New Orleans' Kids
The approximately 200,000 public school students displaced from public schools during the 2005 hurricanes represented the largest displacement of students in U.S. history. Hardest hit was New Orleans, where 65,000 students and 7,000 teachers were displaced, and roughly 100 school buildings were damaged or destroyed.
After Katrina, New Orleans’ population shrank from half a million to just 144,000, but Alliance Partners are mobilizing to utilize resources more efficiently and provide a full range of assets for young people. Through collaboration, the partners provide young people with safe places, nutrition services, opportunities to serve others and mental health supports.
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the Katrina’s Kids video. (Need Windows Media Player)
The America’s Promise New Orleans’ Kids Partnership brings together eight nonprofit organizations all working to provide integrated community and school-based services to the youngest victims of Katrina.
As the largest funder of this partnership, the Alliance has committed close to $500,000 to support this collaboration, with monies going to help students in schools throughout the New Orleans area. In the 2007-08 school year, schools such as the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Charter School for Math and Science will receive the following resources:
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Play Power
The Louisiana Children’s Museum will offer in-school activities that include art, drama, storytelling, music and collaborative school projects. Play Power expects to serve more than 300 young people each week, bringing a positive “play” experience to those children healing from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
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Mentors & tutors for students and families
Organizations such as Communities in Schools and City Year New Orleans will provide trained, on-site volunteers for after-school programs and mentor/tutor opportunities, designed to help students improve their attendance and academic performance and lower the rate of behavior referrals.
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Take home meals
The Second Harvest Food Bank will provide more than 100 chronically hungry children with meals to take home through the Lagniappe backpack food program.
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Neighborhood beautification
Hands On New Orleans will organize four community projects with students, such as painting murals, building outdoor classrooms, planting a garden and cleaning up streets around the school.
New Orleans’ Kids is a collaborative effort involving partners from the public, private and nonprofit sectors, including:
United Way for the Greater New Orleans Area
Communities In Schools
City Year of New Orleans
Tulane Center for Public Service
Hands On New Orleans
Second Harvest of New Orleans
Louisiana Children’s Museum
School To Career Initiative of the United Way