A New Learning Library Is Coming

Education built for the people who carry what others cannot.

The On the Job and Off Foundation is building an expanded online learning library for first responders and the wider community of trauma-exposed professionals.

Founded and led by first responder Ali W. Rothrock, our education begins with an understanding that cannot be gained from a textbook alone: the work changes you. It affects the nervous system, the body, relationships, leadership, family life, and the way people experience the world long after a shift has ended.

That is why our courses feel different from trainings you may have taken before. We do not offer generic wellness advice repackaged for high-impact professions.

Our education brings together lived experience, trauma expertise, practical tools, and culturally informed instruction designed for the realities of the work.

Our Current Learning Libraries

Our existing online education includes dedicated libraries for:

Fire Service

Education created with the culture, occupational demands, and lived realities of firefighters in mind.

Emergency Medical Services

Training designed for the cumulative exposure, high responsibility, and sustained nervous system demands experienced by EMS professionals.

Emergency Communications

Education that recognizes dispatchers and emergency communications personnel as the first first responders—and addresses the unique impact of carrying emergencies through a headset.

Trauma, Stress, and Recovery

• Capturing the Load

• Vicarious Trauma

• Post-Traumatic Stress

• Cumulative Stress and Compassion Fatigue

• Had a Bad Call?

• Managing Critical Incident Stress

Peer Support and Behavioral Health

• How to Better Support Your Fellow First Responders

• Overcoming: Addressing Addiction as a First Responder

• Suicide Prevention

Health, Performance, and Career Longevity

• Sleep, Rest, and Taking Care

• Fit for Duty: Physical Fitness for the First Responder

• Food as Fuel

• Yoga for First Responders: An Introduction

Culture, Family, and the Wider Impact of the Work

• The Way Forward: Ending Sexual Harassment and Assault

• For Those Who Love a First Responder

• Being a First Responder During a Global Pandemic

More Than Information

Understanding trauma is important. Knowing what to do with that understanding is what creates change.

Our courses are designed to help people recognize what is happening within them, find language for experiences they may never have been taught to name, and build practical ways to respond—before stress becomes crisis.

The goal is not to make people less affected by meaningful work. The goal is to give them the knowledge, resources, and repeatable practices they need to remain connected to themselves, their families, their teams, and the lives they are working so hard to protect.

The Library Is Expanding

The next generation of the On the Job and Off learning library will build upon this foundation with new education focused on nervous system literacy, sustainable resilience, leadership, family support, organizational culture, career longevity, and the cumulative impact of trauma-exposed work.

Our existing Fire, EMS, and Emergency Communications libraries will continue to grow. New learning pathways will also expand our reach to additional professionals who routinely witness, respond to, support, investigate, treat, or carry the experiences of others.

The new platform will make it possible for us to add timely courses, emerging research, practical resources, and new voices to the library on an ongoing basis.

This is not a static collection of trainings.

It is a growing home for education created by people who understand the work, for people who live it.

Already a Member?

Current members can continue accessing the existing learning library during this transition.

[Access the Current Learning Library]