In the short time since the project has been available online, emergency management professionals across the country have offered “extremely positive feedback,” said DRC Director Tricia Wachtendorf, who is also professor of sociology, women and gender studies, and public policy and administration.

“Community engagement is so important to us at DRC, and to UD more broadly,” she said. “DRC It! is an excellent example of how our students can develop work that is scientifically grounded but meets the audience where they are, with an appreciation of the time commitments practitioners are under.” 

The new outreach project has significant benefits for the students involved as well, as they not only develop their research skills but also get real-world practice in communicating information and best practices to professionals and the public.

“We’re doing our best to write in a style that’s different from an academic journal,” Mankins said. “We’ve really learned a lot about how to communicate and how to collaborate with partners.”

A group of graduate students — Mankins, Gerber-Chavez and disaster science management students Connor Dacey and Karen Montes-Berrios — started thinking about the project more than two years ago, brainstorming topics and planning the research and presentation process.

For the hurricane evacuation topic, Mankins and Gerber-Chavez first used the DRC’s extensive library — physical and electronic — to begin collecting all published studies that might be relevant. Then, they read, reread (several times) and categorized the various reports in preparation for writing summaries.

Each topic offers readers the chance to read one or more studies in detail or merely skim the key findings. The students also worked with an animator and wrote the scripts to create illustrated videos for each topic, a tool that managers might use for general community outreach or other non-professional communications.

“I’ve learned so much in this process, including how to read the research more critically,” Gerber-Chavez said. “You learn these skills in grad school, of course, but this project was sort of a fast-track way to develop them.”

The second topic, now posted, focuses on how businesses recover from disasters. The research on business recovery hasn't yet incorporated the fallout of the COVID-19 crisis, according to Wachtendorf.

"There will be much to learn in the coming year on how that recovery is similar or different from disasters caused by hurricanes or earthquakes," she said. "Still, we know that some businesses will have thrived, some who were struggling prior will not be able to recover, and not all forms of insurance will be able to help businesses through the crisis. There are already some commonalities readily apparent." 

To see the research summaries and other information on DRC It!, visit this website.