Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

When Public Tragedies Happen: Community Practice Approaches In Grief, Loss & Recovery, Nancy Kropf, Barbara Jones

Nancy P. Kropf

While an expansive literature exists on individual experiences after a catastrophic event, there is less attention to how the community as a social structure experiences a significant tragedy. These ‘public tragedies’ create disruptions across multiple domains of community functioning. Using the Community Capacity model (Hart, 1999) as a framework for assessment, outcomes of a public tragedy are described. Additionally, community practice approaches are identified for the three phases that communities subsequently experience: crisis, processing of the event, and adaptation.