Letter From the Editor

The Last Quiet Mardi Gras in Mid City

Corrections
Katrina Index
Recipes
Community Events

Poetry
For Someone Renewing Something Somewhere

Neighborhood Voices
An Opportunity No Other City Has
AALP Proposes Formation of Citizens Recovery Coalition
Your 3 Minutes…
Gun Control in New Orleans

In the Spotlight
Trinity Christian Community: A Heart for Hollygrove and New Orleans
A Leader Born in Hollygrove
Hollygrove Photo Album

The People in your Neighborhood
Tolerating the Storm
PNOLA
Kids Rethink New Orleans

Trumpet Issue #2 February 2007

We at NPN are proud to announce the release of the second edition of our newspaper, The Trumpet. Our cover story, “The Last Quiet Mardi Gras in Mid City,” is about Mid City’s fight for Endymion. It was written by staff member/writer/editor Emily Zeanah.This edition has even more content directly from across New Orleans neighborhoods - from Rethink, Trinity Christian Commuinity and Phoenix of New Orleans - and citizens - from Leigh Taublib-Kiriat (”Gun Control in New Orleans”), Nathan Rothstein (”Tolerating the Storm”), NPN Executive Director Nathan Shroyer (”An Opportunity No Other City Has” and “AALP Proposes Formation of Citizens Recovery Coalition”), our first poetry submission from Shana Dukes, Broadmoor Poet/Writer (”For Someone Renewing Something Somewhere”), a section of Mardi Gras recipes, a community events section and a new photo album section, this month showcasing the Hollygrove neighborhood.

There are also informational sections and ads from local businesses and organizations - from The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, Carlos Valladores Audio & Video Productions, Makeba’s Magnifiscents, Hip Hop Teen Magazine, Lil’ Dizzy’s Cafe, Haase’s, Deborah Langhoff (Running for State Representative for District 94) and a submission of helpful hints in managing your planning-related problem solving and moving your group to concensus.

We are excited about the response we are getting. We want you to contribute! Send us personal stories, poetry, art, photos, anything! Send us news from your neighborhood group, local business or organization. Send us upcoming events for our Community Events section. The Trumpet is yours.

Also, we need places to distribute The Trumpet. You know better than we do where people will pick up a copy - from churches and communty centers to coffee shops and laundromats.

Contact us at thenpntrumpet@gmail.com, call 504-208-1575 or mail to 2401 Esplanade Ave., New Orleans, LA 70119, c/o NPN.

Trumpet Issue #2 February 2007

 

 

Today starts the first in a series of monthly interviews by Kids Rethinking New Orleans’ Schools, or Rethink. 

by Ashley Nelson

Rethink Writing Mentor

 

Rethink photography staff. Photo by Jim Belton, Gulf South Photography Project

19-year-old Ashley Nelson is a graduate of John McDonogh High School and a freshman at Degado Community College.  She is the author of The Combination (A Neighborhood Story Project Book), and acts as Rethink’s writing mentor.

 

Ashley:  Ms. Jane, you founded Rethink, so maybe we should start off this Trumpet interview series by interviewing you.

 

Jane:  I guess that makes sense.

 

Ashley:  So tell me about Rethink – Kids Rethinking New Orleans’ Schools – and “the Rethinkers.”

 

Jane: Rethink is an amazing group of middle school kids, mainly African American, and from all around Orleans.  “The Rethinkers,” as they call themselves, are dreamers, photographers, watchdogs, spokespersons and activists rolled into one.  Their goal is to see that “every kid in New Orleans gets a great public school education – rich or poor, no matter their grades or the color of their skin.” 

 

Ashley:  How long have these kids been rethinking?

 

Jane: Since last June.  We went public at the end of July when Rethink held a big news conference.  Twenty kids were sitting in desks outside the Sherwood Forest School in the East.  The building was abandoned – shattered windows, garbage strewn around, mold everywhere.  So behind them was this sad, sad school, but on either side were books they had painted and a sculpture they had built to show their dreams about great New Orleans schools.

 

Ashley:  Yeah, I remember that day very well.  Every TV station in town was there.  Later we were in the Times Picayune and the Christian Science Monitor and on Nickelodeon News…..

 

Jane.  I continue to read the testimonies the kids read that day.  Every time I read them I feel the anger rising inside me.  Here are a few of their statements:

 

“Katrina drowned my old school, and 85% of all the public schools in the city. I’m not sad about losing my school.   It was a raggedy, dirty school, and it did not have enough books.  Me and my friends, we didn’t like it, but we thought that was just the way the schools were.

