WOMEN'S REBUILD WEEK

Change Corps was proud to join in the efforts of the St. Bernard Project by connecting them with volunteers and sponsors for their Women's Rebuild Week in May 2009.More than 200 women (and their male counterparts) descended on St. Bernard Parish to take part in the St. Bernard Project’s third annual Women’s Rebuild Week.  This week-long event celebrated the role women play in our lives by empowering them to help rebuild more than 20 homes.  The rebuild drew volunteers from across the country, as well as strong female celebrity role models.  Teaming up with Mid-City Institution Finn McCool's Irish Pub, Change Corps intends to continue to help the St. Bernard Project as they move their operations into Orleans Parish.

"With the support of more than 11,000 volunteers, the St. Bernard Project has completely rebuilt more than 200 homes since the hurricanes of 2005.  Utilizing volunteer labor and donations for building supplies, SBP is able to completely rebuild a gutted home in fewer than 12 weeks for about $12,000 worth of building supplies per house.  Despite its success, SBP has much work left to do.  In St. Bernard Parish, there are still 1,000 FEMA trailers occupied by seniors, families and people with disabilities.  Seventy-three percent of these Americans are homeowners who can’t rebuild their homes without support (before Katrina there was a 4 percent unemployment rate, a 75 percent homeownership rate and the median household income was $36,000 per year).  We currently have a waiting list of more than 60 families, and we receive 10 to 20 applications each week.  We also opened a Community Wellness and Mental Health Center in February and offices in the Gentilly neighborhood in May."

                                -Liz McCartney                                    Founder SBP

WETLAND RESTORATION

On January 31, 2009, we received last minute word that Bayou Rebirth needed help with plantings in Bayou Sauvage. 

Cheers go to Phi Sigma Pi chapters from Tulane, LSU and the University of Alabama who offered to staff this event in a heartbeat... with an extra special shout out to Lauren Anderson, our Change Corps Tulane representative, who coordinated it. 

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S

CALL TO SERVICE

Change Corps of New Orleans organized several events over the 2009 Martin Luther King Holiday Weekend on the eve of the Presidential Inauguration.  Thanks go to Change Corps' Kate Alexander for hosting Letter Writing to Veterans in Walter Reed Army Hospital and for Steve Watson and Ben Sherman, owners of the Kingpin, for sponsoring our Toiletry Drive for the Ninth Ward Women's Shelter.  Additionally, we provided volunteers and/or promotion for events like the Saint Bernard Project's Rebuilding the Dream and the Sula Foundation's Pit-Bullenial Art Show and Adoption Day at Canine Culture.

Ben and Steve of the Kingpin

Thanks to your generosity, in January 2009, the Change Corps toiletry drive for the New Orleans Women's Shelter in the 9th Ward was a huge success.  We would like to continue to help NOWS in whatever ways we can. The shelter is a very comfortable home which houses women (and their children) while they are looking for work or making plans to return to school for further education.  While residents, women receive career guidance and parenting training.  This is a small, model shelter whose success, we hope, will be duplicated elsewhere in New Orleans and throughout other cities in our nation.The shelter operates almost entirely with a volunteer staff and could use assistance with general operations like answering phone calls or intake of new clients.  If addressing the issue of homelessness in our city is something you would like to be involved in and if you can donate an 8 hour day each week over at least a 3 month period, please email lynda@changecorpsnola.org to set up a meeting with the shelter director.

NEW ORLEANS

INAUGURAL PARTY

AT TIPITINA'S

Thanks to all who came out for the Official New Orleans Inaugural Bash!January 20, 2009 was an historic day for Americans wherever they were.

Thanks to our co-sponsors for the event:  OPDEC, Tipitina's Foundation and the local organizers for the Presidential Inaugural Committee's Day of Service.