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This project explores how children and youth below the age of 18 sought to help others during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used the data included in this publication to answer research questions such as “How did children in the U.S. help others and themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic?” and “What issues were children in the U.S. concerned about during the COVID-19 pandemic?” This project includes a data dictionary and a dataset that summarizes a unique collection of 115 news articles focused on the helping behaviors and key concerns of children in the U.S. during the pandemic. The articles appeared in print or online news sources between 2020 and 2023. We searched for media coverage using terms such as “kids,” “help,” “volunteer,” “actions,” “pandemic,” and “COVID-19.” Over time we refined and added additional search terms based on emergent themes such as “raising money,” “making personal protective equipment,” and “helping with homework.” We limited our searches by language (English), geography (the United States), and time (an article had to be published between January 2020, when the virus was first detected in the U.S., and November 2023, when we ended our searches for the dataset). When we identified news coverage that fit our definition of helping behaviors, we saved a PDF of the article (all PDFs are available upon request from the PI). Information included in this dataset is summarized as follows: (1) article citation and link; (2) article synopsis; (3) information on the child or children featured in the article; (4) summary of key helping behaviors or other actions taken by children during the pandemic; (5) information on who children were trying to help or what type of change they were attempting to influence; (6) quotes from children or youth; and (7) notations of photos, videos, or links to additional resources. The envisioned audience for this data includes social science and public health researchers, journalists, and policy makers with an interest in children and the pandemic, specifically, or disasters and altruism, more broadly. 

This mission includes research materials developed by the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder in accordance with Colorado House Bill 23-1237 (see related work). For this mission, we collected information using a statewide survey of emergency response personnel (222 responses) and meetings with key partners (37 people). Included here are the survey recruitment materials, survey instrument, raw survey data. We also include a partner meeting question bank that we used to conduct partner meetings. Lastly, we include two annotated bibliographies as documents. We anticipate these materials may be useful in developing future surveys on alerts and warnings and developing interview questions for emergency alert officials. This data could also be reproduced to compare alert and warning services across other states.Included here are data and research materials that supported the investigation of emergency alert and warning systems in Colorado developed in accordance with Colorado House Bill 23-1237 (https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb23-1237). The aim of the project was to identify how to improve emergency alerting for people who speak non-English languages and have auditory or visual disabilities. First, we include two annotated bibliographies with over 60 publications on topics related to alert and warning systems, disability access, and language access published in the last 20 years. Second, we include a dataset of survey questions, along with the 222 responses from emergency response personnel in Colorado involved in alert and warning activities. Lastly, we also include a data dictionary, partner meeting questionnaire, recruitment materials, and a sample letter of support from a key partner. These data and materials could be used to review relevant publications on this topic and to aid in developing future surveys focused on alert and warning systems. For final report and additional project context, see project webpage: https://hazards.colorado.edu/research-projects/colorado-inclusive-language-and-access-in-emergency-alerts. 

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the mentoring program of the Minority Scholars from Under-Represented Groups in Engineering and the Social Sciences (SURGE) Capacity in Disasters initiative, a pilot program that aimed to address the challenges that graduate students of color face in academic programs. SURGE promotes mentoring and professional development through its mentoring program for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students. Methods: Data collection involved distributing online surveys designed in Qualtrics to mentors and mentees five months after the SURGE program’s initiation. Separate surveys were created for student mentees and faculty mentors in order to collect feedback about the mentoring program. Mentees and mentors were also asked to rate their satisfaction with the specific individuals in their mentoring network so that the evaluation team could identify issues that arose across participants. Results: We found that students had several motivations for and expectations from SURGE. A majority of the students found the SURGE mentoring program to have been at least somewhat valuable in helping them achieve these expectations. Nonetheless, students did identify a few challenges, namely lack of swift responsiveness from some mentors, not enough guidance on navigating the mentor-mentee relationship, and little to no in-person interaction. While half of the students mentioned that some individuals within their mentoring team were hard to reach, a majority remained satisfied with the overall responsiveness of their mentors. This suggests that the many-to-many mentoring model helped to ensure none were entirely dissatisfied on this measure. Conclusions: These findings support previous research and show promise for mentoring as an effective intervention to the challenges that underrepresented students face in their academic programs and for their retention and representation, particularly in hazards and disaster-related fields. 

This dataset includes information regarding 55 State Hazard Mitigation Plans (SHMPs) for all 50 U.S. states and the 5 inhabited U.S. territories. Washington DC’s SHMP is not publicly available and can only be accessed through signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement. As such, it is not included in our dataset. These plans were approved by FEMA between 2016-2021. This data publication includes: (1) the State Hazard Mitigation Plan dataset; (2) a data dictionary with description of each variable output; and (3) variable definitions for the population groups included in State Hazard Mitigation Plans. The dataset was generated through reviewing publicly available plans and coding for socially vulnerable populations. This dataset allows for quantitative analysis of the inclusion (or exclusion) of vulnerable populations in SHMPs. The envisioned audience for this data and information includes government officials, researchers, and others who are interested in understanding patterns in the inclusion or exclusion of socially vulnerable populations in SHMPs.