Accreditation

What is Accreditation and Why Accredit?

Increasingly, accreditation is being seen as an integral part of doing business in the human services. A growing number of state agencies are turning to national accrediting organizations for help in overseeing the quality of their service systems. Accreditation sends a clear message to stakeholders and funding sources that an organization uses best practices, and is prepared and open to examination from external sources.

A number of states require that the services they fund be accredited or pay higher rates to accredited agencies. In addition, United Ways nationwide have used accreditation as an adjunct to their evaluation process in designating organizations for fund allocations.

National Accrediting Organizations

There are six principle national accreditation bodies in the human service area. These bodies and the Volunteers of America affiliates accredited by them are listed below.

1. American Correctional Association (ACA)

The ACA began accreditation of correctional facilities and programs in 1978. As their name suggests, most of the programs ACA accredits are related to corrections in some manner. The types of programs that ACA accredits thus are fairly specific and narrowly defined within the corrections area, although for these programs, the standards are very thorough.

Affiliates with ACA Accreditation:

Indiana
Greater Baton Rouge
Greater New Orleans
Chesapeake (Maryland)
Delaware Valley (Delaware and New Jersey)
Greater New York
Western New York
Greater Ohio
Northwest Ohio
Ohio River Valley
Texas

2. Commision on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF)

CARF Logo CARF was established in 1966 and has conducted behavioral healthcare accreditation since 1985. CARF has its roots in rehabilitation services and has standards for behavioral health, employments and community support services and medical rehabilitation. CARF accredits four major categories of behavioral health providers: alcohol and other drug programs, mental health programs, community rehabilitation programs and employment services.

Affiliates with CARF Accreditation:

Alaska
Delaware Valley
Southeast (Georgia)
Southwest (California)
Indiana
Greater New Orleans
Greater New York
Greater Ohio
Michigan
North Louisiana
Ohio River Valley
Oregon
Texas

3. Council on Accreditation of Services for Families and Children, Inc. (COA)

COA Logo The Council was formed in 1977 to review and accredit family service and child welfare agencies. The Child Welfare League of America and Family Services of America wanted to offer an alternative national accreditation for those community-based services that were not based on medical nor rehabilitative models. Historically, COA offered accreditation to organizations that provide nontraditional treatment and wrap-around services. The Council is unique to most other accreditation agencies in that it accredits organizations as a whole, not individual programs or services. Today COA accredits community-based organizations providing step-down services as well as behavioral health care services. Volunteers of America is one of the sponsoring organizations of COA and was instrumental in the Council’s development of accreditation standards for homeless services. For more information on their accreditation process, click here.

Affiliates with COA Accreditation:

Dakotas
Illinois
Minnesota
Oklahoma

4. Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL)

For more than three decades, The Council on Quality and Leadership has been at the forefront of the movement to improve the quality of services and supports for people with intellectual disabilities and people with mental illness. We began with the fundamental belief that everyone has a right to a life of dignity, opportunity and community inclusion. They continue their work today in the area of establishing connections between disabilities theory and practice. A primary feature of this accreditation body is their strong focus on core outcomes for those with developmental disabilities (dignity, opportunity and community inclusion) rather than prescriptive standards.

Affiliates with Council Accreditation:

Southeast (Georgia)

5. Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)

Having originated from a traditional medical environment, the JCAHO standards emphasize a “medical model” in their client care standards. This accreditation approach also uses a more outcome-based evaluation method than other accreditation agencies with similar programs (such as CARF, COA). Agencies are accredited on the basis of meeting of outcomes rather than meeting standards of an ideal program.

Affiliates with JACHO Accreditation:

Florida
Oklahoma

6. National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

For more than 80 years, the National Association for the Education of Young Children has worked to raise the quality of programs for all children from birth through age eight. A major part of NAEYC's efforts to improve early childhood education is through different systems of accreditation for programs that are committed to meeting national standards of quality.