Essential Service Providers Research Articles

Platform power and regulatory capture in digital governance

Abstract Digital governance is a public concern, yet under private control. After numerous scandals, all stakeholders in the European Union (EU) agreed to establish a “novel constitution for the internet” that would effectively constrain the power of large platforms. Yet the Digital Services Act (DSA) ultimately legitimized and institutionalized their position as the gatekeepers of the internet. Why? We argue that platforms prevailed thanks to their ability as intermediaries to quietly shape the available policy options. Our “platform power mechanism” combines institutional and ideational sources of business power to show how big tech drew on its entrenched position as an indispensable provider of essential services and promulgated the idea of itself as a responsible and neutral intermediary. We follow the unfolding of platform power through a process-tracing analysis of Google and Meta’s activities with respect to DSA legislation from its announcement (2020) to its adoption (2022). Besides contributing a reconceptualization of the DSA as a regulatory capture, we integrate the notion of platform power into a “regulator–intermediary–target” model and demonstrate how gatekeepers have exploited information asymmetries to share “the public space.” Our analysis thus supplements established approaches that have derived regulators’ deference to platforms from the tacit allegiance of consumers.

The sustainable development goals: How does their implementation affect the financial sustainability of the largest Spanish municipalities

AbstractThe Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) present a universal challenge to which all society must be committed. Local governments play a fundamental role as they are closest to citizens, with first‐hand knowledge of their needs and as providers of essential services. Municipal governments are involved in many aspects of SDG implementation. Thus, these governments should work towards their implementation, bearing in mind that involvement in these issues may affect municipal finances. This paper analyses the impact of SDG implementation by local governments on financial sustainability. Our results show that municipalities with better SDG compliance have shorter supplier payment periods and smaller surpluses (or higher deficits). However, better implementation does not affect gross savings or municipal debt per capita.

Valuing Resilience Benefits of Microgrids for an Interconnected Island Distribution System

Extreme climate-driven events such as hurricanes, floods, and wildfires are becoming more intense in areas exposed to these threats, requiring approaches to improve the resilience of the electrical infrastructure serving these communities. Long-duration outages caused by such high impact events propagate to economic, health, and social consequences for communities. As essential service providers, electric utilities are mandated to provide safe, economical and reliable electricity to their customers. The public is becoming less tolerant to these more frequent disruptions, especially in view of technological advances that are intended to improve power quality, reliability and resilience. One promising solution is state-of-the-art microgrids and the advanced controls employed therein. This paper presents and demonstrates an approach to technoeconomic analysis that can be used to value the avoided economic consequences of grid resilience investments, as applied to the islands of Vieques and Culebra in Puerto Rico. This valuation methodology can support policies to incorporate resilience value into any investment decision-making process, especially those which serve the public interest.

Using illustrated system analysis for qualitative risk assessment of emptying of pit latrines

Pit latrines as the primary means of sanitation for billions of people. Fecal sludge must be removed regularly when pit latrines fill up, and the workers who empty these latrines are essential service providers. Pit latrine emptying services and approaches are highly variable, ranging from highly trained teams using vacuum trucks with a suite of personal protective equipment to individuals with no protection using simple manual tools like buckets and shovels. While national governments and nonprofits endeavor to make pit latrine emptying safer, the people making day-to-day decisions such as local pit emptying associations, sanitation businesses, utilities, and local governments have limited resources to evaluate how different emptying practices vary in terms of risk. In this paper we describe the development of an open-source Illustrated System Analysis tool for the fecal sludge management community. This tool can be used in conjunction with a simple risk assessment matrix to help decision makers describe, compare, and prioritize risks for mitigation. We demonstrate this process by outlining how a pit emptying team can compare mechanical and manual emptying with respect to ingestion of fecal material and inhalation of fecal bioaerosols. Illustrated System Analysis can be a tool to analyze fecal sludge management systems, and the associated challenges and opportunities so that they could be understood and referenced by the wider public and used to spark innovation. We provide a library of graphics freely under creative commons.

