Improving Federal Disaster Recovery Assistance
An increasing number of Americans face natural disasters each year, yet they often lack the support necessary to fully recover. When a disaster hits, survivors face the painful task of putting the pieces of their lives back together. They have to care for basic needs and keep businesses going while enduring intense stress and trauma. On top of this, people must manage multiple bureaucratic assistance processes with competing and confusing guidance, a frustrating journey at a moment when people expect government to show up and help.
In recent years, Government leaders have become increasingly motivated to transform public services through a more human-centered approach. This growing perspective motivated the federal effort to improve the experience of recovering from a disaster.
PHASE 1:listen, learn, advocate
Listening to survivors’ stories
Our team set out to understand the burden that disaster survivors encounter when they seek federal government support and identify insights and opportunities for improvement.
We facilitated advisory sessions, briefings and learning conversations with government and community partners to frame our research goals. We then conducted interviews with disaster survivors and front-line staff in-person and virtually, and in English and Spanish (with translators). Participants included people who survived hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires. They represented various backgrounds—including low-income renters and homeowners, parents, the elderly, new immigrants, veterans, and people with disabilities.
“I feel humiliated, I feel like it was me by myself and only myself, no one reached out to me if I finished [the
application and appeals process].”
Articulating the survivor journey
We translated our insights into visual narratives and journey maps. The storytelling surfaced the pain and resilience of recovery. Our aim was to articulate the survivor experience and present opportunity areas for improvement to decision-makers. The assets were disseminated across multiple channels—digital, immersive gallery exhibit and formal briefing with the President’s Management Council.
PHASE II: Co-design, prototype, test
Centering compassion in disaster recovery
The Survivor narratives allowed our team to identify key pain points and opportunities for improving the recovery journey. A key insight that surfaced during the Phase I research was that federal emergency managers play a critical role in the country’s ability to recover from natural disasters. Disaster survivors told our research team that their interactions with federal staff had deeply influenced their mental health, well-being and long-term recovery. Our team was tasked with making these interactions more compassionate, caring and trauma-informed.
Co-creating with response staff
Over the next few months, I led my team through our co-design vision. We collaborated with 44 Federal emergency managers across FEMA, SBA, and HUD through a series of co-design workshops. Together, we explored their world before, during and after a deployment as well as hopes for growing soft skills in their roles.
Workshop #1 aimed to identify current state of training + learning preferences
Workshop #2 surfaced real world experiences + prioritized topics for learning
Workshop #3 shaped the form factor + tone + utility
“I was once at a Town Hall meeting in a town that had been heavily impacted by a flood. Many survivors were upset with both FEMA and the local government but there was one man who was yelling and crying in front of the whole auditorium. He and his 3 children had been sleeping in their car for weeks and completely lost their home.”
Surfacing design principles
Each session got us closer to creating a learning intervention that could spark genuine engagement and lasting transformation. We surfaced a framework to guide the development of the Toolkit to ensure we infused the context, conditions, and hopes that response staff raised into the tools.
Delivering a high-fidelity prototype
The Toolkit leverages staff’s existing capabilities, builds on their emotional intelligence and inspires them with actionable trauma-informed techniques that they can practice and adapt to make their own. Video lessons and guidebook are available on peformance.gov
The workshop is an expert-facilitated, immersive, in-person experience for teams. The content is adapted from the video lessons and guidebook.
The three video lessons are available on publicly available and serve as an on-the-go refresher and/or deployment support. The lessons are all delivered by trauma experts and FEMA staff.
The interactive guidebook is publicly available and reflects content and activities from the video lessons and workshop. Each section provides content and activities that can be followed along with in the video lessons or used as a stand alone learning tool.
Piloting for implementation
Our team piloted the toolkit with over 300 staff from FEMA Region 2. From the pilot evaluation, we refined the toolkit and created guidance for agency implementation. Resources include:
Implementation Handbook
A detailed, step-by-step guide outlining the purpose of each learning tool in the Toolkit and how to implement them.
Train-the-Trainer Program
A required training for Mental Health Lead Facilitators to complete before leading the Toolkit’s in-person workshop.
Facilitator Guide
A practical resource provided upon completion of the Train-the-Trainer Program, designed to support facilitators during the in-person workshop.
With pilot metrics validating the Toolkit’s benefits and effectiveness, our team transitioned ownership of the Implementation Guide and Toolkit assets to FEMA’s Branch Chief for Mental Health to continue scaling across FEMA.
“This was a great training. I highly recommend it and believe I learned a lot on how we can better serve the communities we go into and how to take care of ourselves.”
“I got to hear about other experiences, and I was exposed to new ideas which I would have not experienced from just listening to a lecture training.”
Implementation Handbook informed by the pilot
Post project update:
“Hey there OPM’ers, w/a special shout out to Ms.Moss,
My FEMA colleague Dr. Megan Corley, Branch Chief for our Mental Health Branch, brightly updated me on the training that was delivered in December that she supported tied to the Trauma Informed Care. It was a big success!
Everyone involved—instructors and trainees—found it timely, effective and very beneficial.
So, we thought of you, and just wanted to share back w/you this positive feedback. As a result of your team’s commitment and drive, you-all successfully helped to pioneer and socialize Trauma-Informed Care at FEMA, so that it’s genuinely taken root and is providing strong, beneficial outcomes.
It’s a rare thing to be able to’ve developed effective content that fosters/garners culture change!
It’s been an honor, privilege...and pleasure to join forces with you all.”
Video Lessons and Guidebook
“I would say I listened to that [video] recording 4 or 5 times while I was deployed.”