Essay
Design Build 
Oklahoma City
In the face of the looming tornadoes in the Oklahoma City, Americans remained vigil and supportive of the evacuees as the government through the help of Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) pooled funds and efforts towards securing lives and property. In the minds of many, the scenario was a reflection of the several catastrophes that have come to haunt the city of Oklahoma. With the high rates of prevalence of such calamities, the city has come to be known as a tornado alley which implies the high rate of exposure and vulnerability of the town to natural disasters. In support of the tenacity of statements made in this paragraph is the fact that this paper compiles a review of the Oklahoma Tornadoes as the natural disaster of choice (Lisa, Anahita, Elaine, Jennifer, Satoko, Zeno Larry, 2007). Additionally, it indoctrinates a brief description of empirical demographics, which give credit to the need to address issues relating to social justice and multicultural alike. All these attempts are made with due focus on the need for recovery and rebuilding of the city. The study is further necessitated by the need to not only describe but also justify strategies associated with design build as a cost saving strategy towards reconstruction of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma City was affected, but the most distressed suburb was the Moore. According to the Census information retrieved from the U.S. Census Bureau, Moore area of Oklahoma City consists of 78.6% Caucasians. 74% of the 116,000 homes in this region were occupied at the time of the disaster (Lack Sullivan, 2008). In terms of the annual income and the ability of the people to sustain their livelihood, it is alleged that each household makes an average annual income of $57,000. Of the 116,000 homes in the vast area, approximately 13,000 homes were destroyed by the tornado. Reports released by the American Red Cross further supported that the communities that reside in the rural areas of the Oklahoma City, were the most impacted as compared to those residing in the city or other areas such as Tulsa. Apparently the Moore area holds the focal point which makes it prone to such disasters.
Statistical extracts from the journal ,"Twelve failures of the hurricane Katrina response and how psychology can help" by Lisa Joseph, Anahita Gheytanchi, Elaine Gierlach, Jennifer Housley, Satoko Kimpara, Zeno E. Franco, and Larry Beutler identified the area to be synonymous with tornadoes. For instance, the 1999 tornado which resulted in the death of an estimated 40 lives. Likewise, the disaster was ranked third in the American history for causing the most havoc and loss of personal property and social infrastructure. Comparatively, in the year 2013, a similar tornado resulted into the loss of 24 lives mostly elementary school children. Despite the repetitive encounters with tornadoes in the vast Oklahoma City and more specifically the Moore area, neither the residents nor the government was prepared for it. It is evident that the most vulnerable populations were the children, the elderly and women who were exposed to the risk of lacking basic needs, medication among other necessities. The children were hard hit by the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSS).
Triggered by the intensity of the situation experienced by the residents of Oklahoma, there emanates a rising need to address multicultural issues as well as issues concerning social justice so as to set a stable foundation on which recovery and rebuilding will be construed. In the journal "Social justice advocacy: Community collaboration and systems advocacy", Matthew Paylo and Sandra Lopez-Baez devote themselves to addressing the issue of social justice and multiculturalism. The authors of the journal find pleasure in the use of case studies, which on a large scale emphasize the urgent need for systems advocacy and community collaborations. In support of the line of thought presented by the two authors, the American Counseling Association (ACA) instigation of the Task Force on Advocacy Competencies plan resounds the applicability of systems advocacy in this domain (Mannette, 2013).
Issue of Social Advocacy
The issue of social advocacy is applicable in not only the communities but also in schools and other interacting systems where clients work, study or live thus it is essentially focused on enhancing the lives of the people after a disaster such as the tornado. To begin with multiculturalism, it is pertinent for the counselors to master the client's environment by conducting a survey on the cultural practices and beliefs practiced by the people in the Oklahoma City. The counselor is then advice to use the blueprint on the social interactions to advocate for community collaborations. Whereas the issue of multiculturalism can be solved by community collaborations, social justice can be curbed by systems advocacy. Bronfenbrenner who is an ecological theorist used the ecological model to compare the two domains. His findings supported the tenacity that both community collaborations and systems advocacy fall under the mesosystem level (Lisa et al 2007).
Based on the ecological theory, the mesosystem level creates a link between the ecological interactions and the individual thus a counselor must be keen to influence both the environment and the person's perception of the situation at hand. In this context, community collaboration denotes the counselor's ability to play the role of an ally by being aware of the issues affecting the clients. On the other hand, systems advocacy advancement of community collaboration when a counselor assumes the role of a leader and makes systematic plans on how the recovery and rebuilding will be conducted to avert the social issues. These factors can be justified through the application of the Lewin theory of force field analysis which is essential in providing a framework for examining the forces aggravating the specified social issue either positively or negatively (Sandra Matthew, 2009). The standards set by the ACA Advocacy Competencies second that counselors are better placed to intervene between schools and communities as well as between systems advocacy and community collaboration.
In describing and justifying design build, it is prudent to note that design build is an alternative approach to contracting state transportation agencies into participating in the delivery of projects funded using finances from the Federal-aid highway program (John Will, 2009). The application of design build is supported by the realization that infrastructural projects can be purchased, procured and delivered in various ways thus segregation of responsibilities and roles of the different phrases of the development of a project is a must. As a result, the term design-bid-built is formed. The term describes a scenario where one party is assigned the role of designing while another, especially a contractor with the lowest bid, is awarded the tender to construct the rest of the building. With time, design build has advanced to integrate operations, preservation, financing and maintenance. In the case scenario presented by the Oklahoma tornado, the state and federal statutes were guiding to the tendering process by regulating the design-bid-build. Private agencies were also used to support public agencies in expediting deliverables in the reconstruction projects.
Design-Build Institute of America
The description in the previous chapter is justified by the design-Build Institute of America abbreviated as DBIA. The institute was vibrant in contracting engineers and architects for constructing a series of infrastructure such as vertical infrastructure comprised of buildings and horizontal infrastructure composed of public utilities (John Will, 2009). For the reconstruction process in Oklahoma, the DBIA took full responsibility for the projects as they stood liable for all the agreements made with design builders by issuing warranties to agencies. By so doing, the DBIA was able to process complete documents devoid of errors. The need for accuracy was attained by the selection of competent contractors using a competitive tendering process which involved an investigation into the pricing, duration and qualifications of the proposer. After getting the most appropriate design, DBIA was further responsible for apportioning the construction works to competent companies.
On the side of the DBIA, the design-build strategy was more preferred as it is compatible with other strategies such as the design-build with a warranty, Design-Build-Operate-Maintain (DBOM), Design-Build-Finance-Operate (DBFO), Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) and the Full Delivery or Program Management (Vera Speight, 2008). The preferences for these design-builds were supported by the need and urgency of the infrastructure especially after the tornado. Given the urgency with which facilities such as hospitals, schools and roads were needed, the use of design-build was pertinent in saving time. Again the fact that the emergency triggered the government into spending design-build came with options for cost savings and improved quality accrued from specialization of labor. The main disadvantage reported by the DBIA was the favors, accorded to large national engineering and construction firms, which were issued with the tenders at the expense of small regional firms for the sake of regional balance.