LIS and Social Work: From Current Issues to a Collaborative Future

As Melanie Huggins, past President of the U.S. Public Library Association, stated, “I cannot think of a profession more aligned with public librarianship than social work” (Blassingame, 2021, n.p.), a sentiment reflected in many recent professional and scholarly publications. Given the similarities and shared values of Social Work (SW) and LIS, there is much support to “the rationale for adopting theoretical, practical, and pedagogical approaches” from SW in LIS (Dali, 2018, p. 84), and for professional blending more generally. Benefits associated with this alignment make LIS professionals better equipped to engage communities in an impactful way; conversely, they prepare social workers for understanding the roles of libraries in community life, information literacy, and the ethical use of technology.
 To facilitate this professional cross-pollination, a concerted effort needs to continue in both higher education and professional practice. The proposed panel discussion and accompanying interactive engagements will build on interdisciplinary narratives from practitioners, researchers, and educators in both fields: social work and LIS. The panel will delve into several current salient issues and propose a way into a collaborative future. The panelists will share their experience working, researching, and teaching at the intersection of SW and LIS while also engaging the audience through a series of interactive activities in small groups. These will be concluded with a general discussion. Panelists will take the lead reflecting on different aspects of the SW/LIS collaboration, as follows:
 
 Training models and professional boundaries: Lydia Ogden will discuss a model that includes training for library workers and onsite social workers, including an exploration of such issues as role definition; gray areas between the practice of librarians trained in crisis intervention and that of social workers; and the politics of negotiating interprofessional boundaries.
 Synergies and struggles: Charles Senteio will present examples of successful partnerships and opportunities to improve collaboration between social workers and librarians. He will share synergies in his work (e.g., placing social work students in public libraries) and discuss the areas that require further development (e.g., managing disparate priorities, cultural chasms, sustainability of collaborations, and seeking grants collaboratively).
 Librarians as essential workers: Rachel Williams will speak about the critical need to support librarians as essential service providers; the logistics of partnering with SW; and the issues of scarce funding, limited-term partnerships, and resulting disservice to both staff and patrons. She will examine a path to a sustainable collaborative future for this kind of work if one is viewed as essential for public libraries.
 Practical and philosophical aspects of collaboration: Noah Lenstra will share his current work with the SW Program at the University of North Carolina Greensboro to coordinate the placement of SW students at local libraries and his research on the expansion of SW-library partnerships, in collaboration with the South Carolina Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare.
 Beyond public libraries: Until now, the focus of SW/LIS collaboration has been on public libraries, partnerships, and populations in crisis. Switching gears, Keren Dali will speak about the potential contribution of SW to the education and professional practice of academic librarians, including advocacy efforts on campus, DEIA engagements, wellness and the “whole person” philosophy, organizational efficiency, and teaching information literacy.
 
 Panel structure:
 
 Panelists’ introductions; brief overviews of the chosen topics: 30 min
 Small group interactive engagements: 40 min
 General discussion on charting a collaborative future: 20 min
 
 All panelists have worked on the intersection of LIS and SW and bring unique perspectives and insight into the topic.

KENYAN SACCO SOCIETIES IN LIQUIDITY CRUNCH; EVIDENCE FROM CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC SHOCK

<p>The coronavirus pandemic shock has attenuated economic activity decline in various sectors of the economy across the globe. Financial service providers such as; banks, insurance firms and Sacco societies among others have been impacted by the pandemic shock as livelihoods of the people have been disrupted by the first spreading virus leading to job losses as well as weak demand and supply forces in the market. The unique model of Sacco societies’ business puts them in an even more complex situation which threatens their going concern concept. The uniqueness of the Sacco societies is that they depend on their members’ cumulated savings deposits and shares for financing rather than external borrowings from other financial institutions to conduct their business. Therefore, the study investigated the impact of the coronavirus pandemic shock on the liquidity of Sacco societies in Kenya and specifically, the study examined the covid-19 pandemic shock causal factors, institutional organizations` gaps, exclusion of Sacco societies by the national government in its mitigation measures against covid-19 pandemic shock as well as determining the response strategic interventions by the Sacco societies to stay afloat. The study found out that the majority of the Sacco societies are facing liquidity challenges more especially community, farmer and private-based Sacco societies. The loan demand has declined with long-term loans significantly impacted on by the pandemic shock. In addition, loan default has increased and non-remittance of Sacco deductions as well as withdrawal notices have also spiked up in some Sacco societies. The study discovered that the government has categorically excluded Sacco societies in its mitigation strategies to protect businesses across different sectors and in particular exclusion of Sacco societies from the credit guarantee scheme and non-classification of Sacco societies as essential service providers were cited as some of the evidence towards the exclusion concern. Besides, the Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 2020 and Finance Bill, 2020 had very little if any touching on the plight of the Sacco societies in the wake of covid-19 pandemic shock. The response strategies instituted by Sacco societies are restructuring of loans, loan rationing, developing of new Sacco packages and recapitalization of returns as well as restricted external borrowings. An exploratory study covering four months from March to June 2020 was conducted among 120 Sacco societies from 11 counties across the country with interview schedules guiding the collection of primary data via telephone calls to the Chief Executive Officers of the targeted Sacco societies. Secondary data was obtained through document analysis of the financial reports of those societies. Judgmental techniques were employed in picking on the Sacco societies which constituted a sample size of 120 Sacco societies although only 75 responded. Data was analysed descriptively with the study findings being presented by the use of tables, graphs and pie charts. The paper recommends that the vulnerability of the Sacco societies in the wake of covid-19 pandemic shock requires immediate external interventions such as the credit guarantee schemes to cushion Sacco societies from the risk of loan default and at the same time improve their liquidity position. The perennial non-remittance of Sacco deductions by institutional organizations needs to be addressed urgently by developing new regulations to deter government organizations and private employers from unnecessarily holding members’ savings and other dues. The community, private and farmer-based Sacco societies seemed to be adversely affected by the covid-19 pandemic shock compared to the teacher and government clusters of Sacco societies. This may be due to the differential livelihoods sectoral impact of covid-19 and the weak financial framework of those Sacco societies to withstand any shock hence consolidation of Sacco societies should be seriously discussed to form entities which are strong enough to withstand shocks.</p><p>JEL: G21; G22; G32</p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0537/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Talking about health: Community ambassadors as a health promotion strategy to increase breast and bowel cancer screening in regional Australia.

In Australia, cancer is the leading contributor to disease burden, with breast and bowel cancer among the most commonly diagnosed cancers. Despite the presence of community-wide health promotion activities and screening programs, people living in regional and rural locations experience a number of factors that reduce breast and bowel cancer survival outcomes. This study investigates the ways that high-risk community members in a regional area of Australia interact with health messaging about breast and bowel cancer screening. A qualitative research method was used to conduct 31 in-depth one-on-one interviews with community members, leaders and essential service providers. A thematic approach was used to analyse data. Findings provided insight to the ways that health is spoken about within the community, what prompts discussion of health, trustworthy sources of health information and the significance of peer-to-peer communication. Existing community communication lines can be used to assist in delivering public health messages among high-risk and vulnerable population groups. Utilising community ambassadors is identified as a health promotion method for hard-to-reach populations. SO WHAT?: Conversations about health and screening amongst community members, and led by community members, play a key role in shaping engagement with cancer screening programs and represent an important site for health promotion activities. These findings have implications for future public health initiatives amongst high-risk groups in regional locations.

Caring for people experiencing homelessness in times of crisis: Realities of essential service providers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Copenhagen, Denmark

ObjectivesThe COVID-19 pandemic shed light on rooted social inequalities and on housing as a crucial social determinant of health. Little is known on current practices and new opportunities to support people experiencing homelessness in a situation of a global health crisis. This study explores frontline workers’ experiences of providing essential services to people experiencing homelessness in Copenhagen, Denmark, during the first COVID-19 lockdown, and highlights best practices of care in future crises. MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted in August–September 2020 with nine service providers working in six organizations offering essential services to people experiencing homelessness during the spring 2020 lockdown in Copenhagen. The data analysis, following inductive coding, drew upon the concept of disaster resilience. ResultsSeveral initiatives were undertaken by the municipality and local organizations to ensure the continuation and adaptation of essential services to people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 crisis. These included collaborations with and financial support from businesses, the municipality, and other service providers; a mobile test unit, temporary shelters, and isolation sites; and an increased availability of opioid substitution treatment. Several improvements are to be made, particularly regarding sustainability and long-term benefits of the initiatives, facility-level risk preparedness, universal access to essential services for undocumented migrants, as well as collaboration between service providers. ConclusionsThe lockdown offered the opportunity to experiment with innovative ways of working, of which many had a protective effect on people experiencing homelessness. This knowledge can be used to improve services and reduce the long-term vulnerability of people experiencing homelessness.

Challenges associated with household solid waste management (SWM) during COVID-19 lockdown period: a case of ward 12 Gweru City, Zimbabwe.

