Inclusive Disaster Recovery Networks: Implications for Cross-Sectoral Collaboration in Disaster

Disaster recovery in the United States (U.S.) relies on federally coordinated programs to distribute funding and information across government, nonprofit, and community organisations. Yet coordination structures can suppress organisational learning and innovation (normative) and reproduce unequal burdens within cross-sectoral collaboration (structural), contributing to uneven recovery outcomes for communities facing compounded risks. Research exploring how cross-sectoral collaboration challenges or reproduces these barriers is needed. To address this, we examine the normative and structural implications of the North Carolina Inclusive Disaster Recovery Network (NCIDR), a cross-sectoral network formed to promote inclusive access to recovery resources. Using an online survey, we compare organisations aware of NCIDR (N = 142; 52.8% aware) and then examine whether patterns differ for community-based organisations (CBOs). Findings indicate that organisations aware of NCIDR are marginally more likely to define inclusion as providing specialised services to historically underserved communities (U = 5240.50, p = 0.051) and report higher adaptive capacity (U = 5620.50, p = 0.02). Among those aware of NCIDR, 96.7% reported some form of engagement (i.e. reading emails, attending meetings, sharing resources). Perceptions of NCIDR’s collaborative structure are positive across organisation types. However, CBOs are more likely to cite funding efficiency as a motivation for engagement (χ 2 (1, N = 92) = 8.35, p = 0.004). Analysis shows that NCIDR may provide a learning space consistent with positive deviance from institutional norms while still requiring changes to prevent structural replication of marginalisation by collaboration. We discuss implications for designing disaster recovery networks that support adaptive capacity.