Vehicle of Hope Faith-based Disaster Response

In August 2005, the United States experienced one of the most catastrophic and costly disasters in its history: Hurricane Katrina. Faith-based Organizations (FBOs) made a major contribution to the response and recovery efforts. Whereas the activities and skill sets of FBOs vary, their core missions are very similar: they want to provide hope. As a concept, hope has been purported to be essential for health and well-being, is viewed as multidimensional and a life force, as well as is highly individualized. This mixed methods study used interviews of the phenomenology tradition and the Herth Hope Index.