 

· “We’ve got signs in our bathrooms that read, ‘Don’t forget to wash.’  How can we wash when there is no soap and the water from the fountain is brown?”

· We are not asking for the greatest schools in the country, just ones where we can learn.”

· I evacuated to Texas after Katrina and I attended a school that made me realize I was cheated out of an education back home.”

I never had a backpack.  I didn’t need one.  No one ever gave me any books.”

 

Ashley:  I put up with a whole lot at John McDonogh and so did all the Rethinkers at their schools.  Many of the schools up and running after Katrina are still really bad.   So tell me again about the goal of Rethink.  

 

Jane:  As I see it, we have several.  One is to change the public schools in New Orleans so every kid has a great education.  The second, and every bit as important, is to grow a group of kids who make their voices heard loud and clear about public schools post-Katrina.  Kids need to understand that when it comes to schools, they are the client, they are the experts.  No one deserves a place in the current debate about public schools more than the students.

 

Ashley:  What are some of the things the Rethinkers are involved in now?

 

Jane:  We have a couple of big projects going between now and June.  One is evaluating some of the public schools and another is writing a book called, Our New Orleans Schools Before and After Katrina.  The Rethinkers are studying photography with the Gulf South Photography Project and learning to do dynamite interviews with you.  The book will be a collaboration between Rethink and GSPP.

 

Ashley:  Is that about it?

 

Jane:  Actually no.  The Rethinkers talk on panels and they take part in direct action.   Like for instance on January 18, the Rethinkers went by bus to Baton Rouge.  Their older brother and sister activists in the Fyre Youth Squad were testifying before the BESE Board (Board of Elementary and Secondary Education)  and holding a news conference.  The Rethinkers went there to support the Youth Squad kids and to take pictures. 

 

Ashley:  Will there be another summer program?

 

Jane:  Absolutely.  And we’ll be adding ten kids to the Rethink family, making us a total of 30.  We are hoping to dream, draw, and design big time.  Maybe even design some real rooms for an abandoned public school that will reopen in a year or two.   At the end of the program, the Rethinkers will hold their second national news conference, so as Mahatma Ghandi said, they can “tell truth to power.”  I believe that “telling truth to power” is one of the greatest political tools available to youth. 

 

Ashley:  But how will kids know how and when to use that tool?

 

Jane: It’s our job as adults to teach them.  At summer school, the kids studied public speaking and news conference design.  The People’s Institute came in and gave them a two-day anti-racism course.  With all that under their belt, they were able to speak very effectively in front of the television cameras.  

 

Ashley:  So what do you think about the kids in the Rethink program?

 

Jane:  The Rethinkers are the best, each and every one of them.  Some of the kids are only in 5^th grade and they’re already powerful people.  I expect that New Orleans will  hear from them for a long time to come.   

 

For more information about Rethink, visit rethinknola.com or call 528.9871. 

 

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by Erin Walker

 

The Phoenix of New Orleans (PNOLA) was founded on November 28, 2005, to provide direct gutting and housing recovery services to residents after Hurricane Katrina.  Also, PNOLA  acts as a community organization which serves as a portal for neighbors to play an active role in rebuilding, so that long-lasting social change is attainable. The Tulane/Gravier, a neighborhood devastated by years of social inequity, blight and now immense damage from 5 feet of flood water caused by Hurricane Katrina, is our home. We seek to deal with the immediate and physical issues of recovery, as well as addressing the socioeconomic and quality of life issues that plague so many areas in New Orleans.

Since PNOLA’s inception, we have gutted and cleaned mold from over 50 homes and also acted as a strong advocate for our neighbors. We have developed a strong 7 person board of residents and work with 25 staff members composed of AmeriCorps members, interns and long-term volunteers. Throughout the winter, we expect between 10-20 weekly volunteers who will add great force to our projects. We operate on a $5000 monthly overhead budget and still depend on donations month-to-month. We seek major long-term funding, but continue  to push the envelope, even as we struggle to sustain ourselves for the future. We are confident that our work will bring the necessary support to this community. Over the next 5 years, we hope to transform this area into a beacon of sustainable, affordable self-reliance in the face of major disaster and difficult urban blight.

