Economic Survival Strategies and Food Insecurity

Abstract

This article reports on a study of 67 Hurricane Katrina survivors who were evacuated to one Texas community. The authors examine the economic survival strategies employed by Katrina evacuees to feed their families during the approximately one week time frame beginning the day before the storm and ending when they were ultimately evacuated from New Orleans. An analysis of their strategies and actions provides insight both into the nature of households and sharing networks under the pressure of this disaster and the shortages that ensue when federal and state systems cannot meet basic needs beyond the resources of the local community.     

Tangible and Spiritual Relief After the Storm

Abstract

This study assessed the types of social services and spiritual messages that were provided by Baton Rouge area churches following Hurricane Katrina. Church representatives (n = 157) completed a 26-item survey which consisted of open and closed ended questions. The most common resources provided by churches included food, clothing, and financial assistance. Nearly 75% of churches attempted to connect evacuees with outside state and federal resources. The greatest unmet needs reported by churches included evacuee shelter and housing, and on-site computer and internet access. Churches recommend preparedness, triage care, and leadership for other churches that find themselves the first responders following a disaster. Because of their responsiveness to the needs of communities, clergy need to be trained in disaster management. Moreover, government monies could be well-spent in supporting faith-based disaster initiatives .     

Research as Social Action in the Aftermath of Hurricane Andrew

SUMMARY

A study conducted 14 months after Hurricane Andrew examined the long term impact of this natural disaster on the homeless in the hardest hit areas of South Florida. The effects of a natural disaster on the homeless has not been studied in the past. In addition, this study is presented to illustrate a model of social action research. The foundations for the principles of this model are rooted in the best scientific and social justice traditions. The principles are introduced and described using research methodologies that were utilized in this disaster study. How the findings contributed to changes in policy, procedure, and practice are highlighted.     

A perfect storm: Challenges encountered by family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease during natural disasters

ABSTRACT

Since Hurricane Katrina there has been a movement across the U.S. to examine best practice for disaster response within the aging population. However, little is known about the experience of natural disasters from the perspective of family caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD). In this exploratory, qualitative study, family caregivers (n=27) were interviewed about their experience with the historic 2015 South Carolina flood. By using thematic analysis, themes were identified to better understand what unique challenges caregivers of person with ADRD experienced. While many caregivers stated they had experienced a natural disaster previously, none had ever done so in their current caregiving role. The caregiving role affected their ability to prepare for the storm and influenced their decision-making regarding evacuation and utilization of recovery resources. Thus, caregivers were confronted by a “perfect storm” of circumstances and uncertainty. Family caregivers need to have actionable emergency plans for disasters that are specific to their role as caregivers of persons with ADRD. Study implications also suggest the role social work professionals can have in educating, advocating, evaluating, and coordinating support to assist caregivers of persons with ADRD as a potentially vulnerable and at-risk population during all phases of disaster.     

Hurricane Katrina: African American Children's Perceptions of Race, Class, and Government Involvement Amid a National Crisis

The devastation associated with Hurricane Katrina raised several issues related to race, class, and the government in the United States. We examined African American children's (a) knowledge of demographic characteristics of the victims, (b) beliefs about the role of race and class biases in the delayed relief efforts, and (c) views of the role and effectiveness of the government in response to the disaster. Overall, results indicated that older African American children were less likely to attribute the delayed relief to individual culpability, and slightly more likely to attribute it to racial discrimination, than were younger African American children. All youth believed in a strong, but nuanced, role of the government, but younger children were more likely to rate it as effective. Among those children who had discussed the disaster with a parent, children's attributions for the delayed relief were associated with their political views.     

Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans: What Might a Sociological Embeddedness Perspective Offer Disaster Research and Planning?

The Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans situation was commonly called a "natural disaster"—an anomalous "event" that disrupted lives, spaces, and organizations. Research and planning attention then focused on particular aspects of the event and on restoring order. In contrast, sociologists and similar-thinking scholars have increasingly viewed disaster situations from multiple locations and histories, often using systems theory. Here, reanalysis of empirical material from ethnographic research in New Orleans pre- and post-Katrina suggests that a sociological embeddedness perspective illustrates the dynamic seamlessness of past, present, and future economic contexts and social actions. The perspective's constitutive concepts of weak, strong, and differentiated ties highlight the role of local knowledge, intermediary-led workforce networks, and sustained participatory planning in creating a robust economic environment. Toward this end, disaster research, planning, and theory building could incorporate network tie assessments into social vulnerability protocols, compare embeddedness with other perspectives, and learn from related international experiences.     

