On Thursday evening at the City-County Building downtown, the City of Pittsburgh kicked off Black History Month by announcing a new EMT training academy that honors the nation’s first emergency medical service.
Freedom House Ambulance Service emerged out of Pittsburgh’s Hill district in 1967 as the country’s first mobile intensive care unit. Staffed entirely by Black men and women, the service became the blueprint for modern EMS and paramedics.
Hosted in partnership with AARP Pennsylvania, Thursday’s event featured speeches by city officials, live music, food and displays documenting the history and legacy of Freedom House. Mayor Ed Gainey said this year’s Black History Month display, which will remain open to the public through the end of February, aims to highlight innovators who drive the country forward.
“Without Freedom House there would be no EMS,” Gainey said. “To take it from the Hill District and make it a city-wide department demonstrates the ability that when we work together, there's nothing we can’t do.”
Gainey invited Chief of Pittsburgh EMS Amera Gilchrist, accompanied by her teenage daughter, to announce the program. Gilchrist said she was inspired by Freedom House and first proposed the Freedom House EMT Training Academy over the summer in honor of her predecessors.
Any resident of Pittsburgh with at least a high school diploma or GED and a driver's license can qualify for the 12-week program, which seeks to address staffing shortages, offer job opportunities to Pittsburgh’s underserved communities and diversify the field of emergency medicine. The city is accepting applications now.
“We want to diversify the bureau, and what better way than looking in our own communities, the communities with the diverse makeup that allows the city to thrive using the talent in our own backyard,” Gilchrist said.
Prior to becoming an emergency medical service, Freedom House itself emerged as a community organization designed to provide services to underserved communities in the Hill District. John Moon, former Freedom House emergency medical technician and retired assistant chief of Pittsburgh EMS, said the organization became the blueprint for modern EMS through the help of visionaries like Phil Hallen.
“It was his vision that said if this organization can deliver food to the residents, why can't they deliver medical care,” Moon said.
Hallen, former president of the Maurice Falk Medical Fund and also once an ambulance driver, worked with Freedom House and the chief anesthesiologist at the local hospital, Dr. Peter Safer, to train community members in emergency medical care in an effort to help patients before they arrived at the hospital.
“Freedom House was responsible for the design of the modern day ambulance that you see today — that had a stretcher, where the paramedic sits, the onboard oxygen deception unit, the [blood pressure] cuff — all of those things that we take for granted were designed during the era where pre-hospital care really did not exist at all,” Moon said.
From 1967, the Freedom House Ambulance Service operated for about a decade until the City of Pittsburgh eventually absorbed it into the mainstream medical service — something Moon said “was somewhat of a problematic transition.”
According to Moon, many of the initial members of Freedom House were dismissed by the city’s EMS department, and only a handful, including himself, remained. Moon attributes this transition to the reason why many people still don’t know about Freedom House today.
“If you can get rid of the people that made history, or the history-makers, you essentially eliminate that part of history,” Moon said.
Native Pittsburgher Alisha West, who works with Gilchrist in the public safety department, said she never learned about the history of Freedom House until meeting the chief. West added that she came to Thursday’s event to support Gilchrist in announcing the new EMT program.
“I think it's great that we're shining light on one Freedom House,” West said.
Susan Lambert, a resident of Pittsburgh for over 20 years, heard about the commemoration through her friend who volunteers at AARP Pennsylvania and emphasized the importance of sharing Freedom House’s history with more people.
“It's been a wonderful learning experience for me, not knowing anything about Freedom House until tonight, so I'm glad I came here,” Lambert said.
Moon said the Black History Month display at the City-County Building and Thursday’s event announcing the new Freedom House EMT Training Academy are a step forward in commemorating the efforts of Freedom House, though long-overdue.
“The foundation of EMS, as we see it today, is brought back to the forefront,” Moon said. “It laid dormant for well over 50 years. So myself along with a number of committed individuals have taken this challenge on to make sure that this part of history is back.”
