Emergency Management Accreditation Awarded to Seven Programs

Oct. 16, 2014 - PRLog -- Atlanta – Seven vastly different programs have earned accreditation by the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP): congratulations to The City of Orlando, Fla.; Madison County, Fla.; Seminole County, Fla.; USACE North Atlantic District, Philadelphia, Pa.; and Virginia Tech University earned accreditation from the Emergency Management Accreditation Program. In addition, the States of Maryland and New York have achieved reaccreditation.

In a time where our Nation’s emergency management is strengthening in professional preparedness from the local level to a national scale, accreditation represents a significant achievement.

“These Programs have demonstrated leadership, vision, and commitment to their communities and to the profession of emergency management by achieving a professional third party review and recognition of meeting objectives standards of excellence,” Barb Graff, Director of Seattle Office of Emergency Management and Chair of the EMAP Commission.

To achieve accreditation, emergency management programs document compliance with a set of industry recognized standards, Emergency Management Standard, used in the accreditation process and undergo a peer-review assessment by EMAP trained assessors. The emergency management program uses the accreditation to prove the capabilities of their disaster preparedness and response systems. Accreditation is valid for five years and the program must maintain compliance with EMAP standards and is reassessed to maintain accredited status.

For the State of New York and the State of Maryland, reaccreditation proves just as significant. Five years ago, both states achieved EMAP Accreditation. By maintaining their accredited status throughout the years, both programs prove that they adhere to the industry-recognized standards, Emergency Management Standard, and successfully maintain accreditation status to achieve reaccreditation this year.

EMAP revolutionizes emergency management programs that coordinate preparedness and response activities for disasters based on industry standards. EMAP recognizes the ability of emergency management programs to bring together personnel, resources and communications from a variety of agencies and organizations in preparation for and in response to an emergency, in addition to obtaining the ability to measure those capabilities. The Emergency Management Standard is flexible in design so that programs of differing sizes, populations, risks and resources can use it as a blueprint for improvement and can attain compliance with the standard. The EMAP process evaluates emergency management programs on compliance with requirements in sixteen areas, including: planning; resource management; training; exercises, evaluations, and corrective actions; and communications and warning. This forms the foundation of the nation’s emergency preparedness system. EMAP is the only accreditation process for emergency management programs.