ACR's Public and Intense Conflicts Committee

ACR Statement on Hurricane Katrina

The following statement was adopted by the Board of Directors of the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) on September 12, 2005.

The Board and staff of ACR wish to express their sincere sympathy to ACR members and their friends and family who have been affected by Hurricane Katrina. 

The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina and the conflicts surrounding it offer significant challenges and innumerable opportunities to contribute for conflict intervenors.  The tremendous loss of life and property and the conflicts over the emergency response time, the media’s and public’s framing of the disaster and its survivors, and the dimensions of race and class that permeate all of these conflicts ask much of our field. 

Natural disasters of these proportions require coordination, inter-organizational collaboration and effective communication, and the best use of governance structures and personnel to rise to the two fold task of accountability and ensuring the best response for public good.  In all instances these require the foundational skills and approaches exemplified in conflict resolution, negotiation, and collaborative community building.

At times of great calamity an important guideline of public good is the assurance of safety, security, and protection of every member of our communities.  Conflict transformation espouses a core set of values and guiding ethics that can serve to provide a platform to design expedient processes that keep this foremost in mind.

ACR members and other conflict resolvers can serve in multiple capacities and we encourage people to post on this forum their suggestions for organizations to donate time and money to, strategies for applying conflict resolution skills during this crisis, and other relevant material. 

In addition, there will opportunities for discussion, strategizing, and networking on this important issue at the upcoming annual ACR conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. September 28-October 1, 2005.  There will be:

·        A networking and information table in the exhibition hall

Please bring information to share!

·        A discussion forum

·        Two workshops addressing, in part, concerns and options for action for conflict intervenors regarding Katrina

Public and Intense Conflicts Committee of the ACR Board of Directors

ACR members, please feel free to share your thoughts in this discussion forum regarding this tremendous tragedy and its aftermath (requires ACR username and password).

Visit the Public and Intense Committee Page:

http://www.acrnet.org/about/committees/publicandintense.htm