July 14, 2005

Department seeking accreditation

       The White River Township Fire Department in Greenwood has become a Registered Agency with the Commission of Fire Accreditation International, Inc. (CFAI).  They have taken the first step in the process of seeking Accredited Agency status through the CFAI's voluntary self-assessment and accreditation program.

         Self-assessment involves using the Fire and Emergency Services Self-Assessment Manual as a microscope to examine every program and service the department provides.  For each topic or subject area in the self-assessment, you describe what the department is doing; analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of the activity, as it currently exists and then plan for the future.

         One of the concurrent benefits of the accreditation process is the development of planning documents, including short-term action and long-term strategic plans.

         Battalion Chief Carey Slauter stated that the agency’s reason for seeking Accredited Agency status is to “demonstrate the commitment of the agency to provide the highest quality of service to our community.”  Chief Slauter also said, “We will also be able to use the Commission on Fire Accreditation International’s process as a proactive mechanism to plan for the future of this agency and locate areas where we can improve on the quality of the services we provide.”

         The Commission on Fire Accreditation International, Inc. is dedicated to assisting the fire and emergency service agencies throughout the world in achieving excellence through self-assessment and accreditation in order to provide continuous quality improvement and the enhancement of service delivery to their communities.  The CFAI process is voluntary, and provides an agency with an improvement model to assess their service delivery and performance internally and then works with a team of peers from other agencies to evaluate their completed self-assessment.

 

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