Have Faith in the Big Easy
A Survey of Faith-Based Initiatives and Leadership in Post-Katrina New Orleans
The following report is the culmination of research conducted as part of a University of Pennsylvania "Ideas in Action" seminar with Professor John J. DiIulio Jr. The course, entitled Religion and US Public Policy: The Case of Post-Katrina New Orleans, gathered a group of 19 students from various religious, cultural, and political backgrounds and perspectives to address important issues regarding religion and its relation to the government.
The cornerstone of our seminar was a trip to the city of New Orleans. We gathered information regarding the recovery effort since Hurricane Katrina. More specifically, we investigated what faith-based organizations are doing to aid in the recovery and how they can continue to effectively contribute to the rebuilding effort. We sought to gather information on the organizations’ presence and operations in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina, and how the storm affected these projects as well as their constituents. We also inquired about the future of these organizations given their smaller constituencies, destroyed facilities, and ailing communities, not to mention the enormous need for social services and infrastructure improvement. To that end, we interviewed a wide variety of sources including representatives from large national faith-based organizations, local ministers and priests, and even the staff of the Louisiana Recovery Agency. Through these interviews we saw that religious non-profits are leading the charge. The results of these interviews and our conclusions follow in this report. We hope that it provides a thorough picture of the status of the recovery effort and the tremendous contributions of the faith-based community thus far. Ultimately, however, the task of revitalizing New Orleans is too large to be accomplished by faith-based organizations alone. Partnerships with government are necessary, as only the federal government has the resources to truly rebuild New Orleans.
Click here for full report
For more information about the faith-based organizations that we visited in New Orleans contact:
Catholic Charities
(504) 523-3755
ccano@archdiocese-no.org
www.ccano.org
First Baptist Church of the Annunciation
(504) 482-5775
www.fbcno.org
Free Church of the Annunciation
(504) 895-8697
www.annunciationinexile.homestead.com
Habitat for Humanity
(504) 861-2077
www.habitat-nola.org
Jericho Road
(504) 251-6014
bradfordmpowers@aol.com
Saint John's #5 Faith Church
(504) 288-3272
(504) 228-3479 cell
pastorbruce7@yahoo.com
www.faithlikejesus.org
Salvation Army
(504) 899-4569
army@gnofn.org
Upper 9th Ward Women's Shelter
(504) 202-7394
Jackie@Gatesofprayer.org
Religion and U.S. Public Policy (Spring 2007) Student Participants:
Alyssa Budihas, Meryl Cohen, Andrea Collins, Joe Gross, JJ Huber, Jill Kahn, Asami Kawamoto, Judith Kim, Gabe Kopin, Abe Kwon, Sean-Tamba Matthew, Max Nacheman, Anna Raper, Naveed Rashid, Rania Riad, Cara Suvall, Ben Tracy, Kristin Williams, Pamela Yau
