Since the flooding in the Ahr Valley in July 2021, at the latest, awareness of the need for disaster preparedness in Germany has risen sharply. This creates a task for individuals, organisations, and municipalities to prepare better for disasters – including with regard to so-called vulnerable groups. This is precisely where the research project "Resilience Promotion and Education" (ReBi for short) comes in, which is being carried out at the Department of Social Work at Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSBI) by Prof Dr Alexander Scheidt and Prof Dr Katja Makowsky and their team. ReBi is part of a practice-oriented joint project on resilience promotion in disaster management, in which the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund Deutschland e.V. (ASB), the Centre for Crisis and Disaster Research (KFS) at Freie Universität Berlin, and HSBI collaborate. The project is funded by Aktion Deutschland Hilft.

Strengthening self-protection capacity and promoting community resilience

"The aim of the ReBi sub-project is to gather information on disaster risks, preparedness, and resilience, and to identify practical methods that strengthen the population's capacity for self-protection, promote community resilience, and activate and expand local knowledge about disasters," explains Prof Dr Alexander Scheidt. "In addition, we identify gaps in existing measures and seek to close them through targeted research with selected groups, some of whom are regarded as vulnerable. Ultimately, we aim to develop easily accessible educational measures for disaster preparedness, tailored to different needs and learning strategies, which promote crisis awareness and self-efficacy among citizens."

 Interviews with vulnerable groups

For this purpose, the ReBi research team at HSBI involves two very different "vulnerable" groups in its work: homeless people and care home staff. "To gain access to people experiencing homelessness, we interviewed 16 homeless individuals, whom we contacted through two counselling centres in a major city," reports Max Aulenbacher, research associate on the project. Prof Dr Katja Makowsky explains: "Through this form of qualitative research, we wanted to gain a better understanding of how different groups of people perceive and respond to crises and disasters, and what further conclusions can be drawn from this for promoting their resilience." The qualitative interviews captured experiences, needs, and existing knowledge, which were taken into account in the development of methods. The methods developed within the research project, as well as the findings derived from the qualitative research component, will subsequently be disseminated by the ASB and implemented in practice to strengthen disaster prevention.

Everday lifa as a permanent crisis

Life on the streets is often already perceived as "catastrophic" by homeless people in their everyday existence – characterised by violence, discrimination, and the constant struggle for provisions and safe places to sleep. From their experience, homeless people develop a heightened sensitivity to places of shelter. Accompanying other people without a fixed abode was, in some cases, perceived as a protective factor. "A key finding from the interviews is that places such as counselling centres are particularly suitable for sharing, for example, heat or cold warnings, as are places that function as meeting points for homeless people," says Max Aulenbacher.

The key findings of the researchers at Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (HSBI) from interviews with homeless people and care teams in care homes are as follows: good communication is just as central as cross-professional teamwork. Support should start where those in need are located and meet them within their respective life situations. Only in this way can trust be established as the most important prerequisite for the effectiveness of measures.

Text source: Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSBI)