HurricaneCivic
Service Learning for
Katrina
Engagement
School Curriculum
Developed by Los Angeles County
Service Learning Coach
Matt Oppenheim
In Partnership with
AMURT: The Ananda Marga
Universal Relief Team1
. 11/24/2011
Goals:
• Investigate the ecological, social, economic,
and political issues impacting victims.
• Dialogue with a disaster relief team director
from *AMURT: The Ananda Marga Universal
Relief Team -
Organize a project that has the greatest value.
• Evaluate the experience - What have you
learned?
*Learn more about AMURT at the end of this
presentation
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Study Guide
This curriculum unit is a model of “Service
Learning”:
• A teaching and learning approach that integrates
community service with academic study.
• That enriches learning, teaches civic
responsibility, and strengthens communities, while
• engaging students in reflection upon what was
experienced, how the community was benefited,
and what was learned
Adapted from the National Commission on Service Learning Definition
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This picture shows an AMURT
house building project with victims
of the Bando Ache Tsunami.
No act of kindness, however
small, is wasted."
Aesop
This PowerPoint Presentation posses ten critical
questions for students to research and take
informed action. At the end of the presentation is a
list of study resources. There is also a Teacher’s
guide suggesting activities for each slide. Your
feedback is critical! Email: Matt Oppenheim at
oppenm@earthlink.net.
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List Ten Questions to Explore:
1. What do we already know about Katrina
and how it has effected the lives of
people and the environment of the Gulf
Coast states? Describe a day in the life
of a poor family in the disaster areas.
2. How has Katrina
affected you? Do you
have friends or
relatives that live in the
disaster area? What
have they told you
about their experience. 5
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3. What is being done now to help victims?
How effective are current services at
meeting the survival needs of victims?
4. How are (a) environmental issues, (b)
political & economic issues,(c) disaster
management and (d) ethnicity and income 6
issues impacting the victims? 11/24/2011
5. How does history help us understand what
will happen from the impacts of Katrina in the
coming years. . . The Fatal Flood of 1927
Political Impacts
“Reports on the poor situation in the refugee camps were kept out of
the media at the request of Herbert Hoover, with the promise of further
reforms for blacks after the presidential election. When he failed to
keep the promise, Moton and other influential African-Americans
helped to shift the allegiance of black Americans from the Republican
party to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democrats.”
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927
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More about the Fatal
Flood of 1927
In the spring of 1927, the
Mississippi River went on a
rampage from Cairo, Illinois to New
Orleans, killing a thousand people
and leaving a million homeless.
Efforts to contain the river pitted Blues singer: Mai
the majority black population Cramer
against aristocratic plantation Many blues artists
families. African American were inspired to
refugees were herded into camps write songs about
guarded by the National Guard. The the disaster and
describe the
guards kept African American
experience of being
sharecroppers from fleeing and in a flood.
finding work elsewhere. 8
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6. How can we support the most
effective service?
What are the best short-term and
long term solutions?
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7. Contact an AMURT Disaster Relief
Director: Ask Questions to find out more
about the situation and how to take the most
effective action
By email, contact:
jclark@amurt.net and
they will connect you with
a disaster relief team
leader at relief sites
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What Action Plan to Choose?
8. Decide on a project in consultation with
the relief organization. Make a plan,
form teams, & take action!
Define Immediate How will victims What are long-term
needs and build a secure solutions that build
effective action life? sustainable futures?
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9. Implement a project with your
classroom to raise funds or take other
means of action to educate people, offer
your services, and continue to
communicate and work with relief and
community development projects
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10.Think about what you have
learned. Have you been
effective at investigating the
disaster?
Was your service project
effective?
What did you learn about
working together?
What skills did you use in this
project? What did you learn
about yourself? 13
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What do you believe will
happen after the disaster? . .
. . Why? Think about government impacts,
economic impacts, cultural and ethnic impacts,
educational impacts, ecological impacts, and social
impacts
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
What is the best scenario . . . . the worst
scenario, and the most realistic scenario?
Build a case for your perspective. 14
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AMURT Global Network:www.amurt.net
Disaster Relief • Sustainable
Development • Community Service
AMURT is one of the few voluntary
organizations of Third World origin, -
founded in India in 1965. AMURT has a
network of teams in 85 countries that
meet development and disaster needs Mid-Wife
anywhere in the world. We play a useful training in
role in helping the poor to gain greater Burkina Faso,
control over their lives. For us,
development is human exchange: people Africa
sharing wisdom, knowledge and
experience to build a better world.
AMURT is a legal nonprofit organization
(501c3). It is registered with FEMA & the
United Nations, & cooperates with other
agencies in offering services.
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AMURTEL was formed in 1975 to respond
to issues faced by women and children in
their struggle to develop. AMURTEL raises
the standard of health and education of
women and their children. Programs assist
women to gain self-determination
www.amurtel.org.
.
The Lotus Center in Mongolia
combines an orphanage for
hundreds of children with schools
and agricultural and economic
development projects.
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Website Study Resources
• “AN UNNATURAL DISASTER: A CRITICAL RESOURCE
GUIDE FOR EDUCATORS”
http://www.nycore.org/curricula.html
From the New York Collective of Radical Education: A
comprehensive investigation into the government mis-
manageement, political motivation, disaster
mismanagement, racial nature of the relief work and the
issues of civil rights, ecological sustainability, and
media manipulation - connected to the history of the
civil rights movement and government treatment of
minorities.
• HURRICANE KATRINA FROM WIKiPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina
A comprehensive resource guide about the climatological,
governmental, civil defence, racial, historical, disaster
relief community, and ecological facts of the hurricane
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Additional Study Resources
LSU Hurricane Katrina Information Resources
http://www.lsu.edu/faculty/mccarthy/katrina.htm
Comprehensive guide to facts, resources, nonprofit and
government agencies and up to date information
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927
Comprehensive facts, resources and social dynamics about
the Great Flood of 1927
Teacher's Guide: Suggestions for Active Learning: The
Fatal Flood of 1927
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flood/sfeature/sf_levee.html
Comprehensive teacher’s guide to curriculum units on the
ecological, historical, political, economic and racial nature
of the Flood of 1927 18
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“Never doubt that a small
group of thoughtful
committed citizens can change the world
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Mead - anthropologist
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