Vulnerable Populations

Catalog description

The Vulnerable Populations course will provide future disaster resilience leaders with a fundamental understanding of the social constructions of human vulnerability to disasters, conceptualizing populations at risk in a disaster framework and review of best practices in vulnerability reduction through capacity-building. The course offers a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary exploration of culturally sensitive strategies responsive to the needs of vulnerable populations, a comprehensive approach to engaging communities through the use of vulnerability and capacity assessment (VCA), and the social, political, economic, and cultural inequalities that represent intersecting vulnerabilities. The study of vulnerable populations will incorporate a humanistic perspective, investigating the role of cultural competence and the need for a participatory multi-stakeholder approach in community-based disaster risk reduction and sustainable development.