Strengthening Disaster Resilience and Justice for Community-Based Organizations in Oregon

The School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan facilitates master’s capstone projects that provide graduate students the opportunity to engage in research with a specific “client”. Our project partnered with the Disaster Resilience Learning Network (DRLN) to understand how CBOs are navigating their own wellness in the midst of the significant crises happening around them, and how they are able maintain continuity for safe spaces for communities while navigating these crises. We are concluding the project and are left with outstanding reflections and considerations. 

Wellness Framing

We began this project focused on the burnout and wellness of disaster care workers. In our first interactions with the DRLN, we discussed the perpetual burnout care workers face in the context of disaster response. In our very first meeting with the DRLN, they encouraged us to read the book Rest is Resistance, which they mailed to us.

“You were not just born to center your entire existence on work and labor. You were born to heal, to grow, to be of service to yourself and community, to practice, to experiment, to create, to have space, to dream, and to connect.”

— Rest is Resistance

The sentiment behind this book’s message set the tone for our partnership with the DRLN and provided a valuable perspective throughout our work in this space. 

As we explored the literature on employee wellness, we found a heavy emphasis on mindfulness and the need for organizations to support individual wellness practices (i.e., paying for gym memberships). While this literature highlighted individual wellness support that large organizations should consider, there was a lack of context surrounding disaster-specific care work and consideration of broader systemic obstacles at play (i.e., capacity and funding).

Disaster Resilience Literature

One member of our team had the opportunity to interview thirteen members of the DRLN. It was evident that there was widespread burnout amongst community-based organization (CBO) DRLN members. Initially, our project scope aimed to develop strategies and resources to improve the well being of DRLN members and the sustainability of these critical organizations. We considered  this framework when developing the interview questions. We asked interviewees about their personal well-being practices and how engaging in disaster care work impacted their well-being. A few consistent themes came up in the interviews: 

1. Inequitable requirements to access emergency shelters/resources after a disaster.
2. A lack of translated emergency information in languages other than English.
3. The need for culturally grounded mental health care after a disaster. 

After hearing what issues were most prevalent to DRLN care workers, we shifted towards literature that was more grounded in disaster response. The disaster-focused literature consisted mainly of case studies of locations (many in Oregon, California, and Washington) recently affected by wildfires. The content of this literature was more applicable and fruitful in the context of our project. However, this adjustment shifted the framing of our recommendations towards more systemic issues, which made the recommendations feel more abstract. We labeled this new literature set as the “disaster resilience” literature. 

Resilience is used in various contexts and can mean different things to different people. 

“[A]n alternate, inclusive understanding of resilience recognizes that we don’t always have to be resilient. It is okay to be vulnerable and ask for help”
— Christy da Rosa, Trauma Informed Oregon (2022)

We define resilience as a holistic way to weather stressors focused on creating a new, better future rather than bouncing back to normal. Levels of resilience interact with each other. In the context of disaster resilience, our individual resilience (e.g., mental and physical health), and social/cultural resilience, are heavily impacted by the overarching resilience of our environment. It can also go the other way; humans significantly impact our environment's resilience (i.e., climate change). As an individual, you impact the social and cultural circles around you. There are complex interactions in disaster resilience that result in impacts at the individual, social, and environmental levels. 

The disaster resilience literature we reviewed held a few recurring themes:

1. There is a strong need to make disaster resilience efforts more place-based and culturally grounded. 
2. Trauma-informed care training is needed for all disaster response workers (e.g. firefighters, hospital workers).
3. Culturally-grounded physical and social spaces are powerful and meaningful ways to connect with community members and strengthen relationships in a post-disaster context.

Forming Recommendations

In writing the report, we aimed to create consistent themes and maintain the original intent from the literature in grouping our recommendations. In doing so, the recommendations do not take into account the specific capacities, needs, and experiences of each DRLN organization. We also grouped across three scales: organization, network, and broader level policy. Although grouping by scale was helpful for organizing our findings, we also had to consider that these different scales might require a different lens, audience, and resources. For example, what an organization could reasonably be asked to execute with their existing priorities and resources is different from what changes could occur with federal policy attempting to address specific systemic issues. 

There were numerous considerations in phrasing the recommendations. We debated between using [Entity] should [action] or[Entity] can [action] when writing recommendations. Should has an element of shame and implies entities have the capacity but choose not to execute a recommended action. We determined that can is more action oriented and emphasizes autonomy. 

Focus Group Considerations 

Based on our knowledge of collective power and about the DRLN, we created this broad definition of collective power, “Leveraging the resources, knowledge, and capacity (i.e. energy, motivation, time) of the members of the DRLN to advance the mission of the DRLN”.  {this graphic shows the relationships between concepts and themes that were discussed during the focus group. Red arrows indicate connections across themes. We want to highlight two important aspects from the focus group discussion. First, when defining collective power, participants brought up cultural ways of understanding and talking about collective power. Second, during the envisioning exercise, participants focused heavily on what a disaster resilient community would feel like with an emphasis on relationships, as opposed to coming up with a concrete picture of what it would look like.

Closing Thoughts 

Our time spent working in partnership with the DRLN has greatly impacted our career goals and directions. It has given us a greater understanding of the complexity of organizations working directly with communities and what it takes individually to work in coalition with others. We have also seen the strength of genuine relationships between organizations built in a space where feelings of safety and belonging are prioritized. These relationships have the power to create change and make positive impacts that could not be achieved alone. 

We want to close with a recognition of the importance of CBOs in the DRLN. They play a crucial role in addressing the needs of their communities, particularly for individuals who are often resource-deprived, culturally marginalized, and medically at risk. These CBOs provide targeted support for their communities after a disaster by offering culturally relevant resources and safe spaces. Despite their integral role, these organizations are often constrained by limited capacity and funding, which hampers their ability to sustain their critical work. Nevertheless, the DRLN’s disaster care workforce, although small in number, demonstrates remarkable resilience and strength in meeting the needs of its community members. We hope that our project will contribute to the resounding success of the DRLN in the future.