Uncertainty and disaster recovery: An analysis of victim perceptions utilizing the problematic integration theory.

Guided by the problematic integration theory, the purpose of this study was to determine what probabilistic and evaluative orientations were formed during post-disaster decision-making following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the 2011 Tuscaloosa Tornado, the 2011 Mississippi Delta flooding, and a pair of tornados in Hattiesburg Mississippi in 2013 and 2017. A series of focus groups were conducted in communities impacted by these disasters. Five different themes emerged when coding the focus group data for probabilistic and evaluative orientations formed: (1) Distrust, (2) Disorientation, (3) Desperation, (4) Disparity, and (5) Disconnection. The broader implications of this study shed light on how people handle personal uncertainty, especially in situations where their lives have been dramatically shifted in a negative way.

A Multigenerational Strategy to Transform Health Education into Community Action.

BACKGROUND: The National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities funded Centers of Excellence to address health disparities through research, education and professional training, and community engagement. This article summarizes a decade of multigenerational educational programing embedded in the Community Engagement Core (CEC) of the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities-funded Center for Healthy Communities-Center of Excellence at the University of South Alabama. OBJECTIVES: Our objective is to demonstrate how community-based participatory research (CBPR) initiated the multigenerational approach, uniting the community health education and the educational pipeline programs, and transformed a traditional professional symposium into a mechanism to increase community participation and action. METHODS: Community engagement and education adhered to CBPR principles and methods. A 3-year planning process before full funding of the Center of Excellence allowed the CHC to develop community partnerships and implement pilot projects that would assure community access and participation in COE programs. Program innovation was rooted in community suggestions and community priorities. The annual Regional Health Disparities Symposium (RHDS) was literally transformed through community engagement. CONCLUSIONS: Education programs for adults and youth achieved their goals independently, the STARS AND STRIPES (Student Training for Academic Reinforcement in the Sciences and Special Training to Raise Interest and Prepare for Entry into the Sciences) pipeline program has a success rate of 88% for participants' admission to colleges and universities. CHA-led events have documented an outreach to more than 6,500 community members and the COE has funded eight CHA-led projects directly addressing community action plans developed through CBPR methods during the history of the RHDS. But the real story has emerged from transformative multigenerational interaction via CBPR.