Spotlight: Humanitarian Communications

Last semester, Erin Banco MIA ’15 took Humanitarian Communications, a class taught by lecturer Jesse Hardman in the Human Rights and Humanitarian Policy concentration and International Media, Advocacy, and Communications specialization. She filed this dispatch.

SIPA’s class in Humanitarian Communications teaches students about the media’s role in increasing community awareness in humanitarian situations across the world. Students learn how to use the media to spread crucial information in a disaster zone, such as a city torn apart by a hurricane or a village knocked down from war.

Participating students’ backgrounds ranged from education to aid work to journalism, but each wanted to pursue work that would impact local communities. The class provided an unusual opportunity to do so through work in the field: While many students find little time to explore New York City beyond Morningside Heights, Jesse Hardman’s class forced students to get out and learn about some of the issues impacting the city.

One group of students worked in the Rockaways area of Queens. The Rockaways are both geographically and socially isolated from the city center in Manhattan, and the New York City Housing Authority has used the area as a site for low-income housing since the 1940s. By 1975, the Ocean Bay complex was one of the least dense but poorest areas in the city. The number of poor grew further as the economic downturn of the 1970s continued, and by 1990 a third of the Rockaway residents were on public assistance.  

Students analyzed how to improve communication in the Ocean Bay Apartments public housing complex, which is located near the end of the Rockaway peninsula. They partnered with the Ocean Bay Community Development Corporation to identify ways the organization could better reach residents of the community with vital information such as how to attain a GED, schedule a free health clinic appointment, receive food assistance, and develop skills needed for employment.  

A second group of students partnered with Palante Harlem, an organization that fights landlord abuse and tenant exploitation. Palante Harlem uses a grassroots organization model to hold negligent landlords accountable for critical safety violations and ensure that buildings in its West Harlem neighborhood are safe and habitable. Students worked with the director of the organization to find ways to improve their outreach in the community.

Both projects began with two weeks of demographic research, after which students crafted needs- based assessments, which they administered by knocking on doors and approaching residents in public areas. The assessment process helped the student groups to develop relationships and build trust with community members. Each week for the rest of the semester, students conducted interviews and followed up with their partner organizations about the progress of the project.

Students also recounted in class throughout the semester their experiences in the field. The workshop structure of each class allowed students to discuss ways to improve surveying and information gathering. Students helped each other devise plans for drafting final reports that would help their organizations and ultimately help residents in each community.

At the end of the semester, students presented comprehensive reports for their partner organizations’ use. Each report provided detailed analysis from the need-based assessments and offered recommendations for how each organization could improve its communication efforts with community members.

Overall, the class gave students real experience in conducting community assessments and writing reports that would potentially impact residents in a profound way — practical skills that can help students looking to work in humanitarian fields after graduating.  

— Erin Banco MPA ’15