Human Services

Identifying stakeholders for the community initiative

Capella University

Priscilla Hill

As the human services leader, I am tasked with forming and leading a new initiative which involves an interagency collaboration in form of a task force. The main purpose of this task force is to manage the social problem of humanitarian crisis due to natural or man-made disasters within the gulf coast community. This task force will be formed through mobilizing relevant stakeholders who will bring with them their roles, expertise and influence to help strengthen the efficiency and effectiveness of the task force.

The agencies are as follows:

a) The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): This agency acts as the central authority in administering government-wide relief efforts thus fostering team spirit within the interagency task force. The agency has several regions across the country including Florida thus helping to eliminate logistical challenges when distributing aid. As an agency, it coordinates the Public Assistance program with the state in terms of sourcing the required funds, educating the partners on the special programs and ensures compliance of the projects.

b)National Flood Insurance Program(NFIP): This agency helps property owners to access insurance as a result of losses from flooding. This insurance protection helps to deal with costs of damages to buildings, personal property and homes. The agency has been instrumental in assisting in other disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy. The agency will support in processing insurance claims which will predetermine the amount of funds FEMA can allocate.

c) Coast Guard: This is an agency within the Department of Homeland Security which safeguards the public, the environment, economic and security interests of the U.S.A. This agency has wide experience in maritime safety and security, preservation of national resources and national defense. It is, therefore, widely recognized as the most proficient agency that has saved thousands of lives during disasters such as hurricane Irma. The agency will have the responsibility to deploy personnel, boats, and aircrafts to quicken the rescue missions during the humanitarian crisis facing the Gulf coast community. The FEMA shall coordinate with other agencies to administer disaster assistance to the applicants to help them stabilize their lives.

c) Department of Health and Human Services: This department is responsible for coordinating 115 programs within 11 operating divisions to promote health and human services access to all Americans. The agency has to provide a framework of mobilizing and managing HHS human services in response, recovery and preparedness thus becoming a valuable asset in the task force. This agency will support in deploying personnel with sufficient medical supplies and equipment to treat the victims as well as help in assessing the safety of the shelters. This will.

d) National Weather Service: As an agency of the federal government, it has a strategic structure of national and regional centers. The agency has adequate informational and weather safety resources that guide communities in disaster prepared ness such as the family preparedness for severe weather hazards. As proposed, there is need for the meteorological department to work with national government to give real time weather updates. Thus, the agency will help in forecasting any storms through collaborating with the U.S Geological Survey and also develop future flood maps.

As the human service leader, I have to also consider the obstacles that might impede the collaboration of the task force. The collaboration has always been faced with operating and budget deficits due to the heavy inflows of funds into the human services system. There are cases where the reimbursement of fees are less than full cost of providing critical services which can affect the agencies’ ability in disaster preparedness. FEMA has not managed to reimburse Texas more than one-third of the expected $695 million while Florida has only received less than one percent of the expected $ 83 million (Flavelle, 2018). The collaboration is also likely to be afflicted with negative political influence. It is also clear that leadership challenges have always ailed the disaster recovery management efforts in America. Troy (2015) gives an example of Hurricane Agnes in 1972 in which state and local leaders could not collaborate with non-governmental organizations to formulate an effective recovery program. Furthermore, in 2002, a bill was passed to merge 22 different federal agencies including FEMA caused a clash of interagency cultures leading to poor coordination and communication (Troy, 2015). Furthermore, after the hurricane Katrina the public were more concerned by the government’s disaster preparedness rather than personal responsibility (Wilson et al., 2007).

However, technology can offer a valuable solution in fostering beneficial engagement across all stakeholders. Firstly, all the agencies must be equipped with AI assets which promote aerial tracking and big data analytics to assess disaster prone areas and damage in real time, spread awareness of the situations and administer relief quickly and efficiently. Secondly, mobile networking technology can allow the agencies to communicate and form action plans collaboratively thus ensuring that victims receive safety information in time. Thirdly, the agencies can connect through social media platforms and establish a feedback feed through which they and the public are aware of the situation on the ground as well as support evacuation efforts.

The recruitment process shall entail employing specific strategies which meet the professional and ethical standards of the agencies. The first step is to identify the number of agencies as well as their competencies in the disaster management strategy. After identifying the players, the next step is to categorize the stakeholders based on what they can contribute. For instance, the Coast Guard has the mandate to uphold maritime security and safety which can be invaluable during flooding’s and storms. This step will be informed by conducting a background search in terms of their successes and failures in managing disaster. For instance, this strategy will guide me in determining the obstacles that FEMA faces in reimbursing other human services agencies and how it affects disaster preparedness. The next strategy is to engage the identified agencies through meetings and interviews. These sessions will involve gathering information on their competencies, funds management, strategy formulation, government aid, technology capabilities, and capital base and preparedness efforts. This will build confidence that the agency will be able to coordinate without bureaucracy and ideology differences during and after disasters.

References

Flavelle, C. (2018). Cities are still waiting for 2017 hurricane aid while a new season starts. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.cm/amp/news/articles/2018-06-01/as-new-hurricane-season-starts-cities-still-waiting-on-2017-aid

Troy, T.D. (2015). How government as a payer shapes the healthcare marketplace. American Health Policy Institute, 1-15.

Wilson,S., Temple,B.,Milliron,M., Vazquez,C., Packard,M., & Rudy,B.(2007). The lack of disaster preparedness by the public and its affect on communities. The Internet Journal of Rescue and Disaster Medicine, 7(2).