Accreditation

The goal of the CFAI is to assist fire and emergency service agencies throughout the world in achieving excellence through self-assessment, accreditation, and continuous quality improvement in order to enhance service delivery to their communities.

Benefits of an Accreditation Status

Most importantly, being an accredited fire agency enhances our quality improvement processes and provides the highest level of fire and rescue services to the City of Rogers. Benefits of accreditation and self-assessment include:

• Assures colleagues and the public that the department has definite missions and objectives
• Created methods and/or systems for addressing deficiencies while building organizational success that are appropriate for the city
• Creates a mechanism for developing strategic and program action plans
• Encourages professional growth for both the department and personnel
• Encourages quality improvement through a continuous self-assessment of the department's processes and programs
• Fosters national recognition for the department by its colleagues and the public
• Helps to justify the department's programs and budgetary needs through performance measurements established by CFAI
• Identifies areas of strength and weakness within the department
• Identifies potential risks inside the city and enables the department to effectively mitigate emergencies with appropriate resources
• Improves the quality of life in the City of Rogers
• Provide a detailed evaluation of the services the department provides to the city
• Provides a forum for communication of organizational priorities

After the Department Is Accredited

Accreditation is an ongoing process and not a project; it is based upon continuous improvement of the department. The accreditation status is for 5 years and the department will have to renew its status again in 2026.

External Peer Assessment Team

As part of the process, an external peer assessment team conducted a site visit to validate the department's self-assessment.

The external peer assessment team compiled a report that outlined the strengths and weaknesses of the department. The peer assessment team left the department with 8 strategic recommendations ranging from recruitment to external relationships policies. The department is taking steps to meet all the recommendations from the peer assessment team.

In addition, the department's own self-assessment produced 32 items that needed to be addressed. Many of those items were addressed as they were identified and prior to the onsite assessment.