The research assessed the challenges associated with household solid waste management during COVID-19 lockdown period. A mixed method approach was used triangulating both quantitative and qualitative methods. Ten-percent sample size of 1690 households (target population) participated in the research. Stratified random and purposive sampling methods were used to select the participants. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 16 and content analysis were used to analyze the data. Chi-square test was used to test whether education level determines the disposal strategy used during the COVID-19 lockdown period. Research findings demonstrates that compulsive use of personal protection equipment such as masks, spending more time at home, bulk buying, and storage of food has skewed the trend of waste generation resulting in the increase in quantity of waste produced daily. COVID-19 lockdown period resulted in reduced waste collection since waste refuse collectors were not operating during lockdown period leading to illegal dumping and burning of waste. On average amount of waste produced weekly per household level was 73 kg (organic waste 35.2 kg, toxic waste 10 kg, and recyclable waste 26.8 kg). A chi-square p value of 0.35 was obtained, showing that there is a relationship between waste disposal strategy used during COVID-19 lockdown period and level of education of the respondents. The research concludes that COVID-19 has greatly affected waste management strategies from generation, collection, transportation, and disposal. It is recommended that the responsible authorities must prioritize collection of waste during the lockdown period as well as ensuring that waste recyclers and collectors are among the essential service providers during the pandemic.

Essential services, public education workers, and the right to strike

Essential services are commonly defined as those services whose interruption might inflict substantial harm on the population at large. Police, firefighters, and emergency medical professionals are paradigmatic examples of essential service providers. In recent years, some governments have resolved that formal primary education should be added to this list of essential services. The immediate practical implication of designating education as an essential service is that workers tasked with providing this service will face new limitations or even outright prohibitions on their freedom to strike. This paper analyzes the harm-based justification for declaring formal primary public education an essential service—that is, to consider if education is one service whose interruption might inflict substantial harm on the population at large. I argue that there is no compelling case to be made for changing the status of primary education from non-essential to essential and discuss why teachers' right to strike should be protected. On the one hand, it is unclear to what extent educators’ participation in strikes can produce a type of harm that justifies limiting their right to strike. On the other hand, restricting that right has costs that must be weighed in any plausible harm-based account.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Biomass Supply Chains: The Case of the Canadian Wood Pellet Industry

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global economic activity in all sectors, including forest industries. Changes in demand for forest products in North America over the course of the pandemic have affected both primary processors and downstream industries reliant on residues, including wood pellet producers. Wood pellets have become an internationally traded good, mostly as a substitute for coal in electricity generation, with a significant proportion of the global supply coming from Canadian producers. To determine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Canadian wood pellet industry, economic and market data were evaluated, in parallel with a survey of Canadian manufacturers on their experiences during the first three waves of the pandemic (March 2020 to September 2021). Overall, the impact of the pandemic on the Canadian wood pellet industry was relatively small, as prices, exports, and production remained stable. Survey respondents noted some negative impacts, mostly in the first months of the pandemic, but the quick recovery of lumber production helped to reduce the impact on wood pellet producers and ensured a stable feedstock supply. The pandemic did exacerbate certain pre-existing issues, such as access to transportation services and labour availability, which were still a concern for the industry at the end of the third wave in Canada. These results suggest that the Canadian wood pellet industry was resilient to disruptions caused by the pandemic and was able to manage the negative effects it faced. This is likely because of the integrated nature of the forest sector, the industry’s reliance on long-term supply contracts, and feedstock flexibility, in addition to producers and end-users both being providers of essential services.

Urban Informal Food Traders: A Rapid Qualitative Study of COVID-19 Lockdown Measures in South Africa

Globally, the adoption of COVID-19 containment measures, such as lockdowns, have been used to curb the rapid spread of the pandemic. However, these action regulations have caused substantial challenges to livelihoods. We explored the perceptions and experiences of COVID-19 implications for urban informal food traders in South Africa during the initial lockdown period that lasted five weeks. A rapid qualitative study was conducted during October–November 2020. Twelve key informants (seven men and five women) categorized into informal traders and food system expert groups were interviewed. Data were analyzed thematically using MAXQDA software. Participants perceived informal trading as a main source of livelihood for many individuals. Negative lockdown impacts described included forced business closure, increased food costs and reduced demand. The consensus among participants was that the government’s lack of formal recognition for informal food traders pre-COVID-19 contributed to challenges they faced during the pandemic, as evidenced by their exclusion as “essential service providers’’ at the start of lockdown. Policies that fail to recognize and consider informal food traders during ‘normal’ times lead to widened social inequality gaps among already vulnerable groups during natural disasters and disease outbreaks. In the case of COVID-19 in South Africa, this caused severe hunger, food insecurity and income loss.

