Coordinates of Resilience

Lenore T. Ealy

The story of successful disaster response and recovery after Hurricane Katrina is the story of human action undertaken at the most personal level.

Post-Disaster Recovery and Social Entrepreneurship

Emily Chamlee-Wright and Virgil Henry Storr

Following a disaster, social entrepreneurs provide materials, services, and information and fill in the gaps left by insufficient, government-provided services.

Information Trickles Up

Jerry Brito and Daniel M. Rothschild

In the aftermath of disasters, information travels in a variety of directions and through a variety of means, but very rarely does it flow from the top down.

Visible Hearts, Invisible Hands

Roxanne Alvarez and Veronique de Rugy

Americans give money away, lots of it. But why do they give and what nonprofits do with that money?

Centralizing Compassion: A Disaster’s Tale

Jennifer D. Zambone

What happens to a society if the government becomes the only source of compassion?

Profiles

Connie Uddo

Outreach Coordinator: Beacon of Hope

"We weren’t bureaucratic. There was not red tape to go through. You needed help; you got it."

Mary Tran

Executive Director: Mary Queen of Vietnam Community Development Corporation

"Our area wasn’t on the map to be returned, so because we kept up-to-date with what the city was doing, we organized community members to go up to City Hall to let the committee know that we’ve already returned. You can’t turn us into green space."

Zack Rosenburg

Co-founder and Co-director: St. Bernard Project

"We were shocked to see the lack of progress and [that] there was hardly anything going on. There was no rebuilding going on."

Saundra Reed

Chair of the Board: Central City Renaissance Alliance

"We the people, the residents, the citizens, have come to a clearer understanding...that it is our responsibility to participate in the direction that our future is going in and make clear [that] what our voices say needs to be honored."

Tronn Moller

Gulf Coast Consultant: National Council of Churches

"Churches bring to FEMA, to Homeland Security, a level of expertise in disaster. Being able to provide water, and being able to provide food, being able to provide housing."

Katie Mears

Gutting/Rebuilding Program Coordinator: Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana

"We were working with the most desperate cases, oftentimes acknowledging the gutting wasn’t about reconstruction. It was about closure for the pre-Katrina life."

Karen Gadbois

Founder: Squandered Heritage; Member: New Orleans Institute for Resilience and Innovation

"There’s a recognition that the most effective change agents and heavy lifters have been either in nonprofit sector, or...just pure volunteer."

Pam Dashiell

Co-Director: Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development; Board Member: Holy Cross Neighborhood Association

"We talk to the community. It’s not us with the knowledge; it’s the community with the knowledge. It’s an interactive deal, absolutely....We are the people, and we live here."