Post‐Hurricane Katrina Employment Recovery: The Interaction of Race and Place*

Objective. The mass migrations, infrastructure decimation, and widespread impact zone make Hurricane Katrina an especially difficult disaster from which to recover. Employment is an important aspect of effective disaster recovery. The purpose of this article is to examine determinants of employment recovery approximately one month and one year after Hurricane Katrina. Methods. The data are from a two‐stage survey of Hurricane Katrina survivors conducted by the Gallup Organization in September/October 2005 and August 2006. A series of logistic regression models were preformed on data from the two time points. Results. The results suggest a complexity to inequality where race and place interact to determine employment recovery. Displacement, gender, income, and homeownership were also significant. Conclusions. Recovery efforts and future research need to incorporate more complex understandings of vulnerability, with particular attention paid to the issues of employment and reemployment.     

The disaster relief and social work after the Wenchuan earthquake in Mainland China

ABSTRACT

This paper mainly focuses on the development of disaster social work in Mainland China and the intervention of social work in disaster relief. Before the Wenchuan earthquake and in the initial stage of post-earthquake, disaster social work was mainly based on individual psychotherapy; from the earthquake to the year of 2012 in which post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction was completed, the disaster relief began to emphasise community building and integration, while the basic framework for disaster social work was also established. Social workers begin to explore the new mode of developmental and localised disaster social work. By combining with the practical experiences from disaster social work, this paper tries to highlight the dilemmas confronting disaster relief in Mainland China and put forward some corresponding countermeasures and suggestions, which could improve the future disaster relief system in Mainland China.     

Mothers of adolescent girls 1

Abstract

It is increasingly difficult to distinguish natural events from those influenced by human actions. Furthermore, researchers in various fields have established that the level of devastation and the predicted likelihood of recovery of neighborhoods and communities correspond with the amount of political and socioeconomic capital held by neighborhoods and communities prior to disasters such as the Hurricane Katrina. In this paper we analyze the significance of the discourse of “natural disasters” through the framework of social ecology. We contest the neutralist discourse of “natural disasters” by underscoring the numerous interdependent sociopolitical forces, which shape the context in which disasters occur.     

Preparing Social Work Students for Working with Disaster Survivors

This paper is an overview of disaster social work and preparing social work students for working with disaster survivors. Disaster has common immediate, and medium‐ and long‐term problems and needs. Experiences from various countries throughout the world suggest a range of helping roles and tasks that social work is suited for. A social work professional has particular expertise in understanding and addressing the immediate, and medium‐ and longer term effects of loss on individuals, families, and communities affected by a disaster. In preparing social work students for working with disaster survivors, social work programs do not introduce enough subject matter or course work about disasters. Practice training, field work, collaboration work, and community service in disaster relief are important academic environments for social work students when learning and practising in disaster settings.     

When the Floods of Compassion Are not Enough: A Nation's and a City's Response to the Evacuees of Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina exposed serious deficiencies in the social support safety net at the federal, state, and local level. This article explores the impacts of the disrupted safety net through participant observation and interviews with service providers and evacuees resettled in one southern city. Their stories illustrate how vulnerable low‐income groups struggle to cope with disaster within the context of inadequate larger support systems and the legacy of racism. The data also illustrate the limits of the local resources and response, given the years of retrenchment and underfunding and increasing dependence on nongovernmental sources of support. The authors explore some of the implications of this trend for evacuees' long‐term recovery and social work intervention.     

Volunteerism Among Social Work Students During Hurricanes Katrina and Rita

Abstract

This study examined volunteer activities and predictors of volunteerism among graduate and undergraduate social work students (N = 416) from four universities in the Gulf Coast area following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The convenience sample drawn from all social work students at these universities included 89% females, and 52% of the students were in a master's level program. Sixty-one percent of the respondents were African American and 31% were non-Hispanic white. The majority of students volunteered (97%) despite experiencing a range of hurricane-related stressors. Multivariate analyses yielded a regression model that best predicted heightened volunteerism, which included age, school site, previous volunteer experience, hurricane-related stressors, altruism, and increased commitment to social work values (R ² = .35). The strongest predictors of volunteerism were stressor, increased commitment to social work values, and altruism (betas = .30, .26, and .21 respectively). The findings are consistent with previous research on volunteering in times of disaster and with current thinking about posttraumatic growth .     