Stepping in and up to meet community needs: How community-based college access and success programs responded to COVID-19.

The current study uplifts the efforts of community‐based college access and success programs (CAS) to support the college preparation, matriculation, and persistence of underserved students during COVID‐19. Fifty‐eight CAS across the United States completed an online survey that gathered information about organizational demographics, COVID‐19 challenges, responses to challenges, and communication with constituents and funding needs during COVID‐19. Results suggested CAS faced multiple challenges due to COVID‐19 that affected the organization, staff, and constituents. Results also revealed organizations of varying sizes, locations, and demographics responded to challenges by revising existing programming for students, creating new programming for students and caretakers, and updating staff policies to meet ongoing and emergent needs despite limited resources. CAS are essential service providers for students who are under‐ and mis‐served in formal education systems. Recommendations are provided for how such organizations can be invested in and better prepared for future disruptions.

Computational fluid dynamics simulation of SARS-CoV-2 aerosol dispersion inside a grocery store

Grocery stores provide essential services to communities all over the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated better understanding of the transport and dynamics of aerosolized viruses, particularly for the assessment of infection transmission risk within grocery stores and for other providers of essential services. In this study, a 3D computational fluid dynamics model was developed for a medium-sized grocery store in the United States using Ansys Fluent software. Different cases were simulated of a single infected person releasing viral aerosols with and without wearing a face mask. Results showed characteristic airflow and temperature distribution patterns inside the store that can drive the indoor dispersal of viral aerosols. Unsteady spatial distribution of mean age of air was used as a metric to indirectly quantify areas of higher risk of infection. Several factors affected the localization of suspended viral aerosols. Major recirculation patterns in certain locations of the store caused by persistent eddies were primarily attributed to increased mean age of air. The maximum mean age of air in the grocery store was found to be less than 30 min. Simulation results indicate that, without wearing a face mask, the aerosol particles released from a coughing infected person can be spread throughout nearly one-quarter of the grocery store in less than 6 min. The source-control strategy with a face mask showed significant reduction of viral aerosols being dispersed indoors.

Preparedness for managing pandemic using distributed mobile brokers – Using COVID 19 use case

The human community has experienced the worst disaster during this pandemic spread of COVID-19. Getting essential services viz., medical, food, water, and oxygen support have been challenging during the pandemic. People suffer inadequate essential services during these lockdowns and quarantines. This paper proposes a distributed mobile broker service using the MQTT protocol for managing and accessing essential services during a pandemic. The proposed method splits the city into areas. The essential service providers register their services with the publishers and the essential service seekers seek their services from the publishers using mobile brokers. The mobile broker is also equipped with data aware trajectory planning technique that considers collecting data from available nodes with less delay. The proposed technique has been tested under two scenarios viz., mobile brokers, fixed subscribers, and mobile brokers, mobile subscribers. The performance analysis has been carried out in terms of delay and packet delivery ratio with fixed broker conditions.

"It's Pure Chaos Every Day": COVID-19 and the work of Canadian federal institutional parole officers.

As the Canadian federal correctional system grappled with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, institutional parole officers, who play a central role in prisoners’ case management team, remained essential service providers. Working in uncertain circumstances, these correctional workers navigated new and rapidly changing protocols and risks, while attempting to continue to provide support to those on their caseloads. Based on semi-structured interviews with 96 institutional parole officers, conducted after Canada’s “first wave” of COVID-19 infections, we analyze three ways in which their work was impacted by the pandemic: shifting workloads, routines, and responsibilities; increased workloads due to decarceration (i.e., efforts to reduce the number of incarcerated individuals); and the navigation of new forms of risk and uncertainty. This study advances the understanding of stress and risk in probation and parole work and presents recommendations to ameliorate the occupational stresses experienced by correctional workers during and beyond COVID-19.

