Organization Based Incident Management and Community Response
The goal of this sub-project study is to develop a preliminary plan for Organization-Based Incident Management (OBIM) and Community Response, including internal structure and process as well as external relationships using New York University and its surrounding communities as the "laboratory" model.
Recruitment, development, and retention of volunteers who offer their knowledge and skills in the event of a disaster are essential to create a functional workforce during catastrophes. These opportunities also address the inherent need for individuals to feel necessary and useful in times of crisis. 9/11, Katrina and Rita have demonstrated the limits of immediate government response and the need for citizens to be able to "fend for themselves," at least for some period of time. By promoting and developing a increased presence of skilled volunteers an organization will have a strong workforce who will step forward as acts of terrorism and natural disasters occur. It is clear that people tend to include their neighbors and communities in their definition of self and will try to act as an organized community when faced with adversity.
Universities are a particularly important setting for voluntary action, given that they are based in communities, and have access to resources and capabilities to bring to bear on an emergency situation. Therefore this study aims to discern how individuals at a large private organization might participate and respond in the case of a large scale disaster. Specifically, a pilot study was undertaken to develop an instrument for a comprehensive university assessment to evaluate the potential for a volunteer workforce. We sought to elicit the knowledge and attitudes of university faculty, staff and students with respect to their willingness to serve as volunteers, the conditions under which they would serve potential roles as they might serve in the mitigation of medical and psychosocial consequences of disasters, their perceived competencies in mitigation and response to such disasters.
Throughout 2005 and 2006, NYU LaSER faculty convened in order to generate an assessment instrument for the collection of data from faculty, staff and students (non-essential personnel) that would indicate the university community volunteers’ perceived willingness to assume responsibilities during a disaster. The team sought to 1) gain information on knowledge and attitudes of university personnel with respect to their self-reported potential to perform roles in mitigation of medical and psychosocial consequences of disasters; and 2) document the respondents’ perceived roles, interest and competencies in the mitigation of response to disaster. Using a 2 phase random sample survey, 337 (5.7%) unique respondents out of a sample of n=6000 replied to the survey. These data indicate that volunteers in a private organization are willing to assist in disasters and have skills that can be useful in disaster mitigation. Much is to be learned related to the deployment of volunteers during disaster. These finding suggest that volunteers can and will help and that disaster preparedness drills are a logical next step for university based volunteers. This was documented in the article by Fulmer, Portelli, Foltin, Zimmerman, Chachkes & Goldfrank entitled Organization Based Incident Management: The Role of Volunteers on the University Campus during Disasters, currently submitted to the Journal of Urban Health.
These study results show that volunteers in a private organization, albeit a small proportion (of respondents), are willing to assist in disasters and have skills they can bring to bear of disaster mitigation. This data serves as a basis from which other private organizations can move forward with enrolling volunteers and planning for disasters. The finding suggest that volunteers can and will help and that disaster preparedness drills are a logical next step for these anticipated volunteers. These data suggest a group of over 300 people is willing to be trained and/or participate in emergency situations and this number can be considered as numerically important, especially with pre-planning before deployment. NYU respondents generally believe strongly in volunteering during disasters. They have a strong interest in contributing and being trained to participate, but have little expertise in this area, had not previously been trained. As expected, the majority had a general fear of catastrophic situations and especially contagious illness. Respondents generally had more confidence in traditional emergency responders such as police, fire and health officials than University personnel. However, they indicated they would rely on their peers at NYU for emotional support, which a number of respondents identified as being an important factor for them to carry out effective roles as volunteers. Disasters are inevitable and preparedness is essential and university communities can be a perfect example of private organizations that can serve important meaningful and relevant roles as volunteers in disaster preparedness and response.