Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
G022 MCCARTY HALL
GAINESVILLE,FL 32611
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Hurricane Ian impacted the southwest coast of Florida on September 28, 2022. This strong category4 hurricane caused immeasurable damage from sustained winds of 150 mph and significant stormsurge of over 6 feet in some areas. The impacted area included many agricultural sectors, includingspecialty crops, dairy, row crops, livestock, and fisheries. Early estimations on the economic impact ofthese sectors is between $787 million and $1.6 billion dollars. Past experience and literature haveshown that heavy economic impacts such as this can impact long-term recovery in communities.This includes personal, social, behavioral, and mental health aspects of daily life. Working to lessenmultiple impacts and develop strategies to address the health, well-being, and safety of children,youthand adults affected by disasters, the purpose of this project is twofold: 1) to determine theneeds and barriers of the agricultural communities that have been hardest hit economically byHurricane Ian and 2) to facilitate long-term recovery by enhancing the capacity of Extension to identifyneed resources and develop links to critical resources and services. Utilizing economic analysis todetermine the agricultural areas heavily impacted, photovoice research to collect the currentperceptions, needs, and barriers from community members, and research to practice concepts suchas communication toolkits, webinars, and specialized reports, this project will serve as a foundationto decrease long-term impacts from hurricanes on affected Florida agricultural communities
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The purpose of this project is twofold: 1) to determine the needs and barriers of the agricultural communities that have been hardest hit economically by Hurricane Ian and 2) to facilitate long-term recovery by enhancing the capacity of Extension to identify needed resources and develop links to critical resources and services. This project will serve as a foundation to decrease long-term impacts from hurricanes to affected Florida agricultural communities by increasing knowledge about the unique needs and barriers in long-term recovery and utilizing Extension as connectors to address these unmet needs. ?Project Aims: The project team plans to meet its goals through the following aims:??Aim 1: Expand understanding by UF/IFAS Extension of the economic impacts, needs, and barriers of agricultural communities following Hurricane Ian ?Aim 2: Increase knowledge of those in impacted FL agricultural communities regarding the resources that can meet their needs and assist them as they work through the recovery process ?Aim 3: Optimize collaboration between Extension and local, state, and federal agencies during recovery to implement an active, evidenced-based support and referral program that best meets the identified needs of impacted agricultural communities. ?
Project Methods
Aim #1:Determine Economic Impact:1. Utilize existing data collected post Hurricane Ian from agriculture producers to map out agricultural communities that were heavily economically impacted?2. Match the determined communities?with the closest Extension office(s) in the area?Photovoice Project: 1. Work with Extension faculty and staff and local, state, and community partners to solicit individuals to send in photographs for the project.?2. A link to a Qualtrics form will be provided so that individuals can upload photos?(Photos will be accepted up to a year post-event for further evaluation. For this project, the photos submitted six weeks after the launch of this program will be analyzed)?3. Prior to uploading photos, individuals will be asked to fill out a consent form.??4. Once logged in, participants will answer demographic questions that will be used in data analysis. Then, participants will upload a photo of recovery via Qualtrics form. In this form, participants will be asked to provide a caption for the photo that follows the SHOWeD method, a common line of questioning in photovoice literature (Annang et al., 2016; Rania et al., 2021; Strack et al., 2004; Strack, n.d.). The details of SHOWeD questions are:?What do you See here???What's really Happening here???How does this relate to Our lives???Why does this problem or this strength exist???What can we Do about this???5. The PIE Center will host a virtual focus group session(s), where participants who submitted photos will attend and discuss their photos. This facilitated session will follow a similar line of questioning as the Qualtrics form, using the SHOWeD method. 6. Once data has been collected, recordings from the virtual session(s) will be transcribed via a paid transcription service. Researchers will then establish social capital theory dimensions for this study's data analysis. These dimensions will be based on the original theory but specific to the objectives and goals of this study.?7. Coder(s) will then analyze textual data (transcription data from virtual session(s) and textual data from Qualtrics submissions). Coders will use a priori coding that systematically places data into pre-determined themes, noted as dimensions in this research. Coder(s) also look for any emergent themes and/or new concepts that do not fit into the pre-determined dimensions and note those in the results as well. Demographic data will be used to make comparisons between subsamples of the data.?8. The research team and/or a small cohort of the advisory team that is IRB trained will come together to confirm themes found by coder(s) in the transcription and textual data. The team will examine those themes in relation to the submitted photos to see if any other findings or larger connections are missed from only viewing text. This will serve as one method of triangulation since some members of this team are also a part of the communities in this study. Triangulation will also be conducted through validation of findings with other quantitative project data.?Aim #21. Results from photovoice will be further analyzed by the project team to determine resources and information that could assist those in agricultural communities recover?2. Utilize economic analysis and photovoice project demographics to identify target audiences ?3. Apply project and advisory team experience and partnerships to determine communication tools best suited for identified audiences ?Aim #31. Once barriers and needs are identified through the photovoice project, work with project partners, advisory team, and local, state, and federal connections, including Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), regarding the resources they may have to share and ask if they would be willing to participate in a webinar PIE Center will facilitate the virtual series and develop materials to communicate the series?Utilize project team and advisory team experience and partnerships to communicate about the series and upcoming webinars.?2. Send information promoting the webinar series to Extension offices in impacted areas. ?3. Distribute webinar promotional materials and follow-up items through UF/IFAS Extension listserv.?