The School of Social Work Disaster Response Group (SSWDRG) met tonight to host elections and coordinate our agenda for the year.  Several new members took leadership positions, expressing interest in continuing to pursue projects in the Greater New Orleans area both through hosting films to continue to raise awareness about Katrina, as well as potentially through a 3rd annual trip to New Orleans in the Spring.

     A small cohort of students from the SSWDRG spent spring break performing a community needs survey in the immediate vicinity of the Murphy's Oil Spill.  Several other UM departments were doing projects in the same area, most notably of relevence to CIC interest being the School of Natural Resource's Respond Project (the group created an environmental handbook for grassroots organizers with their findings)

    Their handbook captures the complex information needs and breakdowns in post-Katrina St. Bernards Parish, wherein they indicate that 43% of the 200 residents surveyed indicated did not know how to access information about the severity of the health risks of moving home (evidence of toxicity is high). The residents of these communities are nonetheless dedicated to re-building homes they've often lived in for generations.

The SSWDRG is in touch with the first library to re-open in the area,  a small facility with funding from the Gates Foundation to maintain a small media center, and is interested in coordinating with the CIC for feedback on how to encourage ICT capacity building in this community.  The group is open to SI students interested in the project, as well as students across the University.  Email lmclaug@umich.edu

 for more information