Community Assistance Visits

The The purpose of the Community Assistance Program – State Support Services Element (CAP-SSSE) is to provide a means to ensure that communities participating in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) are achieving the flood loss reduction goals of the NFIP. The States participation under the CAP-SSSE are required to conduct Community Assistance Visits (CAVs) and Community Assistance Calls (CACs). A CAV is a visit by FEMA Regional Office staff or the State NFIP Coordinator to a community to assess whether the community’s floodplain management program meets NFIP participation requirements. A CAC is simply a telephone call to the community, to supplement or replace a CAV.

Regions and States are encouraged to make maximum use of the CAC process and other contacts with communities to identify potential compliance problems and needs for technical assistance. States are required to provide appropriate follow-up to CAVs and CACs by providing technical assistance to correct program deficiencies and remedy violations to the maximum extent possible. All floodplain management data acquired from the CAVs and CACs are required to be entered into the Community Information System (CIS) so that FEMA can monitor this important floodplain management activity.

Although it is not the primary purpose of the CAV and CAC, the FEMA Regional Office staff usually asks a community official about the overall satisfaction with the depiction of flood hazards on the FIRM. Therefore, a review of CAV and CAC files may be a valuable source of information about the community’s map update needs. The Mapping Partner performing the Mapping Needs Assessment may obtain copies of these files (kept in the FEMA Regional Office and/or State NFIP Coordinator’s office) through the FEMA Lead.