Sponsor
Portland State University. Social Work and Social Research Ph. D. Program
First Advisor
William "Ted" Donlan
Term of Graduation
Summer 2025
Date of Publication
7-18-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Social Work and Social Research
Department
Social Work
Language
English
Subjects
Community-based organizations, Disaster Recovery, Disaster Resilience, Latin@/e/x Communities, Organizational Cultural Brokering, Wildfire Recovery
Physical Description
1 online resource (x, 360 pages)
Abstract
As wildfires increase in frequency and severity in rural communities, disaster management agencies are seeking to collaborate with community-based organizations (CBOs) working with rural, low-income Latin@/e/x communities to build wildfire resilience. This qualitative case study examines the critical role of CBOs rooted in their local, predominately low-income Latin@/e/x communities as cultural brokers in supporting Latin@/e/x wildfire survivors following the 2020 "Mobile Home Parks" Fire in a rural county in Oregon. Drawing from 23 semi-structured interviews, three focus groups, a review of relevant documents, and participant observations, the research investigates how Latin@/e/x CBOs navigated the complex cultural landscape between wildfire survivors and traditional disaster recovery frameworks. Namely, this research aims to address the following research questions: To what extent, and how, do Latin@/e/x CBOs leverage culturally rooted knowledge within the communities they work with to create opportunities for collective healing? What challenges do Latin@/e/x CBOs face in integrating culturally rooted knowledge into disaster resilience programs for low-income, rural Latin@/e/x communities? What opportunities exist for mutual learning and collaboration between diverse, local community practices and state disaster resilience frameworks?
This case study examines how institutionalized disaster recovery systems, designed for administrative efficiency, often overlook the cultural realities of Latin@/e/x wildfire survivors. The research reveals significant challenges in wildfire recovery for Latin@/e/x communities, including linguistic barriers, resource scarcity, systemic trauma, and cultural disconnection. When disaster recovery frameworks clash with local culture, those with the least institutional power bear the greatest risk. The findings reveal how standardized approaches can unintentionally reproduce systemic vulnerabilities rather than support transformational, culturally rooted resilience. Effective cultural brokering between conventional disaster management agencies and Latin@/e/x wildfire-impacted communities requires institutional commitment to long-term leadership development, the cultivation of institutional humility, sustained relationship-building before and after disasters, meaningful policy reforms, and robust accountability mechanisms. This study proposes an expanded conceptualization of cultural brokering at an organizational level for understanding how cultural brokering can operate as a multidirectional process with transformative potential. It differentiates between two distinct approaches: one-way and multi-way cultural brokering. One-way cultural brokering refers to cultural translation in one direction, aiming to focus on improving access to existing conventional disaster recovery systems and helping Latin@/e/x wildfire survivors navigate institutional processes through linguistic interventions, case management, and culturally rooted outreach strategies. Multi-way cultural brokering refers to a circular cultural translation direction where communities are able to create new disaster recovery paths rooted in local wildfire survivor culture in partnership with conventional disaster recovery allies. This approach improves safety and roots in core community challenges to recovery because it offers a transformative approach that centers community priorities, lived experiences, and cultural resources. By positioning local cultural knowledge as essential rather than supplemental to conventional approaches to wildfire recovery programming, these organizations have developed innovative pathways for grief, healing, and transformational resilience for their wildfire survivor service recipients. This approach reimagines disaster recovery and resilience programming by recognizing community members as the most crucial recovery resource, establishing culturally rooted and trauma informed healing processes, and developing leadership and political engagement among survivors.
The findings have profound implications for disaster management, highlighting the critical importance of cultural knowledge, community expertise, and relationship-centered collaboration. This study demonstrates that CBOs can leverage their cultural knowledge in ways that improve the services they provide. However, to be able to leverage that cultural knowledge, they and the community members they work with should be redesignated as decision-makers rather than solely service providers or advocates. By positioning Latin@/e/x community members as the primary architects of their own recovery, this approach offers an organizational model for creating more equitable, responsive, and transformative disaster resilience strategies. This shift requires shared governance models where CBOs, government agencies, and funders collectively determine recovery priorities and program implementation. These shared governance models should also reflect a revision of flexible wildfire disaster recovery assessment tools that can better reflect diverse living arrangements, informal housing networks, and cultural understandings of recovery CBOs operate within.
Rights
© 2025 Christine Atalie da Rosa
In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44082
Recommended Citation
da Rosa, Christine Atalie, "Beyond Translating Cultures: Organizational Cultural Brokering and Latin@/e/x Community Resilience after the "Mobile Home Parks" Fire" (2025). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 6919.