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Double Trouble: Reigniting Civic Engagement 

through Pandemics and Disasters 

June 22, 2023 

Office of Research and Evaluation 
Welcome & Introductions 

Andrea Robles, PhD 

Research and Evaluation Manager, AmeriCorps 
To support AmeriCorps’ mission, the Office of Research and 

Evaluation (ORE): 

Conducts 

research and 

builds scholarship 

on civic 

engagement 

Identifies 

national service 

and 

volunteering 

trends 

Measures 

national service 

impact 

Promotes 

evidencebased models 

and program 

expansion 

Knowledge and evidence can be used to improve the service 

experience, and strengthen organizations and communities 
Conducts research and builds scholarship on civic engagement 

National level 

civic engagement 

and volunteering 

National 

Academies of 

Science (NAS) 

5 

In 2002, 

AmeriCorps 

sponsors a 

volunteering 

supplement in the 

Current Population 

Survey 

Recommendations: 

Use different 

measurement 

approaches to 

improve the 

understanding of 

civic engagement, 

social cohesion 

and social capital 
 

Different measurement approaches...

Research 

Grant 

competition 

with 

universities 

By conducting

more 

research of 

these topics 

at the 

subnational or 

local levels 

By using 

experimental, 

in-depth and 

longitudinal 

studies 

Local level 

research: with 

Participatory 

Research 

approaches 

To address these 

recommendations, ORE 

launched: 

Tap into more complex 

relationships among the 

topics 

Community 

Research 

Action 

Participatory 

Research 
Why does this participatory research suit AmeriCorps? 

Mission: To improve lives, 

strengthen communities, 

and foster civic 

engagement through 

service and volunteering 

Community 

Action Research 

7 
 

 

 

Today’s speakers:

• Megha Patel, PhD, Office of Research and Evaluation (ORE), 

research analyst, AmeriCorps 

• JoAnn Burbridge, Community Partner 

• Dr. Denae King, Texas Southern University 

• Dr. Suzanne Pritzker, University of Houston 

• Matthew Robbins, Research Assistant 

• Joetta Stevenson, Community Partner 

• Reflections: Katrina French, Disaster Services Specialist, Disaster 

Services Unit, AmeriCorps 

• Q&A Facilitator: Emily McDonald, ORE, research analyst, 

AmeriCorps 

8 
Setting the Stage 

Megha Patel, PhD 

Research Analyst, AmeriCorps 
Reigniting Civic Life Series 

https://americorps.gov/about/our-impact/webinars 

March 15, 2023 

What is Civic 

Engagement? 

Exploring New 

Paradigms 

April 26, 2023 

CommunityBased Research 

as a Vehicle for 

Civic 

Engagement 

and Community 

Impact 

June 8, 2023 

Leveraging 

Transformative 

Resources to 

Meet 

Community 

Needs and Ignite 

a Lifetime of 

Civic 

Engagement 

10 
Building Connection During a Time of Disconnect 
 

Building Connection During a Time of Disconnect 

Jo Ann Burbridge, Community Partner 

Dr. Denae King, Texas Southern University 

Dr. Suzanne Pritzker, University of Houston 

Matthew Robbins, Graduate Research Assistant 

Joetta Stevenson, Co-Researcher 
Two universities partnering with three communities 
How did COVID shape the way 

community members experience civic 

engagement? 

What facilitators and barriers to civic 

engagement did they experience? 

How did prior natural disaster 

experiences shape civic engagement 

during COVID? 

Photo: May-Ying Lam for The Texas Tribune 
The context of our research: Houston, during COVID 

Three communities identified as at high risk for COVID spread, directly impacted by prior natural disasters 

3 years after Hurricane Harvey: 

• 154,000 homes flooded 

• 100+ deaths 

• $125 billion in damages 

• Impacted communities still working to 

recover 

Study interrupted by Winter Storm Uri: 

• 130,000 homes damaged 

• 43+ deaths 

• 4.5 million TX homes and businesses lost 

power 

• 49% of Texans lost running water for 2+ 

days 
 

 

Our approach: Community-based, participatory action research 

By the community 

Co-researchers worked 

alongside university team to 

develop plan 

3 communities 

9 co-researchers 

2 languages 

With the community For the community 

Co-researchers recruited participants, Co-researchers conducted 

and facilitated virtual focus groups & preliminary analyses and developed 

interviews, between Jan & May 2021 recommendations 

128 participants 5 thematic categories 

highlight civic experiences 20 focus groups 

9 highlight challenges and 9 interviews with 

opportunities key informants 

3 highlight civic influences 

of natural disasters 
Working with Co-Researchers – Successes and Challenges 

• Technology access 

• Virtual Relationship Building 

• Building rapport – how do we build trust and better 

understand communities? 