PNOLA and Tulane/Gravier residents are organizing a Community Meeting & Social on March 3^rd at the German House: Speakers, music, food and socializing will give the community an opportunity to create stronger relationships and work together towards a sustainable future. We will provide updates about this event on our website: www.pnola.org and look forward to further contact with our fellow non-profits.

 

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From the blog
Today and Tomorrow in Tulane/Gravier

(rothsteinyear-after.blogspot.com)

 
photo courtesy of Nathan Rothstein

 

by Nathan Rothstein,

PNOLA AmeriCorps Volunteer

Thursday, June 22, 2006

The trash piles up on Palmyra Street. There is broken glass. Actually, there is a lot of it. The southern skies are cloudy; sometimes dropping large pellets of rain. Everywhere is shady except there is nothing blocking the sun except for a few clouds that act as a weak buffer-at times. At other times, the sun seeps into your skin, my white skin, punishing me for being light because everything else in this city makes you feel like the punisher.

                 The people in the neighborhood are skeptical. Often, in large, gas-guzzling SUV’s white men drive slowly on small, forgotten streets. What they want, I do not know, but their faces are similar to the ones that you see on the news and don’t trust. Sooner, but much later, they are gone. Palmyra Street had been a drug haven before the storm, but people are hoping that the wrath and ferociousness of Katrina drove them away, but not all the junkies are gone, and if they are still willing, the crack/heroin/syrup is still able.

The picture is grim yet people are coming back. The homes that are being renewed look elegant, and very comfortable. Today, Keith, a mid-thirties black man, walks in and out of his large “shot gun house.” He is on South Tonti Street, which is off Palmyra. He is a big, sturdy man, with a soft, sensitive demeanor. He understands the pain, has endured the wrath of the storm and years of neglect, but is still happy to laugh amongst the young volunteers.

Early Sunday, August 28th, Keith evacuated to Mississippi with his family. A few weeks later, he returned to the home on Tonti Street that he had just bought several months earlier. It had been completely devastated. The waters had run through the house tearing everything in sight.

On that day, in mid-September, he had turned off what was left of his electricity and went away again. A month later, the city allowed residents to move back in, and he collected what remained of his home. Before Katrina, he had worked maintenance at Dillard University. A historically Black college, with most of its students from Louisiana, but some from Texas. Luckily, the school had kept its records in the attic. It was all safe on August 30th, after Katrina had decided it was done for the day, but the other school buildings were not. In addition to helping his family, he continued to work at the school.

Now, almost nine months later, he was using his work skills for personal reasons. It was just after eight in the morning, but the New Orleans sun was already beating down, yet Keith was walking in an out of his house, taking out the debris. The house had been gutted, and with the help of Phoenix of New Orleans volunteers, the remains of his interior were being brought to the exterior. Wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow full of debris was brought in and out, not seeming to run out. If it had been gold, Keith would have been a very rich man, because the amount was endless.

Since we had provided him with a lot of manpower, he bought us lunch, and at noon we sat together to take a break. With fried chicken being stuffed in our faces, Keith and I got a chance to speak. The recent murder spree was fresh on everybody’s mind, and it came up in conversation quickly.

Keith leaned back in his plastic chair, and then moved it closer to me,
“ One of the biggest problems now is nobody is willing to report a crime. I could shoot you right here, and nobody would do a thing, if it didn’t affect them.”

Somebody was being shot in front of you, and it didn’t affect you? I imagined somebody running around naked in a campus quad, and nobody realizing what they were doing, or taking notice. I think if my neighbor was shot, it would affect me. Just a little bit.

“It wasn’t always like that. When I was kid, if we did something wrong, everybody in the neighborhood knew it, and told on you, but now…nobody is stepping up and saying this won’t be tolerated.”

But today was an example of people not tolerating a disaster assistance program that has not provided relief. Today was another day, and another house was one step closer to its residents moving in. And Keith and I could tolerate that.

 

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by Kathleen Nacozy and Ana Menezes,

NPN volunteers

Chantel Dunn at work. Photo courtesy of Kevin Brown

As an eighteen-year-old fresh out of high school, Chantel Dunn was not sure what to do with her life. She was working at McDonald’s in Hollygrove, where she was born and raised, when an unexpected opportunity came her way.

While participating in a bible study group at Trinity Christian Community Center, Executive Director Kevin Brown suggested she join AmeriCorps. She promised him she would give it some thought.

“Should I work at McDonald’s for the rest of my life or should I join AmeriCorps?” she asked herself.

This was not a difficult decision for her to make. She signed up for AmeriCorps and began work there in September 2004.

