America's Promise Alliance

Katrina's Kids

When Hurricane Katrina displaced millions from their homes in 2005, the America’s Promise Alliance launched Katrina’s Kids — a unique initiative that unites the public and nonprofit sectors at the local level. Through coordinated efforts, with state and local officials, Alliance partners have worked to ensure that disadvantaged young people, displaced by natural disasters receive the resources they need — including the Five Promises.

Learn about the services being provided to assist children in New Orleans, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Region and those who have relocated to Houston, by using the navigation to the right.

Two-Year Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

August 29, 2007 marks the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on the Gulf Coast. Much progress has been made but there is still work to be done. The approximately 200,000 students displaced from public schools during the 2005 hurricanes represent the largest displacement of students in U.S. history. 

• As of summer 2007 more than 25,000 young people displaced by Katrina still live in FEMA trailers.
  
• As many as 20% of the children and youth in these families are experiencing emotional or behavioral difficulties not present before the storm.
  
• Many schools in the region are now operational, but lack adequate staffs, books, equipment, play areas and partner support to fully meet the tremendous needs of students and their families.
  
• As an example of the work being done, America’s Promise Alliance Partner Hands On New Orleans is using volunteers to run school libraries that otherwise would be closed due to a lack of operational staff.

Path-Breaking Partnerships

Through the collaborations formed for Katrina’s Kids, an initiative of the America’s Promise Alliance — nonprofit organizations, government agencies and offices, and other groups go beyond their formal boundaries, overcome bureaucracies, and establish common ground and uncommon levels of communication and cooperation to fill gaps in services for children and youth.

By May 2008 the Katrina’s Kids initiative will improve the lives of thousands of young people in New Orleans, Mississippi and Houston. The Alliance continues to help thousands of children in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Alliance partners are working with officials in these states in a focused, coordinated effort to ensure that Katrina’s Kids receive the most essential resources they need for the long term.

"The initiative has combined proven business strategies with service agency best practices to reach communities that with time can be stronger than they were pre-Katrina," said Mark Wright, director of partnerships, National Children’s Museum.

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:

• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• 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.
  

More than 1.1 million Americans have volunteered in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and it has been largest volunteer response to a disaster in the nation’s history. As the region recovers young people need your support.

Click Here to find partner organizations that can help you find volunteer opportunities.