Serving the Service Community
Introduction
Volunteers have facilitated most of the post-Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts in New Orleans; local government officials, nonprofit managers, and homeowners agree on this, if not much else. Since 2005 the American Red Cross estimates more than one million volunteers have contributed to the rebuild efforts, many of whom were students or otherwise untrained volunteers working in conjunction with local nonprofit agencies. Having received little technical training or emotional preparation for rebuild experience, volunteers working to rebuild New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina experienced secondary stress reactions in response to the observed trauma, but were able to manage these responses through religious and altruistic narratives, such that volunteerism and voluntourism have remained powerful forces of local development.
Effects of Volunteering
Lory Clukey’s “Transformative Experiences for Hurricane Katrina and Rita Disaster Volunteers” identifies three trends common to volunteers who worked in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina: emotional reactions, frustration with leadership, and personal transformation. Emotional secondary stress reactions are common to individuals who work with those who have been traumatized; often, they “have reported taking on some of the stress reactions experienced by the traumatized victim,” (Clukey, 2010, p. 644). Volunteers can experience a range of secondary stress responses to grief stemming from compassion and observation of extensive loss, including: feelings of shock, intrusive thoughts, difficulty with sleep, excessive fatigue, feelings of grief, of helplessness and of being vulnerable themselves, (Clukey, 2010, 649).
Frustration with leadership provided another source of stress for volunteers; it was the most significant negative experience cited by participants in Clukey's study (Cluckey, 2010, p. 650). Volunteers have noted significant dissatisfaction with organizational management, logistical inefficiencies, communication barriers, and poor leadership qualities (Cluckey, 2010, p. 650-652). Such experiences with non-profit and governmental leadership exacerbated normative stress experienced as part of the disaster relief efforts and likely compounded negative secondary stress reactions.
In some instances such experiences can manifest as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but Clukey’s analysis as well as significant rates of return amongst volunteers indicate that such emotional responses did not linger for most volunteers who participated in the post-Katrina rebuilding efforts. Instead, many individuals indicated experiences of personal transformation:
Frustration with leadership provided another source of stress for volunteers; it was the most significant negative experience cited by participants in Clukey's study (Cluckey, 2010, p. 650). Volunteers have noted significant dissatisfaction with organizational management, logistical inefficiencies, communication barriers, and poor leadership qualities (Cluckey, 2010, p. 650-652). Such experiences with non-profit and governmental leadership exacerbated normative stress experienced as part of the disaster relief efforts and likely compounded negative secondary stress reactions.
In some instances such experiences can manifest as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but Clukey’s analysis as well as significant rates of return amongst volunteers indicate that such emotional responses did not linger for most volunteers who participated in the post-Katrina rebuilding efforts. Instead, many individuals indicated experiences of personal transformation:
All respondents reported that doing volunteer work at the disaster sites was a meaningful experience. Most reported that this experience had a profound impact on them and that it caused them to reflect on what was meaningful in their own life. They noted that material possessions were less meaningful now and that relationships, especially with family and friends, seemed more meaningful. A common experience of all respondents was that providing services was a life changing experience. (Clukey, 2010, 652-653).
Such a trend towards personal growth indicates that volunteers were able to employ successful coping mechanisms to prevent onset of serious secondary stress reactions, which allowed for continued volunteer support that proved imperative in facilitating any amount of rebuilding in impoverished communities.
Modes of Resilience and Motivation
The particular characterization of the post-Katrina volunteer base facilitated the emergence of two narratives that dually motivated individuals to volunteer and allowed for resilience: altruism and spirituality. With respect to the impetus for involvement, the differences between altruistic motivation and spiritual motivation lie understanding to who/what an individual seeks to benefit. Though who intervene based on religious motivation “are likely to be beneficiaries of perceived transcendent powers in their beliefs, whereas altruists provide benefits to fellow humans,” (Ai, et. al., 2013, p. 551). As such, those motivated by altruism tend to seek out working vacations and justify their capital and time investment in terms of the benefits they provide to those they are serving. Those motivated by spiritual beliefs, on the other hand, develop narratives that conceptualize of volunteerism as an end unto itself, where benefits will accrue to assisted individuals and volunteers (Erdley, 2011, p. 18). Post-Katrina volunteerism provided a particularly desirable environment in which such a spiritual narrative could be construction. The juxtaposition of severe need with the “city of sin” characterization of New Orleans allowed for these narratives to incorporate both labor-as-service and cultural-reform-as-service.
The narratives constructed to justify volunteerism also provide the foundation for employing successful modes of resilience during the volunteer experience. Both altruism and spiritualism “create a sense of hope and optimism that keeps depression at bay,” by providing a means through which individuals can connect with the work that they are doing and the communities that they are serving (Ai, et. al., 2013, p. 540). It is this connection that allows in part for successful resistance, as “volunteers who reported greater experiences of deep connections held greater hope and optimism, which in turn predicted resilience in the aftermath of collective trauma,” (Ai, et. al., 550). Of particular note are the racialized differences in narrative construction: white volunteers were much more likely to indicate an altruistic motivations, while minority volunteers tended to indicate spiritual impetus, (Ai, et. al., 545).This kind of racialized discrepancies are tied to broader social and political narratives surrounding race, poverty, and service, each of which provides additional, if potentially problematic, support and protection. These pathways for constructing resilience were supported by the motivation narratives described above. When taken as a whole these unique conditions allowed for significant numbers of volunteers to engage in volunteer work in post-Katrina New Orleans and for those individuals to view their experience as largely possible.
The narratives constructed to justify volunteerism also provide the foundation for employing successful modes of resilience during the volunteer experience. Both altruism and spiritualism “create a sense of hope and optimism that keeps depression at bay,” by providing a means through which individuals can connect with the work that they are doing and the communities that they are serving (Ai, et. al., 2013, p. 540). It is this connection that allows in part for successful resistance, as “volunteers who reported greater experiences of deep connections held greater hope and optimism, which in turn predicted resilience in the aftermath of collective trauma,” (Ai, et. al., 550). Of particular note are the racialized differences in narrative construction: white volunteers were much more likely to indicate an altruistic motivations, while minority volunteers tended to indicate spiritual impetus, (Ai, et. al., 545).This kind of racialized discrepancies are tied to broader social and political narratives surrounding race, poverty, and service, each of which provides additional, if potentially problematic, support and protection. These pathways for constructing resilience were supported by the motivation narratives described above. When taken as a whole these unique conditions allowed for significant numbers of volunteers to engage in volunteer work in post-Katrina New Orleans and for those individuals to view their experience as largely possible.
Conclusion
Given the extent to which volunteers were involved in rebuilding the lower income communities in and around New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the ability of volunteers to construct narratives that both facilitated involvement and served as protection against lasting secondary stress responses was of the utmost importance.