A recent study published in the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction by Cornell researchers found a direct correlation between a person’s social network and their ability to respond to health consequences of an environmental disaster. Focused on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, the study was conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Weill Cornell Medicine and the Cornell Center for Cultural Humility and a Flint-based survey team to question 331 residents.
“Community contexts and connections matter,” said researcher Jenna Shelton, a doctoral student affiliated with the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy in a press release. “Community leaders know better than anyone what their community needs and how to access resources.”
The study also pointed to the effects of the disaster on the city’s Black population. “When authorities fail a community, or actually put them in harm’s way as they did in Flint, it’s not surprising to see people step up to be there for one another,” wrote Justine Calma in The Verge. “The new research shows, however, that Black women in particular had an outsize influence.”
Source:
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/02/flint-water-crisis-demonstrates-value-social-networks