The job was difficult. Pre-Katrina, Chantel worked with students in the New Orleans public school system, focusing on those who needed the most help. She would spend 15-20 minutes with each student, reading and encouraging them to do well in school.

But the school system did not seem to care about the students, she said.

Her second year of AmeriCorps she gutted houses.

“I hated it. Going there every single day…but I didn’t want to start something and not finish it,” she said.

She stuck with it. Now she is an Assistant Program Manager, a role that requires her to organize AmeriCorps volunteers. Post-Katrina, that means working to rebuild.

“We couldn’t go back into the schools after Katrina. In order to keep the program going, we had to find something to do. We have started rebuilding; we’re focusing on Hollygrove,” she said.

Rebuilding her own neighborhood has been rewarding, “I know about half the people here,” she said. She’s glad to see so many of her neighbors have not given up on Hollygrove.

Chantel encourages other young people to join AmeriCorps too, not only for the job experience but for the opportunities it can open up. AmeriCorp volunteers who complete their service receive a $4,725 education award to pay for college, graduate school, or to pay back student loans.

“It’s a good opportunity to get to know your neighborhood even more and to have an opportunity to go to college because if you stay at McDonald’s you won’t get to go,” she said.

Chantel sees herself returning to what made her stick with AmeriCorps in the first place: working with kids. She hopes to become an elementary school teacher and someday own her own nursery.

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by Kevin Brown

Chantel Dunn, JP, Sandy and TCC Executive Director Kevin Brown

Founded in 1967, Trinity Christian Community has a long and storied tradition of serving the poor, fighting injustice and striving for racial reconciliation. In recent years the focus has been upon developing leadership especially among at-risk youth. Working in Hollygrove schools and in our community center, youth were engaged during school, after school and throughout the summers.

On August 27, 2005 we had just put the finishing touches on our program for the new school year. With materials purchased, volunteers in place, schools on board and neighborhood young people excited about the new year, we were ready! And then on August 29, we awoke to find our schools out of operation, our youth and families relocated and our program materials ruined.

It was time for a new plan.

Kevin Brown, the Executive Director, was homeless. Along with his entire staff he faced the uncertainty of a different New Orleans. Either their programs had to be retooled or the organization was defunct. In the early days it seemed hopeless.

Ever the visionary, Kevin recognized that the new landscape would need social entrepreneurs who would be there for the long haul. In the week after the storm, boating through streets where he once played, it became apparent that the mission of Trinity Christian Community was going to change, at least temporarily.

Initially Kevin contacted his staff and convinced them to return. Most did. They contacted friends across the country and found places for evacuees to relocate, jobs to welcome them when they arrived and a mentor to help them acclimate. From Springfield, Ohio to Fresno, California people drove, flew and took chartered buses to move from shelters to homes. But that was only the beginning.

Approaching the Louisiana Serve Commission and the Corporation for National and Community Service, Kevin and his staff of displaced New Orleanians began to cast vision for a new kind of AmeriCorp member, one who would engage in disaster relief and recovery. Eventually the State and Federal governments agreed to place 100 members in the city to help rebuild.

Then came the challenge of recruiting and deploying a team of 100 eager workers in a city where there were few people and almost no place to live. Partners like the Neighborhood Planning Network, Phoenix of New Orleans, Catholic Charities, the Mardi Gras Service Corps, Light City Church and Common Ground became an invaluable part of the process. Together these organizations found the workers and places for them to stay. We also quickly learned how to gut homes and treat them for mold.

In the early days our work took place in the coffee houses and borrowed office space, anywhere with a phone and internet hookup. Then we erected a tent behind the devastated Trinity Christian Community Center. Once Kevin Brown’s family home was repaired, the offices moved there. It wouldn’t be until 15 months after the storm that operations moved back into the TCC offices. For over a year the dedicated staff lived wherever they could find a bed. Even today only half the staff of 11 are back in their own homes, the rest are living in trailers and rented apartments awaiting final word on insurance, FEMA and Road Home monies to determine when their homes can be rebuilt.

Mary Gilliam, our Chief Operating Officer is back in her home after completely rebuilding. Rev. Earl Williams, our Chief Financial Officer lives in a rented apartment in another neighborhood but is ready to build a new home in Hollygrove on the lot where his old one was lost. Evelyn Turner purchased a Hollygrove flooded home after losing hers in the ninth ward and is using volunteer labor and donated materials to rehab it. John Paul and Rosalind Bartley had just purchased their first family home in Hollygrove three months before Katrina (a former crack house that we completely rehabbed) and will be rebuilding here. Other staff decided to move into the neighborhood too, some in rented space, others in trailers behind our community center. This is a unique sort of dedication and service; these folks are giving their lives in the face of tremendous adversity, to rebuild others’ homes, lives and community.

