Responding to Hard Times in the “Big Easy”: Meeting the Vocational Needs of Low-Income African American New Orleans Residents

The already limited vocational prospects of low-income African Americans in New Orleans were further devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill added to the devastation, highlighting the continued vulnerability of New Orleanians seeking employment. As a result, opportunities persist for vocational practitioners to lend their expertise. In this article, the post-Katrina vocational situation of low-income African American residents is conceptualized using Bronfenbrenner's (1977) ecological model. Furthermore, needed interventions are described at each level of this ecological model. Once coined the "Big Easy" because of the ease with which musicians could find work in the city (Ryssdal & Herrn, 2005), now New Orleans has not been able to provide employment to the musicians who helped to sustain this region's culture, history, and economy. After the 2005 devastation of Hurricane Katrina (hereinafter referred to as Katrina), the city \ musicians have spread out as far as Portland, Oregon, and Hoboken, New Jersey, to restart careers and lives (Goddard, 2006). This need to recover livelihoods post-Katrina naturally reflects the destinies not only of musicians but also of New Orleans residents in many occupations. Recognition of this need highlights a point of intervention for vocational practitioners (e.g., career counselors, career facilitators, vocational psychologists). The broader term vocational practitioner is used to reflect the fact that the term career may not be relevant to all who are seeking employment and that various practitioners knowledgeable about the world of work may be helpful to those in New Orleans. The purpose of the succeeding discussion is to educate vocational practitioners about the post-Katrina vocational situation of low-income African American residents and describe possible interventions using Bronfenbrenner's (1977) ecological model. As post-Katrina survivors work to meet their basic needs and cope with trauma, returning to work is only one of the many struggles to consider, and perhaps it will not be the first. However, the importance of attending to work in the face of trauma is well documented. Satisfaction with one's vocational situation is related negatively to experiences with trauma (Anke & Fugl-Meyer, 2003), such as Hurricane Katrina. Work might assist in recovery from trauma because of the many benefits of work, including provision of basic necessities, predictability, social support, and a sense of identity (Blustein, 2006). Perhaps in recognition of these benefits, many models of trauma recovery often include reconnection to supports such as workforce reentry (Herman, 1992). Despite these benefits of work, the foregoing discussion should be understood as a promotion of interventions that are a necessary but not sufficient aspect of rebuilding in the Gulf Coast region. In fact, it is likely that the goals of assisting New Orleans residents to secure employment will be successfully met only when multifaceted intervention efforts are provided by a multidisciplinary team attending to many levels of need. As part of a multidisciplinary team working to rebuild this region, vocational practitioners bring special skills because they are able to consider the unique ways that trauma reactions might influence one's readiness to return to work as well as the potential psychological benefits of work. Furthermore, practitioners can build on empirically tested interventions shown to enhance the vocational development of people in at-risk environments (Blustein, 2006; O'Brien, Dukstein, & Jackson, 1999). Finally, there exists a historical connection between vocational practitioners* attention to clients' vocations and social justice (Blustein, 2006; O'Brien, 2001), as is called for in the situation in New Orleans. In practice, this means that the roles of vocational practitioners can be diverse enough to include encouraging more representative research, assisting clients to navigate organizational barriers, and political advocacy (Fassinger & Gallor, 2005; Fouad, 2005). …