2025

Localization of Child-focused Rural Disaster Response in the United States: Findings from a formative qualitative study

Sury, Jonathan; Heard, Emily; Branoff, Sarah; Guerrero, Ray; Padilla-Chicas, Emily Samantha; Hansen, Sean E.

The notion of strong local community partnerships remains a critical opportunity and ideal standard of practice for response organization engagement after a disaster. Strong relationships built upon contextual understanding, acknowledgment of local capacity, funding priorities, and cultural sensitivity can greatly improve response and recovery outcomes by promoting a shared understanding and vision. Localization is one approach for response organizations working with communities to acknowledge and work toward accomplishing these goals. How localization as a concept is applied, or is relevant, in domestic disaster response work has yet to be explored in depth. Using a hybrid of several localization frameworks, the research team conducted 17 semi-structured in-depth interviews across six states with rural community actors who have had, currently have, or will have a funding partnership with Save the Children USA. These interviews aimed to better understand the needs and expectations of local community members who serve children and/or families in rural areas. This report concludes with key quotes from respondents, ideal interactions between response organizations and local community organizations, and guiding questions to be asked introspectively by the response organization. Overall, the application of an adjusted localization framework for domestic disaster response has great utility. Findings suggest the addition of a new localization dimension of “rural context” to include social-cultural factors, physical environmental, historical and economic factors, and public health factors. This additional dimension will help promote contextually appropriate response decisions meant to support and bolster local capacity and capabilities.