Chapel Hill, NC (February 2, 2010)  – Three journalism students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have formed a team to investigate new social media practices used during recovery efforts in Haiti and apply them toward Socialserve.com disaster planning for housing agencies in the United States.

As response unfolds to the earthquake in Haiti, journalists, government officials and response organizations are employing social media in new ways to deliver assistance. Tools such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube are being used to raise funds, report infrastructure status, provide basic communications, share needs, raise funds and provide access to critical resources. Innovative new applications of these tools are expected to improve and reshape emergency response plans worldwide.

The students – Lindsay Britt of Suttontown, N.C.; Faye Fang of Apex, N.C.; and Jeff Miles of Cary, N.C. – will be guided by Napoleon Byars, assistant professor in the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication; Bob Page, principal of PageStrategy Communications in Chapel Hill; and Van Gottel, chief executive officer of the nonprofit housing software and services agency Socialserve.com in Charlotte.

Socialserve.com provides affordable housing services in 28 states and has extensive experience in disaster housing relocation services, serving during the Southern California wildfires in 2007 and during floods, tornadoes, and storms across the Midwest and Southeast. In the six weeks after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the agency rapidly established emergency services and provided more than 151,000 referrals for housing and related resources.

Socialserve.com is a national 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization and the country's leading provider of affordable housing locator services. For more information about Socialserve.com news, please contact Beth Leysieffer at 980-355-1665.