This dedicated team has helped 6 organizations develop sufficient capacity to become vital forces in the rebuilding of our city. And the work has been amazing! To date 621 homes have been gutted and treated for mold, almost 4,300 volunteers have come to the city and donated 97,552 hours, almost 3,500 individuals have been helped and 12 houses have been completely rebuilt.

In addition we have hosted a series of neighborhood charettes, beginning even before the city planning process began. We have established the Carrollton Hollygrove Community Development Center. We have raised over $2,500,000.00 of funding to assist our efforts. And we have a beautifully renovated community center with space to house our volunteers.

Yet there is much work yet to be accomplished. We envision Hollygrove becoming a beautiful neighborhood. Centrally located, just a short drive or bus ride from all major amenities, in the backyard of major universities, this is a neighborhood with amazing potential. Already new houses are being constructed here. Each day more families return. There is a “can do” spirit here, passionate people are taking matters into their own hands and rebuilding even before the government decides how much help to offer. This spirit leads us to believe our neighborhood will soon be a community vital to New Orleans’ future.

And with the opening of our community center we begin something that we once thought may never happen again: our after school program. Our library is restocked, we have new school program materials, we’ve rebuilt our computer laboratory, and even replanted our community gardens (with the help of the New Orleans Food and Farm Network). Already the kids have been coming, some of them from homes that we have rebuilt.

The worst natural disaster in American history dealt us an awful blow. But Hollygrove is emerging stronger and better thanks to the sacrifice of a team with a heart for Hollygrove and New Orleans.

garden (top left), rebuilding (top right) and bottom left photos by Emily Zeanah. Computer room after the storm (bottom right) courtesy of Kevin Brown.

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by Leigh Taublib-Kiriat

In Post-Katrina New Orleans, more than a year after the devastation that uprooted thousands of residents, Mayor Nagin and his administration are still trying to bring their city back to its former glory. One of the most pressing and concerning problems is the rising number of gun-related deaths. This is obvious to both residents of New Orleans, the primary victims in these crimes, as well as throughout the country, as the soaring crime rates in New Orleans have recently been reported on the front page of the New York Times and other media publications.

However, unlike citizens of most major US cities, New Orleanians are unable to regulate gun control, as only the state government can pass such laws in Louisiana. In spite of this, all is not lost for the Big Easy. Average citizens can play a huge role in influencing change in their government, and can put pressure on local officials to make their city safer and violence-free.

One crucial thing New Orleanians can do is to form a citizen’s organization which works to keep the pressure on about the problem of gun violence and perhaps becomes part of the States United to Prevent Gun Violence, an association of 27 state-based gun violence prevention groups. The aim of the association is to share legislative, funding and program ideas to keep their cities safe and New Orleans could benefit from lessons learned and experiences from metropolises across the country.

In addition, community members can put pressure on local law enforcement submit all guns used in crime for tracing and work with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) to go after suppliers and gun traffickers who sell to criminals and young people.

Even in cities with strong gun control laws, police have a tendency to not pursue the source of the weapons. This is a vital issue that New Orleanians could start lobbying for, in order to keep gun control at the forefront for local politicians and law enforcement. This advocacy could be complemented by city or community marches against violence, which was recently successful in New Orleans and could be an effective way to reach politicians and the media. Mayor Nagin belongs to New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg’s Coalition Against Illegal Guns and could benefit from their ideas to improve law enforcement programs in addressing illegal guns.

New Orleans could also work with the Legal Community Against Violence (LCAV), a public interest law center dedicated to preventing gun violence. For the past 14 years, LCAV has offered free nationwide assistance to state and local organizations in the drafting of gun control legislation. One law that organizations are working on is a state law to require background check on the sale of every gun. Presently, such background checks are only required if the sale takes place at a licensed gun dealer. Since only about 60% of gun sales take place at licensed dealers, the sale of almost 40% of guns are made with no background checks on the buyers at all and hence it is all too easy for a criminal or underaged buyer to get a gun.

