Communication, Resilience and Growth in the Face of Disaster

This year I have been fortunate to work with an amazing group of Middle School students, who attend East Side Community Middle School.   East Side is normally located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and is historically a neighborhood school, with the vast majority of students walking to school daily.  This September, unfortunately, there was a structural snafu, and the entire ceiling began collapsing unto itself, not only causing fear and temporary evacuation, but also exposing the entire building to asbestos, undiscovered prior to the collapse.  The result was a yearlong relocation of the entire Middle School, of near 300 students, to one half of the 6^th Floor of P.S. 1, located in Chinatown, and historically a neighborhood Elementary School with a predominately Asian student and faculty population. 

Following the initial evacuation, mass texts from teachers and faculty informed every parent of the evacuation and need for early dismissal.  Even in chaos, the digital age of communication prevailed, and quickly and efficiently at that.  Following immediate texts, a flashing red message was put up of the school's website, and a Post up on Facebook, alerting the parent “friends” of the Facebook page to see the alert by push notifications on Smart Phones immediately.

As the school transitioned to P.S. 1, similar notices were again found on the website, alerting parents of special entrances, new hours, and transportation options for students.  Also sent to parents via e-mail was a link to the Principal’s Twitter feed, where he was able to Tweet any special directions or updates immediately. 

Since the students have transitioned, they have faced some bizarre new obstacles, including lack of desks or chairs, lack of traditional classroom space, and what some experienced as an initially hostile rapport with the faculty of P.S.1.  The students have done a remarkably good job of working with all of these new circumstances, and also tolerating being in a new neighborhood, up many flights of stairs, further from home, and in a school not identified as their own.  The resilience of the students has been magnified in comparison to the staffs’ reactions.

This displaced community found themselves in even more unfamiliar ground on October 29^th, as the City of New York was struck by Superstorm Sandy, and suffered unprecedented devastation and loss.  Amongst the many organizations, companies and agencies disrupted, was the disruption of the entire NYC School System, with those schools located south of 23^rd Street identified as the most vulnerable. 

As students and faculty of East Side alike sat home awaiting news of school re-openings and any further displacement, I found myself anxious and hoping that these students would not be displaced once again, fearful that they were at their limit of disruption.  Texts to faculty's phones came in from the Principal, alerting that there had been damage to P.S. 1 but students would likely be able to return.  Mass e-mails followed up with the instructions to navigate the NYC Department of Education website for up to date information.  Again a link to the schools Facebook page and the Principal’s Twitter feed included. 

The NYC Department of Education used a drop down menu, predominately and purposefully placed on their website’s homepage, to encourage any users to locate a school on the drop down menu, and select, to see the return date, any displacement, or special notices.  East Side’s Facebook page was up to date, and encouraged any family who was in particular need to contact the school’s Parent Coordinator via e-mail, phone or Facebook message.   The Principal kept his Twitter feed positive, with notes of support and encouragement for the student body, many students followers themselves, and also reminders to “take advantage of the time to rest and read!” 

In past weeks, the response had from the families has been overwhelmingly positive.  While many families did not have access to television, and could not see Bloomberg’s continuous stream of updates, most were able to retain phone power for some period of time, and eventually recharge at other locations. 

Because of the need for many on the Lower East Side to relocate, and if not then surely be without television or landline, it was the Smart Phones, equipped with Facebook, Twitter, texting capabilities, and e-mail access that saved the day and provided not only an outlet for the school system, and this specific school to communicate, but also an invaluable resource for the families and students affected to have some sense of knowing and connection in a time of emergency and extreme disconnect.

As the students at East Side have shown me over and again these past few months, the resilience and strength of children is unquestionable, and I have no doubts that those students, as they continue to grow and live in a world of ever evolving technology, will bring their strengths to this table of social media, and expand our digital world even beyond our current comprehension.

Tanya Simon

Hurricane, social media and more

My agency is Gouverneur Health Service http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/gouverneur/html/home/home.shtml, an outpatient clinic under NYC office and member of HHC (New York City Health and Hospital Cooperation http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/html/home/home.shtml ). I am working in the behavioral health department http://www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/gouverneur/html/services/behavioral.shtml . (The hurricane-related posters are already removed on Dec 6th, so unfortunately there is no evidence for what I am talking about.)
   
When the hurricane came, the Gourverneur website posted a notice that all appointments of the week are canceled and employees are not required to come for that week. Directors and some of the staff came to office to call their patients and help handle the patient who walked in.

During the first week after hurricane, our department director made several announcements on staff meeting: reporting to the staff the loss of our department and the temporary closure of Bellevue hospital (with which we have a close relationship); therapists should help patients with disaster processing; setting up a group for patients processing hurricane; taxi fees reimbursable during the hurricane week for employees who came to office; employees who volunteered at Brooklyn shelter were acknowledged and the hours counted for working hours, etc.