• Used co-researchers’ knowledge of their communities 

• Technology/Coordination/Scheduling 

• Participants not having access to a computer/mobile phone 

• Created Zoom tutorial 
Perspectives of a Co-Researcher 

• Role in community 

• Co-researcher training 

• Recruitment process 

• Connection in a time of disconnect 

• Takeaways from findings 
COVID Study Findings 

• Facilitators and Barriers of Civic Engagement During COVID 

• Disaster-Related Findings 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community members’ perspectives on facilitators and barriers to civic 

engagement during COVID 

COVID Fear and Stress 

"COVID really stops, cause you don’t want to 

get sick or anybody else sick and stuff. That’s 

what shut us away from everybody." 

“I think with the pandemic, it’s putting a

strain on everything. It has affected my 

community involvement...it has impacted it so 

much and it’s stressful and I try not to let it 

stress me out.”

“Life has changed a lot. It changed our life, 

we are asking God that this ends soon so we 

can continue our lives like normal, all of us. I 

believe and wish it, we are all wishing the 

same.”

Responses to COVID Precautions 

“Not being able to come together and be as one group, physically

greeting, seeing faces, hugging people. I think I miss that the most, 

being able to greet and hug someone, someone I haven’t seen."

“Let’s use the drive-ins, the theaters. Let’s use the basketball 

courts, let’s use the schools, let’s use the first floor of parking 

garages, let’s use parking lots of grocery stores, let’s use sports 

stadiums at colleges and universities. Let’s use apartment

complexes and they have community centers, let’s use the 

churches, indoor theaters with 6 feet.”

“We are all grown and we make choices...So if you want to wear a 

mask and I don’t, of course you are not hearing what we are

enforcing, but I can’t make you do that. I can’t make you care... if 

people don’t care, you just can’t make them care.”
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community members’ perspectives on facilitators and barriers to civic

engagement during COVID 

Information Access During COVID 

“It is much easier to participate when one has access to all 

methods of communication, all social media. Spreading that 

information by all those methods like Facebook or WhatsApp 

or Zoom...to give us the opportunity to participate.”

"It has definitely been challenging for the senior citizens. Living 

with mom, she is not very technology advanced. She has not 

participated in any of those Zoom calls or anything.” 

"It has to be something written for those of us who aren’t on

the internet to look at Facebook everyday." 

"It’s like we are out of the loop all the time... We never in the 

loop...Nobody ever communicates with us on this side. So, we 

basically never really reached out to over here." 

Trustworthiness of COVID Information 

"I am so distrustful in how they disseminate the 

information about the problem, to where I'm 

really distrustful about them even having, how 

they gonna disseminate the information about 

the solutions.”

"The vaccine, it’s trash, they just completely

dropped the ball...Too many avenues for 

information, so it is kind of hard to focus on the 

information when I got 5 different channels 

telling it to me. If we can just figure out how to 

disseminate information through one hub per 

se, it just seems like it will go a lot easier." 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Community members’ perspectives on facilitators and barriers to civic

engagement during COVID 

Unmet Community Needs 

“You locked down the city. You taken the playgrounds away, you taken the clubs away, you have taken the 

restaurants away. You know you have done all this, what is the next plan to service us with all of this shot, 

since we have the shot now? ...How are you giving it to us?”

"We are over-shadowed by other communities because they are getting everything in their communities: parks 

and water distributions and vaccines and you know COVID test, and we don’t have that in our community."

“We couldn't get the sites in our community. They didn't value the fact that we were bringing to them, specific 

information about, uhh, about people not having transportation. People needed a walk up site, in addition to a 

drive up site.”

