Are you interested in having your emergency management program evaluated by a peer review team and accredited by a recognized organization? Assessing the demand can help make this service available to Canadian entities. Please advise John Ash with IAEM Canada of your interest by Friday October 15 to help make program accreditation a reality in Canada.
In effort to promote a common benchmark process that is peer driven, IAEM Canada has formed a partnership with The Emergency Management Accreditation Program, (EMAP) to bring an peer accreditation process to Canada. The intent is for the EMAP process to incorporate the Canadian Standards Association Z1600 standard on Emergency Management and Business Continuity. The EMAP process, is a cost effective voluntary review process for emergency management programs. Accreditation is a means of demonstrating, through self-assessment, documentation and peer review, that a program meets national standards for emergency management programs. The self and onsite assessment process developed and utilized by EMAP allows jurisdictions of differing sizes, geographic location, political structure and hazards faced to internally assess their emergency management program to identify areas of excellence as well as potential gaps in compliance with a recognized emergency management standard. The process then allows for an onsite assessment by a group of Canadian trained peer emergency managers to come in and validate the self assessment as well as add critical additional insight. This process can and has been used for both accreditation and developmental purposes. For programs seeking affirmation and recognition as a comprehensive emergency management program meeting compliance with a recognized standard this process provides a vehicle to do so, but the process also provides a wonderful strategic planning tool that allows programs to identify and correct potential gaps in their program. IAEM Canada and EMAP are currently formalizing agreement with the Canadian Standards Association to use the Z1600 standard. This partnership will provide EM professionals with a proven peer based assessment and accredation process.
e-mail John Ash JohnAsh@Ottawa.ca to indicate your interest by October 15.
Assessing the level of interest is an important next step to make accreditation to the CSA Z1600 emergency management and business continuity standard available to Canadian organizations.
Please also leave your comments on this blog as it will be helpful with generating discussion in PTSC-Online.
3 Comments
Thank you to all that have responded indicating your interest in a cost effective peer based accreditation process. From my experience as a EMAP assessor the process not only provides an avenue for organizations to have validation program to a recognized standard, it builds a significant body of knowledge among the EM community regarding the standards its application and best practice.
As a member of the Business Continuity profession, I think now is the time to build consensus on who we are, what we do and what standards we follow. A consensus on these items is essential before recognition of the profession can take a new step forward. There are currently many accrediting bodies for professional certification, organization certification, etc. Building consensus on terminology and practices while leveraging existing respected organizations and bodies is the way to move forward. Here's the vision - move the BCM profession to the level of recognition and cohesiveness of a (for example) CA; think of those t.v. adverts for the value of a CA and the CICA. I applaud the efforts of IAEM Canada with this move.
I believe that IAEM Canada is certainly intune with the current needs of the EM community and that a peer accrediation process could be very helpful in building consensus on practices and furthering the sharing of knowledge and information within the EM community.
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