Providence, RI – Providence Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) was recently granted full re-accreditation by the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) upon recommendation by the Program Review Committee.
“Emergency management accreditation is a significant achievement and I commend PEMA Director Clara Decerbo and her team for their extraordinary efforts and dedication working towards this goal,” said Commissioner of Public Safety Steven M. Paré. “Achieving re-accreditation is met with a number of required best practices that need to be upheld and PEMA has proven, once again, their accountability, professionalism and dedication to protecting the citizens of Providence to the best of their ability.”
To attain full accreditation status, PEMA was responsible for documenting compliance within sixty-six “Emergency Management Standards” and completing a peer review by a team of EMAP trained assessors to determine if the standards are met. Accreditation is an elite status amongst emergency management agencies that verifies proven capabilities of organizations disaster preparedness and response systems. Accreditation is reassessed every five years and agencies must remain in compliance to receive reaccreditation. PEMA previously gained full accreditation status in 2010 and 2015.
“The members of Providence EMA are proud to have earned re-accreditation through their dedication to duty, professionalism and ability to meet the high standards necessary to do so,” said Director Clara Decerbo. “I thank each and every member of our team for their service to the community and for their efforts during this process that led to achieving this prestigious honor once again.”
EMAP revolutionizes emergency management programs that coordinate preparedness and response activities for disasters based on 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 those standards in an accreditation process. The accreditation process evaluates emergency management programs on compliance with requirements in areas, including: administration, coordination, finance, hazard identification, risk assessment, consequence analysis hazard prevention operational planning and procedures incident management resource management, mutual aid and logistics, facilities, training, exercises, evaluations, and corrective actions and emergency public information and education. EMAP is the only accreditation process for emergency management programs.