SME Resilience to Covid-19

The theory of dynamic resource orchestration explains the differentiated response of homogeneous ecosystem organizations to systemic disruptive shocks. The Covid-19 precautionary measures in Kenya have exempted some essential service providers and government agencies, resulting in a differentiated Covid-19 impact across the national SMEs landscape. This article adopted an extractive thematic analysis technique to draw insights from in-depth interviews and discussions with owners and managers of 6 broad-range SMEs considered non-essential services providers excluded from the Covid-19 cessation of movement waiver. The article advanced insights on SMEs' resilience through dynamic resource orchestration capability. It sought to establish whether the possession and orchestration of dynamic resources capabilities differentiated highly resilient SMEs from non-resilient ones. The article identified business diversification, slack finance, intra-stakeholder collaboration, self-reinvention, positive psychology, technology leverage, and cost management as precursory resilience agents within Kenyan SMEs. Research gaps were identified, and recommendations for future research were proposed.

Macro- and meso-level contextual influences on health care inequities among American Indian elders

BackgroundAmerican Indian elders, aged 55 years and older, represent a neglected segment of the United States (U.S.) health care system. This group is more likely to be uninsured and to suffer from greater morbidities, poorer health outcomes and quality of life, and lower life expectancies compared to all other aging populations in the country. Despite the U.S. government’s federal trust responsibility to meet American Indians’ health-related needs through the Indian Health Service (IHS), elders are negatively affected by provider shortages, limited availability of health care services, and gaps in insurance. This qualitative study examines the perspectives of professional stakeholders involved in planning, delivery of, and advocating for services for this population to identify and analyze macro- and meso-level factors affecting access to and use of health care and insurance among American Indian elders at the micro level.MethodsBetween June 2016 and March 2017, we undertook in-depth qualitative interviews with 47 professional stakeholders in two states in the Southwest U.S., including health care providers, outreach workers, public-sector administrators, and tribal leaders. The interviews focused on perceptions of both policy- and practice-related factors that bear upon health care inequities impacting elders. We analyzed iteratively the interview transcripts, using both open and focused coding techniques, followed by a critical review of the findings by a Community Action Board comprising American Indian elders.ResultsFindings illuminated complex and multilevel contextual influences on health care inequities for elders, centering on (1) gaps in elder-oriented services; (2) benefits and limits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA); (2) invisibility of elders in national, state, and tribal policymaking; and (4) perceived threats to the IHS system and the federal trust responsibility.ConclusionsFindings point to recommendations to improve the prevention and treatment of illness among American Indian elders by meeting their unique health care and insurance needs. Policies and practices must target meso and macro levels of contextual influence. Although Medicaid expansion under the ACA enables providers of essential services to elders, including the IHS, to enhance care through increased reimbursements, future policy efforts must improve upon this funding situation and fulfill the federal trust responsibility.

COVID 19: a personal account of a physiotherapist

<p class="abstract">Amidst the growing tentacles of coronavirus SARS2 in the densely populated Delhi (India), the healthcare workers and other essential service providers are working day and night to keep the city going. All are working with a fear, a fear of getting entrapped in the tentacles any moment. Here is a personal account of myself, a healthcare worker who got entrapped, thankfully not getting strangulated, having recovered early without getting trolled physically but certainly, psychologically, socially and emotionally. It is my first person account as being a patient myself, second person account as a caretaker of my family and a third person account as a therapist to my patients. Also, a note of physiotherapeutic management of COVID-19 is included.</p><p class="abstract"> </p>

The roles of emergency managers and emergency social services directors to support disaster risk reduction in Canada

Emergency managers (EMs) and Emergency Social Services Directors (ESSDs) are essential service providers who fulfill critical roles in disaster risk reduction. Despite being positioned throughout all levels of government, and in the private sector, EMs and ESSDs fulfill roles which occur largely behind the scenes. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the roles of EMs and ESSDs from different regions across Canada. Specifically, we wanted to understand their perceptions of barriers, vulnerabilities and capabilities within the context of their roles. EMs (n = 15) and ESSDs (n = 6) from six Canadian provinces participated in semi-structured telephone interviews. Through content analysis, five themes and one model were generated from the data: 1) Emergency management is not synonymous with first response, 2) Unrealistic expectations for a “side-of-desk” role, 3) Minding the gap between academia and practice with a ‘whole-society’ approach, 4) Personal preparedness tends to be weak, 5) Behind the scenes roles can have mental health implications. We present a model, based on these themes, which makes explicit the occupational risks that EMs and ESSDs may encounter in carrying out the skills, tasks, and roles of their jobs. Identification of occupational risks is a first step towards reducing vulnerabilities and supporting capability. This is particularly relevant in our current society as increased demands placed on these professionals coincides with the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters due to climate change and the emergence of the world wide COVID-19 pandemic.