State of Florida, First Program Achieves National Acclaimed Accreditation for Third Consecutive Time

June 25, 2014 - PRLog -- Lexington, KY – The State of Florida is the first emergency management program to achieve accreditation by the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) for the third consecutive time.

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. Florida has been EMAP accredited since 2003 when it was one of the first states to go through the accreditation process. Since then, the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) underwent leadership and organizational changes and EMAP underwent revisions to three versions of the Emergency Management Standard. Throughout this diversity, FDEM continued to maintain its program to the rigorous yet scalable, nationally-acclaimed industry standard for emergency management.

“The state of Florida positions itself as a leader in emergency management,” Barb Graff, Director of Seattle Office of Emergency Management and Chair of the EMAP Commission states, “Not only is this a major achievement for the Florida Division of Emergency Management to lead by example through maintaining nationally recognized standards, but it also is a statement on how far EMAP has come to grow as an organization.”

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.

“Meeting the EMAP will certainly challenge any emergency management agency seeking accreditation, and satisfying those objectives requires us to closely examine our practices and processes,” said FDEM Director Bryan W. Koon.  “Reaccreditation is an important exercise for us, because it ensures that we as an entire division have set the highest standards for ourselves, that these standards are consistent and we are accountable to ourselves in the future.”

Additionally, five Florida counties have received EMAP accreditation independently of the state. Duval, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Orange, and Volusia counties have all met the requirements established by EMAP.

“One of our ultimate goals is for each of Florida’s 67 counties to be accredited by EMAP, so that we can enjoy a common set of standards at a local level as well,” said Koon.

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.