Social work in the Quake zone: Supporting the sustainable development of Christchurch’s eastern communities

Abstract

This paper will focus on the role for social work intervention with people and communities affected by three major earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand. Since the first and subsequent earthquakes in September 2010 and February and June 2011, non-government agencies in Christchurch and the greater Canterbury region have been key providers of immediate crisis support. Whilst this type of service provision is not new territory for the social services, the impetus of the need and long-term nature of the earthquake recovery necessitates an expansive, responsive and empowering practice approach to facilitate ongoing sustainable development in the most affected communities. In consideration of the principles of sustainable development and Amartya Sen's Capabilities Approach (Seng, 1999), this article will examine ways of working with people beyond alleviating immediate problems towards restoring personal well-being, taking agency, exercising rights, connecting with others and becoming directly involved in the rebuild of Christchurch city and neighbourhood communities. These considerations provide an argument for expanding the scope of social work by reconceptualising its ecological framework and the work of individual and social change to respond to the needs of the affected people of Christchurch.

Belonging and Transnational Refugee Settlement

“…Other authors have focused on the creation of new social relationships and supports that waned over time in other contexts such as Haiti and in post-conflict Tamil societies Guribye, 2013). These findings suggest an opportunity, particularly through community development models of engagement (Pyles, 2007;Tudor, 2013), to consolidate these newly formed social relationships and collective identities. This opportunity, however, is powerfully determined by the politics of belonging and various systems that judge particular groups to belong or not.…”

Short-Term Solutions to a Long-Term Challenge: Rethinking Disaster Recovery Planning to Reduce Vulnerabilities and Inequities

“…One key issue with the red zone buyout program was that it only focused on those with enough wealth to own a home and left out over a third of the population. Those benefiting from the buy-out program were still often stuck between insurers and the government with little opportunity to contribute to the decisions affecting their lives, and CERA's policies and procedures were not designed in a way to support this dilemma [60].…”

Belonging and Disaster Recovery: Refugee-Background Communities and the Canterbury Earthquakes

“…Immediately following the earthquakes, a shared experience of survival and the prospects of Christchurch's recovery as a wider community allowed, at least temporarily, the participants to develop a sense of ethno-belonging, and thus augmented their hope for future integration into the Christchurch/New Zealand community. Nevertheless, these sentiments appeared to be predominantly ephemeral and signposts an opportunity for social work, particularly through community devleopment models of engagement (see Pyles, 2007;Tudor, 2013), to consolidate these newly formed social relationships and collective identities. Except for immediately following the earthquakes, when all residents of Christchurch were connected through the shared experience of survival and recovery from the disaster, the study's participants did not describe a sense of ethno-belonging.…”