Making Sense of New Orleans Flood Trauma Recovery: Ethics, Research Design, and Policy Considerations for Future Disasters

This article details the justification and plans of a research team for studying and helping evacuees of Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans to recover by encouraging experimental participants to disclose information about their related experiences in guided interview sessions. Team members' consideration and practice of ethical principles as researchers dealing with the potentially traumatized victims of a disaster are portrayed. Finally, related recommendations for researchers and policy makers are offered.     

Disaster Research in Social Work

SUMMARY

Disaster research in social work has deep roots in the profession'S history of disaster relief, social work'S mission to create resources and make them accessible to people, and the profession'S service to vulnerable populations. Social workers have important and unique contributions to make to disaster research through their expertise in ecological approaches, prevention, stress and coping, and promoting change in micro and macro systems. Disaster research in social work borrows primarily from psychology and sociology, and is conducted in clinical, organizational, and community contexts. Further social work research on disaster promises improved theory, measurement, and practice in situations of collective Stress.     

Access to Disaster Services

ABSTRACT

This study uses geographic and network analysis, and regression techniques, to examine access to services for vulnerable populations in disaster, and offer potential interventions to improve access. The population for this study is 67 organizations providing disaster social services in a U.S. metropolitan area, and an additional 25 organizations which are willing to provide these services but do not have a formal disaster relief function. The findings from this study indicate a lack of relief services for vulnerable populations, including African-Americans, people over 75 years old, and female-headed households with young children. During a disaster, a type of social injustice results from (a) the vulnerability of these populations to disaster, (b) the higher vulnerability to disaster of the areas in which these populations reside, (c) the smaller number of organizations serving these areas, (d) the lower capacities and network interaction of these local organizations, and (e) the formidable geographic barriers slowing redistribution of resources in a disaster. If connectedness of smaller, informal organizations to the disaster network were improved, otherwise isolated organizations could be a source of substantial resources for the metropolitan area. Suggestions are offered for interventions, based on services coordination (Provan & Milward, 1995) and community organization models (Soliman, 1996), for correcting the lack of access to services documented by this study.     

Perceptions of Racism in Hurricane Katrina: A Liberation Psychology Analysis

Poll data showed that African Americans perceived more racism in the response to Hurricane Katrina than did White Americans. In this article, we consider claims about racism in Katrina-related events in light of (a) our program of experimental research on group differences in perception of racism and (b) the meta-theoretical perspective of Liberation Psychology (LP). First, this analysis suggests that White Americans may perceive less racism in the Katrina disaster because they are less likely than African Americans to know about historically documented acts of past racism (e.g., following the Mississippi flood of 1927). Second, group differences may arise because African Americans and White Americans face divergent motivations regarding perception of racism. Whereas African Americans may have motivations to be vigilant for the possibility of racism, White Americans may be motivated to deny racism because it constitutes a threat to social identity and to the legitimacy of the status quo.     

After the Storm: How Race,Class, and Immigration Concerns Influenced Beliefs About the Katrina Evacuees*

Objective. In September 2005, approximately 150,000 Gulf Coast residents fled to Houston, Texas, seeking shelter following Hurricane Katrina. Since the majority of evacuees were poor African Americans, the political and social consequences of the storm inspired a national dialogue on race and class. However, in Houston, the discourse on Katrina evacuees also involved immigration concerns. The city's distinction as a gateway to new arrivals influenced the dialogue on the evacuees' impact on the local area. This article assesses the extent to which race, class, and immigration concerns influenced Houstonians' beliefs about the Katrina evacuees. Methods. We analyze data from the 2006 and 2008 Houston Area Survey in order to assess attitudes toward these newcomers at two distinct time periods: within six months of their arrival and then again more than two years later. Results. Our findings show that both national and local factors influenced beliefs about the Katrina evacuees. Conclusions. The dynamics of race/ethnicity and apprehension toward immigrants drove largely antagonistic beliefs about the mostly poor, mostly black new arrivals.