Our agency use the computer system regulated by HHC. Since the first week after hurricane, the screen-saver was updated saying "call this number if you need to talk about hurricane", etc. In addition, the information of hurricane processing group was posted on Gouverneur website (but was removed on Dec 6th, so now there is no poster related to the hurricane there).

During the second staff meeting after hurricane, which took place on Dec 3rd, our department director announced the newly established emergency plan: 1) Every employee filling out a chart of basic information of all his/her patients, keeping hard copies in office, in case of power off and co-workers can help contact patients; 2)Every employee filling out a form including their personal contact, address and zone code (zone are divided for car pool); 3) Establishing an emergency leaders' group; 4) Handing out the contact tree that have been established, requiring two-way active communication. 5) Will test the contact tree in the preparing process for the coming Christmas party (Everyone communicates through the contact tree about who brings what to the party).

Some comments about the using of social media: 1) During and after Hurricane, we posted relevant information like when our clinic is closed or open. I found it is important but it may not really relieve patient's anxiety, especially those who ran out of medicines and those who are severelly affected by the hurricane. So it will be more humane if we could put some brief information like "If you ran out of medication, you can..", "If your home is affected by the hurricane, you can...", etc. 2) In addition, I found the information was only posted on the homepage of Gourverneur, not on the sub-pages like mental health department. I think it is better that the sub-pages has some announcement from the department director, which can help relieve patients' anxiety. 3) Furthermore, as we work close with Bellevue hospital, we could provide some information about Bellevue and a link to the Bellevue website as it is severely affected by the hurricane. 

Some limitations of using social media for our agency: 1) Most patients don't use the website as a main resource for information; 2) All the agencies under NYCHHC share the same format of Website, so I think there maybe some technical difficulty if we want to put some instant information. 3) The staff may overlook the use of website as they prefer to contact patients personally and consider it as a more reliable way of communication.

    

Social media and DV

The beauty of social media is it gives people the ability to spread and receive information instantaneously to others anywhere in the world.  With websites like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Blogger, sharing ideas is easier than ever. And in the digital age, social media has become a crucial part in agencies’ development plans.  

The agency where I am place at is Urban Justice Center’s Domestic Violence Project. The organization's ultimate goal is to promote social justice and bring about social change. They recognize the importance of giving the oppressed a voice and to share to the public the realities of intimate partner violence. In order to do that efficiently and to "cast a bigger net", DVP turned to Facebook and Twitter. On our Facebook and Twitter pages, we share any articles on the latest updates on any social issue, ranging from how to identify an unhealthy relationship to marriage equality to immigration issues. Our Facebook page also provides our address and hotline number.

In addition to educating our followers, we are able to promote our events such as our latest fundraiser. Staff members shared the page's invitation on their own private account thereby extending the invitation to friends of friends. The "tagging" feature on Facebook allowed us to thank and promote our sponsors who donated gifts for our raffle which helped attract more attendees. Lastly, we were able to announce last minute to our followers that 50% of what we raise would directly go to our clients who were affected by Hurricane Sandy. As a result, we impressively raised about $6,000 that night. I do not think this would have been possible without the help of our media pages.

Another benefit of social media is how easy it allows organizations to work together. For example, after Hurricane Sandy, Safe Horizons, another domestic violence agency, had the chance to report to BuzzFeed, a popular social news organization, to speak about the effects of Sandy on domestic violence.  Since domestic violence itself is often a hushed subject, it was very important that this article was published so that this oppressed group is not forsaken during this catastrophe.

DVP's upcoming project is also a collaboration with a news-worthy organization called Help-Portrait. Help-Portrait was started by a celebrity photographer named Jeremy Cowart who had a vision of fellow photographers around the globe giving back to their local community. Their mantra is simple: find someone in need, take their picture, print their picture and give it to them. The goal is "to give the family something they may have never had before—a portrait together".

We are extremely excited for this event because it fits so well with our mission. We aim to help survivors of intimate partner violence continue to live a life free of abuse and violence. With Help-Portrait's photographs, our families can make new memories and have a mark to new beginnings.

I think a great project for the future is starting a blog for survivors to share their stories. This is both therapeutic for clients as it is a great educating tool for the public to learn about the realities of intimate partner violence. As we know, blogs are a great tool to start conversation. It would serve as an open forum for anyone to speak openly and anonymously about the issue. Perhaps it can be an inspiration to those to leave their unhealthy relationships and to seek help.

One of the most important role of a social worker is to advocate for those who do not have a voice. We are lucky enough to live in an era where we have these tools that can help us broadcast ideas so freely and efficiently. With the help of social media, change might come about sooner than we imagined.