Over the past 15 years, emergency management as a profession, and as a practice, has matured dramatically. The need for strong, effective, and comprehensive programs is constantly reinforced by national and international events such as this year’s deadly tornadoes in the Southeast and Midwest, as well as the April earthquake in Japan; not to mention, the predicted above-average 2011 hurricane season.

The Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) was created by a group of national organizations to foster continuous improvement in emergency management capabilities. It provides emergency management programs the opportunity to be recognized for compliance with national standards, demonstrate accountability, and focus attention on areas where resources are needed.

To promote good professional standards and practices, EMAP is providing a tremendous opportunity for interested organizations by offering a complementary one-year EMAP subscription to the first 400 local programs (cities, towns, townships, parishes, and counties) that express interest. This offer provides the first step to EMAP accreditation at no cost to the jurisdiction (a savings of $450). The subscription involves no commitment to seek accreditation but is a means of acquiring standards and procedure materials for review and conducting an organization’s online self-assessment.

Ellis Stanley, CEM, Dewberry vice president and former EMAP chair states, “The best thing about EMAP is having a tool that can truly be used for self-assessment as well as help prepare a realistic work plan for your program. The value of this initiative is priceless. If you are new to a program it will significantly help you understand where your program is and where it needs to go. If you are a seasoned vet it will provide a great metric for you to continually advise your jurisdiction and elected leaders on how and why their investments are being utilized.”

EMAP Subscription Benefits:

• Registration fee to the Accreditation Manager Training course waived (obtain programmatic tools and guide jurisdiction through EMAP process).
• Unlimited license to the EMAP Program Assessment Tool for one calendar year.
• Complimentary 30 minute webinar/training session and EMAP support on instructional tutorial for the Program Assessment Tool.
• Unlimited access to online forum for support with standards/compliance issues, webinars for standards training, and best practices/model plans that meet compliance with EMAP standards.
• Documentation review of two standard areas by subject matter experts.
• Opportunity to participate on standards development work groups.