National

Gulf Coast Funders for Equity

The mission of the Gulf Coast Funders for Equity (GCFE) is to promote a just, equitable and sustainable rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The GCFE is a collection of public and private foundations as well as networks of individual donors committed to equitable rebuilding along the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast.

$25,000

District of Columbia

The Praxis Project Inc.

The Praxis Project is a national, nonprofit organization that builds partnerships with local groups to influence policymaking and address the underlying, systemic causes of community problems. Committed to closing the health gap facing communities of color, Praxis forges alliances for building healthy communities. They help local groups hold institutions accountable by designing community-based plans, conducting research, developing media strategies and developing policy initiatives to achieve sustainable results.

$45,000

Georgia

Southern Partners Fund, Atlanta

The mission of the Southern Partners Fund (SPF) is to serve southern communities and organizations seeking social, economic, and environmental justice by providing them with financial resources, opportunities for technical assistance and training, and access to systems of information and power. This support is specifically for the Justice Fund for Katrina Relief and Renewal (JFKRR) at SPF.

$5,000

Louisiana

100 Black Men of Lake Charles, Lake Charles

100 Black Men is a national leadership development and advocacy organization of concerned African American men whose goal is to improve the quality of life in the African American community through their collective resources, abilities, and experiences. This support is to seed the development of a local chapter of 100 Black Men in Southwestern Louisiana.

$5,000

Efforts of Grace, Inc./Ashé Cultural Arts Center, New Orleans         

Efforts of Grace/Ashé Cultural Arts Center accomplishes its mission by producing cultural arts programs and by providing an artistic approach to the redevelopment of the economic infrastructure in New Orleans, with a specific focus on the existing oppressive social conditions that devalue and disempower based on gender and race. Through the creation of partnerships and collaborations such as their upcoming production of the “The Katrina Monologues,” an original theatre piece that ensures an artistic record of the experience of New Orleanians, Efforts of Grace/Ashé Cultural Arts Center, brings together the forces of community development, cultural and artist support to promote social justice and community change. 

$5,000

Emmitt Spurlock Memorial Foundation, Baton Rouge

In partnership with faith-based organizations, the Emmitt Spurlock Memorial Foundation provides technical assistance to disaster relief recipients, identifies shelters, provides advocacy to displaced persons, and works with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in establishing the capacity to process applications at church sites.

$15,000

Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children, New Orleans

Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC) is a statewide membership-based organization dedicated to creating a better life for all of Louisiana’s youth, especially those who are involved, or are at risk of becoming involved, in the juvenile justice system. Parents, siblings, extended family members, and allies seek to use education, direct action organizing, and peer advocacy to build strong, powerful families and communities and to fight for justice for their children and themselves. This grant supported travel expenses for FFLIC staff to attend a fundraiser in New York City.

$3,000

Louisiana (New Orleans) Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, New Orleans

Louisiana (New Orleans) Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) is a membership-based community organizing effort committed to making New Orleans a better place to live. As a leader in the rebuilding of New Orleans post the breaking of the levees, New Orleans ACORN has taken leadership on such issues as affordable housing, insurance pricing, living wages, lead poisoning prevention, and voting rights.

$40,000

The Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association, New Orleans

The Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association (NENA) is a resident-organized and controlled community development organization formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. NENA is working to organize community residents, both those who have returned to the neighborhood and those who are still displaced. They have been integral to the redevelopment of the Lower Ninth Ward through their work to design and implement community-based architectural projects and resident-developed educational programs, as well as to promote economic development models that benefit small businesses in the community.  NENA also serves as an advocate for the future of the community by taking on issues such as employment, education, and housing.

$40,000

Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans, New Orleans

The mission of Neighborhood Housing Services (NHS) is to revitalize New Orleans neighborhoods by increasing the number of homeowners and reducing the number of substandard or vacant houses through renovation, into sustainable and productive homeownership. In addition to its citywide efforts, NHS is engaged in comprehensive community development within targeted neighborhoods to improve the quality of life and promote commercial redevelopment.

$40,000

New Orleans Re-Think Project, New Orleans

The New Orleans Re-Think Project, organized by education advocates, brings youth voices into evaluating and shaping the future of New Orleans’ schools. Re-Think is designed to help low-income young people whose lives have been devastated by Katrina to reframe the stories they tell about who they are and who they will become, and to develop the insight, vision, and voice to move from being “powerless victim” to resilient, capable achievers and leaders.

$16,565

New Orleans Survivor Council

The New Orleans Survivor Council (NOSC) was created in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as a grassroots organization of poor, black survivors, primarily from the Lower Ninth Ward, joining together to assert their right to return and rebuild their lives in New Orleans. NOSC is developing leaders from their own community so as to advocate for and effectively meet the needs of their members. As an arm of the People’s Organizing Committee (POC), their focus is in the areas of housing, schools, health care and jobs with one of their major efforts being the preservation of habitable public housing.

