Abstract
Over the past decade, a number of U.S. federal agencies have not only recognized children as a potentially vulnerable group in disaster but also made strides in involving children in hazards mitigation and disaster preparedness, response, and recovery efforts. This chapter provides an inventory of government efforts (such as guidance documents and initiatives) that recognize children’s vulnerability to negative physical, psychological, and educational impacts of disaster, while also acknowledging their capacity to meaningfully contribute across the disaster lifecycle. The chapter concludes with a discussion of commonalities and points of divergence when it comes to government responses to children’s vulnerability and capacity in disaster contexts.
The authors would like to thank Stefanie Haeffele and Virgil Henry Storr at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University for their editorial leadership. Nick Horna and Christopher Rini, both undergraduate research assistants at the Natural Hazards Center, assisted with data collection for this chapter. Allison Carlock, National Youth Preparedness Lead at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, reviewed an earlier draft of this chapter, which is gratefully acknowledged. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant no. 1635593. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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Notes
- 1.
Ryan is a pseudonym. The lead author for this chapter served as one of his mentors and that is how we learned of his journey and engagement with the Youth Preparedness Council.
- 2.
Ryan’s assumption regarding the lethality of winter storms among those in his age group was correct. Excessive cold associated with severe winter weather kills more 15- to 24-year-old people in the United States than any other natural hazard (see Zahran et al. 2008).
- 3.
Although there are local and state government initiatives on children and disasters, as well as many programs available through private, non-profit, and academic sectors, this chapter analyzes federal initiatives. Our rationale for this focus is twofold. First, this edited volume is organized around top-down initiatives in crisis management, and therefore, we sought to review children and disaster programs released from the highest level of government. Second, given time and space constraints, we were not able to complete a comprehensive review for all states and localities across the United States or for all sectors. Various federal agencies do, however, offer comprehensive lists of resources on children, youth, and disasters such as those available from the US Department of Health and Human Services (https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ohsepr/children-and-families), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/childrenindisasters/index.html), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (https://www.fema.gov/children-and-disasters).
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Peek, L., Domingue, S. (2020). Recognizing Vulnerability and Capacity: Federal Initiatives Focused on Children and Youth Across the Disaster Lifecycle. In: Haeffele, S., Storr, V. (eds) Government Responses to Crisis. Mercatus Studies in Political and Social Economy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39309-0_5
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