August 29, 2007: The work continues...

August 29, 2007

Greetings Friends

On this day, the second anniversary of Katrina, we want to take a moment to reflect on some of the positive steps that have been made over the past two years of recovery and provide a glimpse at the hope of our quest to ‘rebuild New Orleans one afternoon at a time’.

Participants in Building Better Communities' Summer eXcite program in New Orleans East, Summer 2007.

• During the 2006/2007 school year, nearly 5,000 New Orleans public school children enrolled in public charter schools had access to at least partial week low-cost or no-cost afterschool. We are working hard to significantly increase that number this year through new and continued partnerships with school and community programs.
• Nearly 10,000 New Orleans children participated in summer camps funded by the Unified Summer Grant Fund - a collaborative effort between GNO Afterschool Partnership, the Emeril Lagassi Foundation, Save the Children, the United Way of Greater New Orleans, and the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps. Our special thanks to the Greater New Orleans Foundation, Citibank, and the Bank of America Corporation/Balfour Fund for the their financial support.
• Through support from the Corporation for Public Service, Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu, the Louisiana Serve Commission, and the Office of Gulf Coast Recovery Chairman Don Powell, GNO Afterschool Partnership coordinated the placement of over 150 AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers in summer camp programs throughout the area. This "Summer of Service" was a life-changing event for the volunteers and the children they served.
• While serious crime problems continue to plague our city, we thank U.S. Attorney Jim Letten for allowing us to bring focus to the need for more opportunities for youth engagement, particularly through afterschool, as one solution to this crisis. We will continue to work closely with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies and community groups to provide our youth with more positive opportunities.
• In late June 2007 GNO Afterschool Partnership with the help of Public/Private Ventures and the National Institute on Out-of-School Time, hosted the Cross-Cities Network, which allowed Urban Afterschool Intermediaries from around the country to examine the challenges afterschool in New Orleans is facing. The work of this group has been invaluable in shaping strategies for the Afterschool Partnership’s continued work and providing ongoing resources.
• The 2007/2008 school year sees GNO Afterschool Partnership continuing to offer coordination and support services to the Algier’s Charter School Association. Additionally, GNO Afterschool Partnership has begun a formal partnership with the Recovery School District to provide coordination and support services to the public schools they oversee. We are honored to have The After School Corporation (TASC) in New York helping us as we embark on this significant endeavor.
• The leadership of Children & Youth Investment Trust Corporation of Washington, D.C. will visit New Orleans later this fall to provide stakeholder education and youth worker training on their DC BEST youth development program. It is our hope that our community leaders will be able to apply lessons from CYITC experiences and pursue their Advancing Youth Development training for those working with the youth of New Orleans.

Our journey towards a complete and healthy New Orleans remains a long one, with many obstacles still to be discovered and overcome. But we know it is through the relationships we build with groups and individuals, like you, that we will obtain our goal. Thank you for your support and please remain involved as we strive towards access to quality afterschool for all the children of New Orleans!