After meeting with Liz, my thesis finally took on an intriguing direction. As I was explaining my fascination with the idea of collecting mental maps to record the difference between people’s perceptions of their communities versus the physical realities, Liz brought in a term I had never heard of before, but had experienced throughout my life: trusted organizations. Trusted organizations are places in the community that people feel comfortable approaching in the event of a disaster. They are commonly churches, schools, and community centers. We then discussed the possibility of involving the organization that I might intern for this semester, Neighborhood House. It would be much easier to do research at an organization where I already had my foot in the door, and a connection with their programs.
Neighborhood House is a non-profit organization with multiple programs that help “low-income, recent-immigrant and other vulnerable people overcome challenges so they can achieve success, stability and independence.” I met with the volunteer coordinator, Jimmy DeBiasi, who works in the Outreach and Development department. In terms of linking my thesis with an organization, this seems like a promising path. Neighborhood house is linked to a network of other social services organizations, so getting in touch with other trusted organizations wouldn’t be too hard. It was interesting explaining my thesis musings to Jimmy. I described my interest as the role of trusted organizations in community organizing in the face of a disaster. I mentioned I thought I would focus on natural disasters or other community disasters, and he brought up an interesting point that homelessness in Portland was recently declared a state of emergency. I would consider that a disaster, and one that is already upon us. That could be an interesting direction to explore.
I met with Bruce Podobnik on Monday to discuss the role of trusted organizations and disasters. He recommended that I read Rebecca Solnit’s Paradise Built in Hell, since it discusses different case studies of people’s reactions post-disaster. It also presents various theoretical frameworks such as the Hobbesian view that riots and violence will break out post-disaster, and the Community Cooperation view that community members will help each other, and it’s usually the elites that create conflict. Bruce presented a third framework to look into: Social Networks and disasters. He recommended a few community organizations to look into, such as NET (Neighborhood Emergency Team, through the Office of Neighborhood Involvement), that is predominantly citizen-organized.
I discussed with him the possibility of looking at more current disasters (as in ones that are happening now, instead of natural disasters that will happen in the future), such as what Jimmy mentioned about homelessness being a state of emergency in Portland. He thought that might be straying too far from the environmental studies realm, and seemed to recommend sticking with natural disasters, though he did point me to a few homelessness organizations to look into in case I went that direction. Right now I’m still struggling with questions. I don’t feel like my interest is quite narrow enough to ask the targeted questions I need to be asking right now, but I suppose that will come with time.
Framing: In what ways do the perceptions people have of a certain area overlap with the realities? To what extent do neighborhood organizations provide support vulnerable populations?
Focus: How can organizations gain the trust of the communities they serve?
Descriptive: What are the trusted organizations of Southwest Portland?
Explanatory: How do community members respond to disasters?
Evaluative: Who relies on the services of trusted organizations?
Instrumental: To what extent can organizations create trust within a community before a disaster occurs? How can trusted organizations best serve communities?