The Association of Contingency Planners (ACP) announces an initiative to help small and medium-sized businesses plan for devastating natural or man made events.

The small and medium-sized business sector often bears the brunt of major storms and other events that impact a community – but these owners generally do not have the resources to hire full time business continuity professionals or experienced consultants.

In order to leverage its skilled membership, the ACP Corporate Board of Directors and ACP Chapter Presidents have adopted small and medium-sized business continuity awareness as a strategic initiative for the association.

ACP has teamed up with long-term partner the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) www.ibhs.org to utilize their Open for Businesssm tool. The ACP has launched the Open for Businesssm initiative to educate and encourage small to mid-sized businesses to develop a comprehensive property protection and business continuity plans. Open for Businesssm is a program of the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), a national nonprofit initiative of the insurance industry, to reduce the social and economic effects of natural disasters and other property losses.

With ACP’s leadership, chapter infrastructure and subject matter experts along with IBHS’s program and training materials, this expanded partnership will lead to whole communities becoming more educated about disaster preparedness.

To implement this initiative, ACP Chapters will organize business continuity awareness seminars for small and medium-sized businesses through their local chambers of commerce and other community organizations.

“While no one can prevent catastrophic events, ACP has the experience to better prepare our communities to effectively respond to and recover from the next disaster. We look forward to providing our services and doing our part to create disaster resistant communities,” states Phil Lambert, ACP Corporate Director of Strategic Partnerships.

Founded in 1983, the ACP is the premier organization for business continuity professionals that provides a powerful networking and learning environment for its members. The organization has become a unifying force in defining and leading the rapidly evolving fields of business continuity, disaster recovery and emergency response.  With 40 chapters and over 2,000 members, ACP is the largest networking and information exchange organization in North America for business continuity professionals. Membership is open to anyone with an interest in or responsibility for the varied aspects of continuity planning.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
 
Leah Core, CBCP      
ACP Corporate Director Public Relations    
www.acp-international.com     
leah@resilienceplanning.com     
480.505.8800 x4215      

Wendy Rose
Media Relations Manager
Institute for Business & Home Safety
wrose@ibhs.org
813-675-1045