$20,000

New Orleans Women’s Health and Justice Initiative, New Orleans

The New Orleans Women's Health & Justice Initiative (WHJI), is a multi-dimensional community-based organizing project formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, centered on improving low income and uninsured women of color's access to quality, affordable, and safe health care services and; organizing women for sexual health and reproductive justice through community-based strategies to equip those most disenfranchised by the medical industry with the means to control and care for their own bodies, sexuality, and reproduction.

$30,000

Operation REACH, Inc., New Orleans

Operation REACH is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to providing access for youth and their families to high-quality educational opportunities. Their programs are designed to foster lifelong learning and personal success in the areas of work, recreation, and community service.

$8,500

Youth Empowerment Project, New Orleans

The Youth Empowerment Project (YEP), born out of The Post Disposition Project (PDP), is a component of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana that has been in existence since the summer of 2001. YEP has been dedicated to securing the release of hundreds of incarcerated youth and providing them with aftercare support and monitoring services. With the recent juvenile justice reforms in Louisiana, YEP has turned its focus to providing and advocating for more intensive aftercare services for youth exiting secure care.

$15,000

Mississippi

East Biloxi Disaster Coordination Center, Biloxi

The East Biloxi Coordination and Relief Center, was established within days of Hurricane Katrina with a mission to meet the needs of local residents for immediate relief and support. Currently, the Center is delivering invaluable services to thousands of East Biloxi residents who lost their homes and jobs in the disaster. This work includes the creation of a community plan for housing redevelopment in East Biloxi, housing repairs and the establishment of a community development corporation to engage in housing construction.

$30,000

Focusing Our Community Upon Sustainability, Pascagoula

The mission of Focusing Our Community Upon Sustainability (FOCUS) is to enrich and empower the residents and city of Moss Point by serving as a support system during the redevelopment of the city that was severely impacted by Hurricane Katrina. FOCUS will help the Moss Point community grow by advocating the development of community services and programs such as recreation, cultural programs, job training, character building, and workforce investment specifically designed to address the most urgent needs of citizens.

$15,000

Gulf Coast Policy Forum, Jackson         

Recovery and Renewal for Gulf Coast Working Families: A Policy Forum to Commemorate Two Years Post Disasters will bring together young community, civic and business leaders from Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi; prominent national and state elected officials and; local, state, national, and international media representatives in an unprecedented opportunity to strategize on how to support, recover, and renew the countless working families in this vital American region.

$25,000

New York

Casa Atabex Ache, Bronx

Casa Atabex Ache supports women of color to reconnect with their individual and collective powers of healing and action so they may transform their lives, families and communities. Utilizing a holistic model, Casa's mission is to support the emotional, spiritual, physical and intellectual development of women and their health needs related to their experiences of abuse, neglect, and trauma suffered by women in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

$10,000

Blackout Arts Collective, New York

Blackout Arts Collective (BAC) is a grassroots coalition of artists, activists and educators working to empower communities of color through the arts. BAC uses the tools of culture and education to raise awareness and catalyze action around the critical issues that impact communities. They believe in the power of the creative process to transform lives, mobilize communities, and build a more just society. Their production arm, Climbing PoeTree, is touring the country in “Hurricane Season,” a two-woman, multimedia piece that explores critical issues facing the nation and planet through the kaleidoscope of Hurricane Katrina.

$5,000

New York Regional Association of Grantmakers, New York

The New York Regional Association of Grantmakers (NYRAG) is the nonprofit membership organization of and for philanthropy in the New York metropolitan area. They strengthen philanthropy by offering programs and resources that support effective and strategic grantmaking and that facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing, with the goal of communicating the value of the philanthropic sector in our society. The mission of the NYRAG Gulf Coast Recovery Task Force is to equip member institutions and other donors across the country with information and resources to most effectively respond to both the immediate and long-term needs of the communities affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; to facilitate collaboration among NYRAG members; to share knowledge about the benefits of collaboration; and to glean recommended practices that grantmakers can apply to other natural disasters in the future.

$5,000

Texas

Texas ACORN, Houston

Texas ACORN is a multi-issue, multi-ethnic community organization uniting the nine city chapters of ACORN in Texas on coordinated statewide strategies.  Run by and for its membership of 16,500 low and moderate income families, Texas ACORN works to build strong and vibrant community organizations. Since it was founded, Texas ACORN has used grassroots organizing, leadership development and training, and fostering civic engagement in order to help families in low and moderate income communities build the people-power they need to protect their housing rights, expand educational opportunities for their children, create safer neighborhoods, and win influence in state and federal policy affecting their communities.

$15,000

Virginia

The University of Virginia (UVA), Charlottesville

The UVA School of Architecture assessment team will conduct an in-depth assessment of Biloxi, Mississippi leading up to The Biloxi Community Dialogues. The Dialogues seek to establish common ground among community leaders, local elected officials and casino representatives among others to collectively meet the challenges of achieving an equitable rebuilding of the city of East Biloxi.

$14,300