environment where you can connect with others who truly understand.

Are you a first responder’s spouse or significant other? Your healing matters, too.

Learn more and sign up for an upcoming SOS Retreat here: https://www.frsn.org/significant-others-and-spouses-sos-retreat.html

PS, our friends at The Overwatch Collective will fund 50% of the costs if the significant other/ spouse meets their criteria. https://www.theoverwatchcollective.com/financial-assistance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_on8dTr_rk

Tune in to learn everything you need to know about the First Respon...

08/20/2026

“This changed my life and without it I would be another law enforcement statistic. Thank you for helping me save myself from myself.” - FRSN Client

This is why WCPR exists. ❤

Our West Coast Post-Trauma Retreat (WCPR) is a six-day, peer-led healing retreat for current and former first responders whose lives have been affected by work experiences. It is a residential program providing education, peer support, and tools for recovery designed to help first responders heal from work-related stress and trauma, including post-traumatic stress injury (PTSI). Offered throughout the year at our Northern California retreat center and satellite locations across the United States.

WCPR gives first responders the time and space to step away from the job, connect with peers who understand, and begin addressing the impact of what they have experienced.

For many, it is a place to be heard, understood, and reminded that they don't have to navigate the aftermath of the job alone.

Learn more about WCPR and how the retreat supports first responders on their path toward healing: https://www.frsn.org/west-coast-post-trauma-retreat.html

08/18/2026

Hurry! There's just TWO WEEKS LEFT to purchase your Early Bird Tickets 🎉

Join us for the First Responder Support Network Inaugural Gala, a powerful evening celebrating the courage, sacrifice, and resilience of our first responders. Public safety leaders, community supporters, corporate partners, and philanthropic guests will convene for a night of connection, recognition, and impact while enjoying an elevated reception-style experience featuring an open bar, gourmet food, and live music.

A short program of first-hand stories, honoree/volunteer recognition, and a fund-a-need paddle raise will help support FRSN’s trauma informed programs for first responders and their loved ones.❤️

The celebration will continue with an after party, desserts, dancing, drinks, and live music by

DATE: Wednesday, October 28, 2026 (National First Responders Day)
TIME: Starting at 5:30pm
LOCATION: San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center’s Green Room
ATTIRE: Cocktail attire, dress uniforms
TICKET PRICE: $200 early bird; $250 regular; $150 for first responders; $50 for After Party only

Purchase a reserved table for 8 and guarantee your group can sit together throughout the evening. A limited number of reserved tables are available. Individual gala seating is open and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

EARLY BIRD PRICING ENDS SEPTEMBER 1!

Purchase tickets & learn more about sponsorship opportunities here: https://www.frsn.org/events.html

Thank you for your incredible support! 💙

08/13/2026

We loved meeting so many incredible people at the Fire & Rescue International Conference in Kansas City, MO! ❤️ 🚒

Our Kansas satellite team was proud to represent the First Responder Support Network at this incredible gathering of more than 5,000 attendees from across the fire and rescue community.

Connecting with first responders, learning from others in the field, and sharing how FRSN’s peer-led trauma healing programs are helping first responders and their significant others heal is what it’s all about.

Pictured: Rebecca Elliott, KS Lead Clinician, and Erin O’Donnell, Kansas Captain.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our table and took the time to connect with us! We hope to see you again soon.

08/12/2026

“My life has always been about taking care of everyone else. SOS allowed me to look forward, take care of myself and focus on me for once.” - SOS Client

Join our Significant Others and Spouses (SOS) Retreat, a six-day stress and trauma program designed specifically for current or former partners, spouses, and widows of emergency responders. It is a place to step away from the constant demands of home and work and focus, perhaps for the first time in a long time, on your own healing. 💐

Throughout the week, participants engage in guided conversations, personal reflection, peer support, and practical skill-building. You gain insight into how the stress of first responder work impacts relationships and family systems—but more importantly, you begin to understand your own patterns, pain, and resilience.

Retreats are intentionally small, limited to six participants, creating a safe, inclusive and deeply supportive environment.❤️

Our programs are staffed by experienced first responder partners, mental health clinicians, and chaplains, specifically trained in trauma recovery.

Learn more and register here: https://www.frsn.org/significant-others-and-spouses-sos-retreat.html

08/11/2026

Make a difference for those who serve our communities! ❤️

Partner with the First Responder Support Network as a sponsor of our Inaugural Gala on October 28, 2026, at The Green Room in San Francisco, and help raise critical funds for first responder mental health. 🎉

Your support helps provide life-changing trauma healing programs for first responders and their significant others.It fuels recovery, builds resilience, and ensures those who serve our communities have access to the care they deserve.

Join us for an evening of celebration, connection, inspiring stories, live music, gourmet food, an open bar, and dancing, all while making a meaningful difference in the lives of first responders and their families.

As a sponsor, you’ll have the opportunity to spotlight your brand while supporting a mission that changes lives.

Learn more about our sponsorship levels here: https://onecau.se/frsninauguralgala

Thank you for your support! 💐

08/10/2026

Kinda Chic to get back to life. 💙

Because taking care of your mental health isn’t a weakness. It’s part of getting back to the people, places and moments that make life worth living.

At FRSN, we create space for that healing through our West Coast Post-Trauma Retreat (WCPR) for current and former first responders, and our Significant Others and Spouses (SOS) retreat for current or former partners, spouses and widows of first responders.

Six days. A safe space. Peers who understand. Tools for healing. A chance to put down some of what you’ve been carrying and take a step toward getting back to life. Because it’s kinda chic to take care of your mental health.

Learn more about our retreats here: https://www.frsn.org/programs.html

Help make healing possible for more first responders and their significant. Donate today to support mental health and FRSN’s life-changing retreats. ❤️ https://www.frsn.org/donate.html