Black Gold and the Dark Underside of Its Development on Human Service Delivery

Purpose. Since the industrial revolution and consequent advances in capitalism, social workers have been impelled to be the first responders in addressing the human service needs created by the human victory over the environment. In the past, the nature of oil production, historical trends, and the positive and negative social and economic impacts were widely documented in the local and national media and by academics. Yet, one aspect that is still under reported is the views and perspectives of the human service providers in these oil-impacted communities. Especially lacking in attention in the academic community is their perception of the needs and solutions, as they apply to rural social work. This study is an attempt to remedy this paucity in the literature by looking at employment experiences of rural human services workers and the strategies they use to overcome the difficulties experienced in the oil boomtown regions of western North Dakota.                                                                 

Method. The qualitative study was conducted in two phases. The first phase involved conducting telephone interviews with experts on human services delivery systems who reside in the Upper Missouri Valley.  The second phase of the study involved 3 face-to face focus groups with the phase 1 respondents. A total of 40 subjects participated in the project. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit subjects. The subjects identified were human service program administrators and workers who were in leadership positions in their community. The data gathered from the interviews was analyzed using coding techniques to develop meaningful themes consistent with content analysis and two authors analyzed the data as a conformability check.                                                                                

Findings. This study identified common work-related problems encountered by participants and the creative solutions they incorporated. They identified a myriad of human service-related problems they regularly address as a result of their employment in a rural oil-impacted area, including changes in the nature of service delivery, lack of services to meet needs, difficulties in hiring and retaining staff, lack of training to meet changing needs, and economic realities of resource allocation.  As one worker eloquently stated “while somebody else benefits, we carry the burden of oil boom repercussions.” Despite their burden, workers also discussed their proactive actions and creative solutions, methods of staying connected and banding together, coordination of services, and making alliances with different constituents.             

Conclusion and Implications. It seems people are learning on the job, and making useful ad hoc efforts. However, more sustainable solutions and concerted efforts are likely needed to avoid inadvertent negative consequences. Joint partnerships between human services workers, residents, industry leaders and local and state level government must be in place for better planning and mitigation of the fly-over effects of boomtowns. In addition to creative bottom up solutions, open discussions, advocacy and negotiations must take place between all involved stakeholders to manage, mitigate and plan their community infrastructures. Many aspects of work in boomtowns are transferable to other areas of practice at both the micro and macro level, especially for rural social work, and provide a great training opportunity.