Building Resilience after Disasters through the Youth Leadership Program: The Importance of Community and Academic Partnerships on Youth Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: The Youth Leadership Program (YLP) was created as a school community-university partnership after the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. The YLP goal was to support youth and improve by engaging them in disaster recovery initiatives. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the study was to describe the development of the St. Bernard Parish YLP and evaluate if the program was associated with increasing self-efficacy and decreasing trauma symptoms. Specifically, this study explored how a mental health intervention related to hurricane recovery influenced students' perceived ability to achieve goals, fostering post-disaster self-efficacy. METHODS: The YLP began in 2006, with two major initiatives; data were analyzed before and after YLP activities. Students completed disaster screenings annually, with measures of trauma symptoms and self-efficacy. RESULTS: Findings from this study showed that students who participated in the YLP, compared with peers who did not participate, scored significantly higher on self-efficacy. In addition, an interaction effect revealed that gains in self-efficacy also resulted in reduced trauma symptoms for both groups of students. CONCLUSIONS: The YLP demonstrated how disaster response interventions supporting resilience-based leadership and empowerment influenced students' perceived ability to achieve goals fostering post-disaster resilience. Successful initiatives, such as the YLP, emphasize the importance of parallel and interactive individual, family and community support processes to enhance the recovery experience for both individuals and communities.

Children of Katrina: lessons learned about postdisaster symptoms and recovery patterns.

Trauma symptoms, recovery patterns, and life stressors of children between the ages of 9 and 18 (n = 387) following Hurricane Katrina were assessed using an adapted version of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network Hurricane Assessment and Referral Tool for Children and Adolescents (National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2005). Based on assessments 2 and 3 years after the hurricane, most children showed a decrease in posttraumatic stress and depression symptoms over time. Students were also classified into outcome trajectories of stress resistant, normal response and recovery, delayed breakdown, and breakdown without recovery (A. S. Masten & J. Obradovic, 2008). Age, gender, and life stressors were related to these recovery patterns. Overall, the findings highlight the importance of building and maintaining supportive relationships following disasters.