Poster Presented at the Natural Hazards Workshop, July 8-9, 2023
The Disaster Justice Network (DJN) is a volunteer network comprised of disaster recovery specialists of all ages, organizational types-from community and non-profit staffs, faith leaders, university students and senior faculty and more. DJN was initiated by grassroots efforts, including a Natural Hazards Center Quick Response grant, in response to the devastating hurricanes that struck Lake Charles and Southwest Louisiana in 2020 and Terrebonne, Lafourche, Jefferson, and Plaquemines Parishes in Louisiana in 2021. The impact of these storms was overwhelming. The recovery is very slow. The network concept was applied because the human resources were scattered in many organizations that we believed would benefit from coming together weekly to describe their work and seek counsel from others in other organizations as to how to make their efforts most effective.The activities, projects, and programs on the poster list reflect some of the DJN participants’ efforts toward a justice-driven disaster recovery.
To learn more about these efforts, click one of the links below. We welcome you to be in touch with the initiators of these efforts, featured here in the Zoom replica. They look forward to connecting.
Disaster Justice Efforts
- Post-disaster transportation and recreation support with refurbished bicycles (Andre Angelle, Bike Kitchen).
- Disaster impact on subgroups of community: African American women (Yajaira Ayala, University of Delaware, and Bill Anderson Fellow).
- Supporting economic stability in minority youth post disaster through job training for environmental jobs (Patrick Barnes, Limitless Vistas).
- Facilitating disaster recovery by garnering government resources and university student/faculty participants in projects (Mike Burns, former EPA official, Community and College Partners Program).
- Minority graduate student recruitment for disaster justice engagement (Nnenia Campbell, Bill Anderson Fund).
- Timely justice-focused disaster recovery webinars (Simone Domingue, LSU).
- Mapping disaster recovery from space: using satellite imagery to track Satellite imaging of roof (blue) tarps over recovery time (Hannah Friedrich, U. Arizona).
- Supporting disaster response by congregations and their denominations (Pauline Hurst, Greater St. Mary Missionary Baptist Church, Lake Charles).
- Early delivery of needed supplies post disasters (Amy Lesen and Fazon Khan, Dillard University).
- Collaborative heritage management for community resilience in the Mississippi River Delta (Nathan Jessee, Princeton University, Layla Sastry, Tufts University, Simi Kang, University of Victoria, Chief Devon Parfait, Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians).
- Internet accessibility and inequalities in rural, lower-income communities after disasters (Jen Liu, Cornell University).
- Communication networking of DJN (Julie Maldonado, LiKEN).
- Pre-positioning portable solar (Jack Martin, Appalachian State University).
- Indigenous disaster resilience case management program (Laura Olson, Jacksonville State University).
- Instilling community support values to engineering students (Mira Olson, Drexel University Engineers for Peace Program and Kala Yarnall, Oklahoma Indian Health Service).
- Post-disaster housing advocacy (Noah Patton, National Low Income Housing Coalition).
- Bringing together non-profit groups to support agency policy justice (Kristina Peterson, Lowlander Center).
- First Peoples Conservation Council multiple tribal organization for cultural and environmental sustainability (Rosina Philippe, Elder, Grand Bayou; Theresa Dardar, Elder, Pointe au Chien; and Shirell Parfait-Dardar, Elder, Grand Caillou/Dulac Band of Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Indians.
- Rebuilding the Boot campaign for resilient repair of storm-damaged structures: (1) technical brochures (Tim Reinhold, formerly IIBHS); (2) tool lending from shipping containers for resilient rebuild guided by instructional brochures (Rev. James Harris, Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church, DeQuincy, LA); (3) marketing campaign (Nicki Boudreaux, Nicholls State Univ.); (4) coordinator (Shirley Laska, Lowlander Center).
- Integrated design for environmental and climate justice research (April Ward, Prairie View A&M University).
- Testing Louisiana coast for air and water contamination post disaster (DJN Environmental Working Group: Naomi Yoder, Healthy Gulf; Cynthia Robertson, Micah68Mission.)
- Analysis of post-Hurricane Ida pollution reports (Naomi Yoder, Healthy Gulf with Sheehan Moore, CUNY Graduate Center.)
For a printable list of all projects, please download the PDF below.