Meeting the Ongoing, Urgent, Unmet Needs of Uvalde Residents After the Robb Elementary School Shooting

Abstract

“Meeting the Ongoing, Urgent, Unmet Needs of Uvalde Residents After the Robb Elementary School Shooting," responds to the National Institute of Justice invitation to address the needs of the victims of mass shootings with knowledge and tool development. The project builds directly upon ongoing research co-led with community members in Uvalde, Texas, a rural border community that experienced a mass school shooting on May 24, 2022. Uvalde is an under resourced city with limited infrastructure, now coping with the consequences of collective trauma. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, 19% or almost 60 million people lived in a rural community. Like Uvalde, rural communities have limited resources, unique dynamics, and a smaller degree of separation among residents. This trauma-informed and iterative action research seeks to better understand and address the critical, persistent needs of the Uvalde victims (survivors, families, and community); offer objective, independent, and evidence-based knowledge; and develop practical tools to address the needs of victims of mass shootings. The University of Texas at Austin researchers aim to support evidence-driven healing and social well-being while highlighting Uvalde as a national leader in developing an exemplary crisis model for rural communities. This work will advance science, policy, and direct practices on culturally grounded and place-based needs before and after mass shootings. While any community would struggle to recover from a tragic school shooting, the magnitude of unmet needs in Uvalde is especially critical due to an illfitting response designed with limited community engagement and without context —neither social nor cultural— or regional demographics in mind. This project will implement and evaluate five program goals, eight corresponding objectives, and 25 deliverables. Over 24 months, in solid partnership with Uvalde community stakeholders, researchers will: (1) complete Phase III of the Community Needs Assessment through interviews with directly impacted adults; (2) understand 2 further and redefine who is “impacted” by mass shootings through a review of literature and Community Needs Assessment data; (3) systematically evaluate a bilingual online Resource Guide for cultural relevance, utility, and reach; and (4) evaluate best practice model for a Navigator who will support urgent community needs. This project will produce: a Playbook to capture lessons learned for elected officials and community leaders on coordinating a culturally grounded, traumainformed response to mass shootings in a rural community; two community Resource Guides, one for the community in general and one for families directly impacted; and scholarly publications and conference presentations. CA/NCF