 "There is nothing more
important than making sure the people of our state are safe," said IEMA Interim Director Joe Klinger. "Illinois has seen its fair share
of disasters over the years. It's critical that our emergency
management program is capable of meeting those difficult challenges
head-on."A team of certified assessors from across the nation
conducted a weeklong review of Illinois' program in September. The
assessors found that Illinois' program met all the standards and
recommended the state for national "best practices" for its
interoperable communications capabilities, implementation of an
interagency strategic planning cell and strategic use of federal
funding. The team's findings were reviewed and approved by the
national board of the Emergency Management Accreditation Program.
EMAP is an independent nonprofit organization that fosters
excellence and accountability in emergency management and homeland
security programs by establishing credible standards applied in a
peer review accreditation program. EMAP accreditation is a voluntary
process for state and local emergency management programs. Illinois
is currently one of 25 states in the U.S. that are EMAP accredited.
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In order to receive EMAP accreditation and reaccreditation,
states are required to demonstrate 100 percent compliance with 63
standards. The standards cover 16 key program areas, including
planning, incident management, hazard mitigation, mutual aid,
communications, public information and more.
Illinois was just the sixth state in the nation to receive EMAP
accreditation in 2006. For more information about Illinois'
emergency management program, visit
www.iema.illinois.gov.
[Text from
Illinois Emergency Management
Agency file received
from the
Illinois Office of
Communication and Information]
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