Proposed SNA: The Social Networks of Volunteer Community Organizations in Disaster Response

Student not taking 2^nd module this Fall.

Overview

In February 2011 the city of Christchurch, New Zealand was devastated by an earthquake of unprecedented force which triggered widespread destruction and caused the deaths of 189 individuals. The regular Police, Fire, Ambulance, Civil Defense, and Health Services, though initially overwhelmed, began operating as expected. However, these civil services were also joined by community organizations whose efforts were focused on non-critical community support. The largest of these groups was a collective of approximately 10,000 local university students (nicknamed the ‘Student Army’) whose members organized response activities largely through Facebook. Non-critical response activities included clearing ‘liquefaction’ sand/gravel debris from roads and residential properties, transportation of supermarket and pharmacy goods to the elderly and other individuals needing assistance, and general clean-up/restorative work. Initially, interaction between the Student Army with civil services was haphazard and disorganized, though efficient dispatch began to occur once civil services were able to station members at the makeshift Student Army headquarters at the city’s main university. Another group comprised of approximately two dozen local farmers from the Federated Farmers union (or, the ‘Farmy Army’ as the group became known) also began offering resources and assistance and often worked together in non-critical clean-up crisis response activities with groups of students collaborating with a farmer/tractor. It was noted by Civil Defense Emergency Management Response Review members that community groups played a major part in the Response. However, two way flows of information, and tasking and provision of resources needed to be improved in the event of future emergencies. Additionally, the Review recommended that templates for coordination with community groups be designed for disaster response planning. This series of events provides an interesting opportunity for social network analysis and the potential implementation of disaster relief planning relating to volunteer effort coordination.

The Study

The social network analysis would focus solely on the Student Army, its composition and how members were connected to other individuals and organizations in the crisis response field. Attributes and connections would be surveyed relating to volunteer activities undertaken, as well as locations served. As mentioned before, the student volunteer group’s response to community needs was initially disorganized and thus inefficient, but gradually improved once civil services were able to engage with leaders to coordinate dispatch of their activities. This study would aim to provide a clearer picture of how information flowed within the Student Army as well as between the group and other civil and volunteer response organizations over time so as to help plan improvement of future response activities.

Methodology

As the Student Army coordinated activities and events mostly via social media, studies of the Facebook group itself would be greatly beneficial in assessing and analyzing how members communicated and organized to undertake these events. Also, New Zealand it seems has only two degrees of separation between residents, and personally, it turns out that one of the two main Student Army coordinators is a friend’s brother. Thus, gaining access to a database of individuals from which a survey could be developed would be a relatively straight-forward process, as would the implementation of the survey via students’ email addresses.
Given that Christchurch is barely starting to rebuild and the events of February 2011 are still very fresh in residents’ memories, and the fact that another swarm of earthquakes occurred recently only a few hundred kilometres away, there will likely be a high level of participation should a survey be conducted and results of the analysis would be highly sought after.
A potential limitation in collecting data for analysis would be that the student population changes frequently, and therefore the survey response collection might be hindered due to previous members not having active student email address accounts. This could be mitigated by coordinating with the Registrar to gain forwarding contact information.
Analyzing the connections and interactions within the Student Army together with the organization’s links with other crisis response (civil service or volunteer) networks will help to identify the key nodes/actors within the Student Army. This in turn will assist in coordination of volunteers and help to optimize use of resources and promote efficiency in future. Key actors identified would potentially serve two functions: to be points of contact to coordinate activities within their neighborhoods, and to be ‘brokers’ for other crisis response groups. This would include conveyance of 1) activity information and potential collaboration, and 2) provision of resources (such as equipment via the Farmy Army). Thus, efficiency would increase with respect to mobilizing and responding to community needs across the city.

Required Data – Potential Survey Questions

Part I - Attributes

Gender

Age

Resources used: (Vehicle and/or physical labor)

Location of Residence: (Neighborhood)

Locations assisted post February 2011 earthquake: (Neighborhood(s))

Part II - Networks

Names of individuals in Student Army with whom you volunteered

Names of individuals in Farmy Army with whom you volunteered

Names of branch(es) of civil service operations you personally interacted/coordinated with in the field

Analysis and Potential Uses

Templates for organization of volunteer response networks could be produced based on information provided in the survey. Disaster relief measures could be determined ahead of time, should there be similar emergencies within cities with potentially large volunteer populations (for example, the other five major centers where a public university is located). The survey could easily be modified for any volunteer group or organization and developed and maintained so that current information can be accessed regarding utilizing the network should a need arise in future. Other potential uses could be in accounting for missing people in crisis scenarios, as well as connecting communities to ‘intangible’ relief efforts such as mental health/counseling/debrief services post-crisis.  

Sources

McLean, Ian, et al: “Review of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Response to the 22 February Christchurch Earthquake”, 29 June 2012. Available at http://www.civildefence.govt.nz/memwebsite.nsf/wpg_URL/For-the-CDEM-Sector-Publications-Review-of-the-Civil-Defence-Emergency-Management-Response-to-the-22-February-Christchurch-Earthquake (10/23/13)