Listening Sessions

Current as of:

Engagement

OHSEPR conducted 31 listening sessions with 118 seasoned professionals across jurisdictional levels with experience providing disaster human services. Participants included a cross section of providers and subject matter experts on human services from states, counties, national trade associations, academia, and Federal agencies. The purpose of the listening sessions was twofold: 1) to gain an understanding of their issues and challenges in disaster preparedness and response and 2) to identify relevant capabilities and best practices.  

Each listening session focused on topics including: 

  • issues, challenges, and gaps in disaster human services preparedness and response and resources and support needed to address them;
  • what worked well to prioritize human services issues and to coordinate and communicate with stakeholders; and
  • capabilities to facilitate disaster human services preparedness and response.

Key Highlights

During the listening sessions participants noted the following issue areas:

Jurisdictional Capacity

Human services providers said they lack sufficient resources including funding and staff to prepare for disasters. 

— Human services providers also said they lack a surge plan for augmenting human services staff and resources during a disaster response. 

— During a disaster, human services providers are called upon to conduct short-term and long-term disaster human services operations (e.g., operating emergency shelters and assisting vulnerable disaster survivors). These duties are in addition to their normal day-to-day human services provision, leaving agencies short-staffed and often overwhelmed. 

— Most disaster funding is available only for response efforts during the immediate aftermath of the disaster; however, the recovery of human services systems can take years. Participants expressed a lack of funding for long-term human services such as housing, job training, and child care. 

— Host communities are not directly impacted by a disaster but receive displaced disaster survivors who often have critical human services needs. However, host communities usually do not receive additional disaster funding to support displaced disaster survivors. 

 

Lack of Communication and Information Sharing

Human services providers said that during a disaster they lack ways to communicate and share information on several key areas:  who in the community may need assistance during or following a disaster, incident situation awareness (e.g., number and location of wildfires), material resource shortages (e.g., shelter), and staffing levels. Power outages during a disaster make it especially challenging to share this information. 

— The lack of information sharing negatively affects their ability to make data-informed decisions on evacuations and service delivery operations, including ways to address interruptions to service delivery. Additionally, it makes it difficult to communicate accurate and timely information to the public about the availability of human services.

— Communication is also affected by the lack of interpreters to assist with human services provision. In addition, a lack of translated materials about the availability of human services makes it difficult to make human services accessible non-English speaking populations. 

— Human services providers expressed the importance of making information accessible through multiple modalities to reach various populations (e.g., youth, limited English proficiency, deaf and hard of hearing).

Jurisdictional Capability

— Human services professionals said they are unprepared to respond to disasters and lack clarity on their roles and responsibilities during a disaster. They said they lack an emergency plan for disaster human services provision, or the existing plan is outdated and unfamiliar to staff. 

— Participants said they need a dedicated staff person to develop an all-hazards plan for human services delivery and to ensure regular staff training and exercising on the plan.

— Human services professionals lack training on how emergency management operates. They expressed the need for training in emergency management concepts so that they can better understand and communicate with emergency management officials. 

 

Lack of Coordination

— Human services entities expressed the lack of connection to stakeholders that could help facilitate disaster human services provision and address service delivery gaps. They said they did not know community human services providers serving vulnerable populations, including cultural communities and persons with access and functional needs. 

— Additionally, they did not know who to contact to address interruptions to service delivery including resource shortages, power outages, blocked roads, and lack of public transportation. 

— Human services providers said that a group that meets regularly would help them to coordinate prior to a disaster with emergency management, housing organizations, health agencies, and community-based human services organizations. This group would help them plan how to communicate and coordinate during a disaster to better serve disaster survivors.


Participant List

Federal

U.S Department of Agriculture

  • Disaster Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program

U.S. Department of Education

  • Immediate Office of the Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education, Disaster Recovery Unit
  • Office of Special Education Programs

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

  • Federal Emergency Management Agency

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

  • Office of Disaster Recovery
  • Office of Disaster Management and National Security

U.S. Department of Human Services

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  • Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration
  • Administration for Community Living
  • Administration for Children and Families
    • Administration for Native Americans
    • Children’s Bureau 
    • Family Youth Services Bureau
    • Office of Child Care 
    • Office of Child Support Services 
    • Office of Community Services 
    • Office of Family Assistance
    • Office of Family Violence Prevention Services
    • Office of Head Start 
    • Office of Refugee Resettlement 
    • Office of Trafficking in Persons 

State, Local, Non-Governmental and Academia

National Trade Associations

American Public Human Services Association

National Association of Social Workers

United Way

Academia

University of Colorado Boulder

Columbia University

State and Local Governments

Louisiana

Oregon 

South Carolina

Washington

Virginia

California — Butte County

Colorado Coalition of Human Services Directors 

Ohio — Columbiana, Montgomery, and Gallia counties

Minnesota — Carlton and Clay counties