Safeguarding Children
Through Disasters
FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY | STOOPS CFC CENTER
WHY TODAY MATTERS
You are designing for someone's child.
Ten hours. Eight interdisciplinary teams. One question: how do we safeguard children through disasters?
Four moves this morning
1
What happened here at home
2
What disasters do to children
3
What helps them recover
4
What works, and what to design
THE STAKES
Disasters reach children at enormous scale
175 million
children worldwide are expected to be affected by natural disasters every year.
119
U.S. disasters cost $1 billion or more from 2010 to 2019
85%
of U.S. billion-dollar disasters from 1980 to 2019 were weather-related
Source: SRCD Child Evidence Brief No. 8 (Lai and La Greca, 2020)
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THE STAKES · AT HOME
Hurricane Michael: our backyard
70%
of housing destroyed
59
lives lost
14%
drop in student population, causing about 600 school staff layoffs
95%
of timber destroyed
2 a day
emergency psychiatric evaluations, on average
Every school in the Bay County district was heavily damaged. A year later, about 500 sites still needed repair.
Sources: Stoops CFC and ROTA-RC webinar deck; SRCD Child Evidence Brief No. 8 (2020)
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WHAT DISASTERS DO TO CHILDREN
Body, mind, and classroom
Body
9–18%
rise in acute illness, such as fever, diarrhea, and respiratory illness, in young children within a month of a disaster
Mind
Up to 50%
report post-traumatic stress symptoms, and some children still show symptoms four years later
Classroom
5–15%
lower achievement scores in North Carolina schools hit by the 1999–2000 storms. After Katrina, about 50,000 Louisiana students missed the rest of the year
Children breathe more air per pound, have thinner skin, lose heat and fluid faster, and depend on adults whose own lives are upended.
Source: SRCD Child Evidence Brief No. 8 (Lai and La Greca, 2020)
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WHAT DISASTERS DO TO CHILDREN · EQUITY
Not every child faces the same storm
Who carries more risk
What limits a family’s capacity to cope
If a design only works for the family that already has a plan, it is not finished.
Sources: SRCD Child Evidence Brief No. 8 (2020); equity dimensions of vulnerability, ROTA-RC webinar (T. J. Holmes)
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WHAT DISASTERS DO TO CHILDREN · SURVIVAL MODE
What trauma does to a developing brain
Typical development
Cognition
Social/Emotional
Regulation
Survival
Developmental trauma
Cognition
Social/Emotional
Regulation
Survival
“I can’t hear you. I can’t respond to you. I am just trying to be safe.”
What survival mode sounds like
ORIGINAL ACE STUDY
36%
of adults reported no adverse childhood experiences
12.5%
reported four or more
When survival takes over, safety and regulation have to come first. Learning comes after.
Adapted from Holt and Jordan (Ohio Dept. of Education); ACE Study, Kaiser Permanente and CDC
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WHAT HELPS · PROTECTIVE FACTORS
What helps children bounce back
Family, friends, and mentors
Connection to community
Involvement in activities
Problem-solving skills
Self-regulation and coping
A sense of self-worth
Supportive beliefs
Continuous learning
Access to resources
Most children recover. Every one of these factors can be built, and it is far easier before the storm than after.
Source: ROTA-RC webinar deck, protective factors; SRCD Child Evidence Brief No. 8 (2020)
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WHAT HELPS · A MAP FOR THE DAY
The disaster cycle: four phases
1 · Surveillance
Know who is vulnerable before anything happens.
2 · Mitigation
Building codes, drills, education, outreach, targeted communication, household plans.
3 · Response
Warnings, evacuation, alternative transportation, survival kits, psychological first aid.
4 · Recovery
Funding, reopening schools and community groups, play therapy, youth mobilization, housing security.
Behavioral health belongs in all four phases.
Which phase does your solution live in, and who does it hand off to?
Source: ROTA-RC webinar deck (surveillance, mitigation, response, recovery; SAMHSA TAP 34)
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WHAT WORKS · OUR APPROACH
What we have learned: a tiered response
Tier 3 · Most need
Individual trauma narrative sessions and outside referrals
Tier 2 · Some need
CBITS and Bounce Back: evidence-based groups delivered in schools
Tier 1 · Every child
Rebound & Recovery, Resilience Rally, caregiver workshops, psychological first aid, and Skills for Psychological Recovery
37% vs. 98%
of children used free services at an off-site clinic versus when offered in schools. Project Fleur-de-Lis, after Hurricane Katrina.
Resilience Rally toolkit
Sources: Stoops CFC disaster initiative (ROTA-RC webinar deck); SRCD Child Evidence Brief No. 8 (2020)
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Things to keep in mind:
1
Start with the child's day, not the agency's plan.
Where is a child when the warning goes out: school, bus, child care, home?
2
Meet families where they already are.
School-based services reached 98% of children; off-site clinics reached 37%.
3
Design for the child most likely to be left behind.
No car, no savings, unstable housing, a long way from the nearest shelter.
Judging criteria: Safe Child Design Sprint (innovation.fsu.edu/safechild)
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FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY | STOOPS CFC CENTER
Safeguarding children means restoring what disaster disrupts:
• Safety
• Relationships
• Routines
• Voice
• Hope
Sources
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