Both citizens and politicians of New Orleans have the responsibility to keep their city safe. Murder and crime rates will only continue to rise if gun control laws are not modified, and the sale of guns remain unregulated. It is a long and difficult path ahead, but the necessary first step is to work and advocate with city officials, prosecutors, the ATF and law enforcement. They are critical in both keeping guns off the street today, as well as ensuring that the city remains safe for the next generation of New Orleanians.

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by Mario Perkins

Citizens normally get three minutes at City Council to make public statements about policy.  At the Community Support Organization at City Hall on Thursday Jan. 25 citizens came forth with concerns about UNOP implementation from Community Congress III. 

                 I attended both the Community Congress and the CSO and the main difference between the two was that Community Congress III was more of an anonymous submission of public opinion whereas the CSO was not at all anonymous.

                 Hot topics at the CSO were temporary facilities like schools and clinics, restoration of public services in under populated areas of the city, whether clustering would work in every neighborhood and improving public education.  There was plenty of informative commentary. I could give you individual quotes but in general all concerns pointed to this…

We cannot afford to anonymously submit our opinions about UNOP implementation at this point in the game.

We are at critical stage because UNOP is quickly moving from planning to implementation at the city level.  The community must stay actively involved, informed and aware.  We need continuing active participation from you the community to make sure that each district is properly served by the UNOP plan.  Our participation will make the difference.  We must stay involved, demand information and updates about the plan. We must go to our local public library and take a look at the UNOP plan or browse it online. We must stay actively involved with our neighborhood associations about the district-level implementation.  If we wait for the plan to roll out at the city level without proper community input it will be too late.  The community will merely comment passively on a process that has already taken place.

Not everyone gets three minutes at City Hall and rarely do those three minutes get published in the newspaper. Three minutes in THE TRUMPET is an opportunity to share your suggestions and questions that affect decisions being made about NOLA from your neighborhood and beyond. Many NOLA citizens are concerned with how the plan will RENEW our neighborhoods rather than merely patch them up. Will we make a difference?

The UNOP implementation needs oversight and active community participation.  Where will that come from?  Who should drive the input and recommendations to City Hall and the City Planning Commission?  The UNOP Recovery Office Monitoring Committee needs public participation. How do we coordinate it?  How does the community work with Ed Blakeley’s office during recovery?  How does New Orleans incorporate city-wide Neighborhood Council models? How do we institute a legal Community participation model?  Should there be a Community Participation Advocacy Program?

These are our three minutes to make New Orleans a better place to live. Please stay active and involved.

 

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by Nathan Shroyer

On Saturday, February 03, 2007, in the chilled confines of Saint Maria Goretti Church in New Orleans East, a group of people gathered in response to the call of the African American Leadership Project’s (AALP) proposal to form a Citizens Recovery Coalition. As our city takes the next steps in restoring the lives of its citizens—rebuilding of businesses, retaining of indigenous culture, ensuring basic standards of infrastructure, promoting healthy environments, and maintaining safety—the coalition will work to ensure that the voice of impacted communities be a primary representative in the newly forming Department of Recovery and the City Council Recovery Committee.

Meetings such as the one in New Orleans East are percolating at all levels of our city. Many neighborhoods are sensing the need to unite immediately; to ensure that the people on the ground, the neighborhood voices, are not muted in this phase of recovery work. Among others, the AALP recognizes this moment as an opportunity for the citizens to turn common ground into collective coalitions.

The seven points of the proposed mission and purposes of the citizen’s recovery coalition are listed below:

To serve as the public voice of the most impacted populations and the most devastated neighborhoods in recovery planning and implementation

To serve as a primary Citizen representative that interacts with and advocates for the department of recovery, and the Recovery Committee promoting and advancing the Recovery and Rebuilding agenda.

To develop appropriate policies and programs that benefit devastated neighborhoods and impacted constituencies and advocating for same before public entities

To foster cooperation, collaboration, and mutual support between citizen stakeholders such as neighborhood organizations, public housing residents, rental dwellers, displaced residents and other recovery advocates and organizations during the plan implementation process.

To engage in organizing and advocacy efforts that support and promote the Recovery Agenda, inclusive of policy analysis, direct action, mobilization and litigation.

To periodically review the results and deliverables of the Recovery Department and Recovery Committee to insure transparency, and to maintain the Citizen’s responsibility to offer alternative views and constructive criticism.

To assist the broader Citizen public with better understanding of recovery issues by engaging in public forums and discussions, and to cooperate with other citizen organizations to advance the recovery of the city.

 

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