“The way the world is now, that doesn't really work for our community, because our community is a 

technology desert. Y'all talk about food deserts, we're a technology desert. We have technology within our 

homes and some of the people, but is more or less still the cellphones." 
"With the floods and all the things that come to this city" 

“Why is my community hit 

harder than this 

community or that 

community? And why 

don't I have the resources 

to help my community 

heal or grow? Why don't I 

have that as other 

communities do? ...Why 

are communities of color 

treated differently than 

other communities?”

“Why they can’t get 

together and come 

through our 

neighborhood? I mean our 

neighborhood is one of the 

worst flood 

neighborhoods... And they 

make all these promises 

the last six years and 

nothing happens...If I call 

the city, they just add it to 

the list. I mean how long is 

the list?" 

Photo: Staff Photographer Houston Chronicle 
 

"Let me say that we haven’t fully

recovered from Ike or Harvey. You still 

have people who are still suffering from 

Ike and haven’t got the services they

needed as far back as Ike. So, Harvey just 

made it worse, so not receiving the 

services and the help before the 

pandemic. The pandemic just slowed it 

that farther down because the process 

changed.... the aid has just gotten that

further behind. So, we were behind in the 

beginning before, and we that much 

farther behind now." 

Photo: May-Ying Lam for The Texas Tribune 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"The people are there anyways if there is COVID or if there is no COVID" 

"If we were to get another 

hurricane, I don’t think nothing 

catastrophic would change. 

People would still be willing to 

go out and help. I think people 

would still be willing to 

volunteer their time. People 

would still be willing to give 

what they can to those in need 

depending on their situation, 

because of how we are when 

these things and events 

occur.” 

Photo: David Phillip/AP 

“When you got somethin' like COVID which I 

don't understand as being a natural disaster, 

you reduce me not in my nature but you 

reduce me to my survival instincts, now. And 

even though I want to help you, I'm afraid to 

do so because I'm afraid that helping you 

may hurt me.” 

“It opened our eyes to how far

we had got away from each 

other because we started 

checking back on each other. 

Instead of like I say, coming 

home, running in your house, 

and shutting the door, that 

loneliness and that apart from 

each other, the ice and the 

snow and the broken pipes 

and the lights out kinda 

brought us back together to 

reality that we do need each 

other.” 
 

Community Partnership 

• Experience with the study 

• Using preliminary findings 

• Community COVID testing and vaccination

• Future funding 

Photo: Lucio Vasquez Houston Public Media 
Takeaways 

• Overall great experience 

• Challenges occurred since this was a new experiment for all 

• Obtained rich research which has the potential to impact 

the three underserved communities positively 
AmeriCorps Reflection 

Katrina French 

Disaster Services Specialist, 

Disaster Services Unit 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disaster Services Unit 

Mission 

The DSU leads the agency’s engagement across the

disaster services cycle with federal, state, local, 

nonprofit, and other partners. The DSU’s role as the

central hub for the agency’s disaster-related activities 

ensures that AmeriCorps engagement in this area is 

appropriate, consistent, and coordinated. 

Functions 

• Training and Technical Assistance 

• Coordinates the agency’s Disaster Services Strategy

• Disaster Services Operational Command and 

Coordination 
Q&A Panel Facilitator 

Emily McDonald, PhD 

Research Analyst, AmeriCorps 
 

 

 

 

 

Q & A Panel Discussion: 

• Megha Patel, PhD, Research Analyst, AmeriCorps 

• Suzanne Pritzker, PhD, University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work 

• Matthew Robbins, University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, Graduate Research Assistant 

• Joetta Stevenson, Fifth Ward Super Neighborhood #55, President 

• Denae King, PhD, Texas Southern University 

• JoAnn Burbridge, Sunnyside Community Redevelopment Organization, Board Member 

• Andrea Robles, PhD, Research and Evaluation Manager, AmeriCorps 

• Katrina French, Disaster Services Specialist, Disaster Services Unit, AmeriCorps 
 

 

Thank you for attending today’s webinar 

The recording and support materials will be provided in the next two weeks at: 

https://www.americorps.gov/webinar/double-trouble-reigniting-civic-engagementthrough-pandemics-disasters 

To inquire about the work presented in this webinar, please reach out to 

Evaluation@cns.gov