agency to the needs of residents of a target community (New Orleans) rather
than to an individual. Like any agency providing services that meet human
needs, the ARC has a formal mission statement and uses the same core tasks of
case management, linking to the external environment and systems thinking that
we have discussed in reference to your focal agencies. For this assignment,
your task is to analyze the Red Cross, not to describe what
they did.
Hurricane Katrina made landfall in the city of New Orleans
on the morning of August 29, 2005. When the levees broke and almost 80 percent
of the city flooded, at least 400,000 residents were displaced. Of those
evacuated, many relocated to states near family or friends, while others only
learned of their destination once their evacuation and relocation was
underway.
Using
the following 3 links provided and any other sources you find, provide a
brief overview of the events before, during and after Hurricane Katrina:
Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned – Chapter Five: Lessons Learned (archives.gov)
Population Displacement and Post-Katrina Politics: The New
Orleans Mayoral Race, 2006, by John R. Logan at Brown University (PDF)
A
Failure of Initiative, Final Report to Investigate the Preparation and Response
to Hurricane Katrina 2006 (PDF).
Specific
to shelter, housing, and relocation, in what ways did the Red Cross use
the 6 Core Tasks of Case Management with clients during the Katrina
Emergency? In what ways – if any – did they fail to follow those
guidelines?
In
what ways did the American Red Cross use a “systems thinking”
perspective both in its efforts to provide immediate shelter and in its
evacuation and relocation efforts? In what ways was “systems
thinking” neglected?
In
what ways did the target agency link effectively to external systems? In
what ways was their linkage ineffective?
What
changes would you suggest to improve the response of the American Red
Cross in order to more effectively serve the needs of displaced residents?
Be sure to provide a definition of each concept and then
provide examples of how the Red Cross successfully or unsuccessfully completed
each of the core case management tasks, systems thinking and linkages to the
external environment in regard to shelter, housing and relocation. The
paper should be at least 7 pages in length and be sure to cite all sources from
your research, the texts and the mini-lecture. Use APA style.
