Rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina

Code: e66abe0e-aa39-11ea-a6b1-0050560ad241 Copied

United States Construction Manual work Renovation Construction Manual work +1 Permanent

About the project

📝 Detailed information

🏢 About the local organisation

lowernine.org is a non-profit organization dedicated to the long-term recovery of New Orlean historic Lower Ninth Ward following Hurricane Katrina and the levee breaches of 2005. We are actively engaged in the long-term recovery of the hardest-hit, slowest-recovering neighborhood in New Orleans Œ a neighborhood that was 98.1% African-American in 2005. Though over 60% of residents lived below the AMI, the neighborhood still enjoyed one of the highest rates of Black homeownership in the nation, with most having lived in homes that were passed down for generations. Hurricane Katrina and the ensuing levee breaches ended the relative financial security people in this community had previously enjoyed in owning their properties outright.

lowernine.org uses volunteer labor under skilled supervision to rebuild flood-damaged properties, bringing cost of construction down to approximately 30% of open market rate. We are also able to reduce some clients™ rebuild costs by connecting them with additional project funding and in-kind donations of materials and subcontractor services. Since 2007, lowernine.org has had volunteers from 38 different countries provide over 11 million dollars™ worth of volunteer labor to complete 93 full rebuilds and more than 300 smaller housing repairs. Our home rebuild program has returned more Lower Ninth Ward families to safe, affordable housing than any other single organization in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, recovery has been slow, blight remains high, and population return is significantly lower than the rest of the city. As of the 10th anniversary of Katrina, Lower Ninth Ward population return was only 36.7%, lagging far behind the rest of the City of New Orleans.

💼 What the programme involves

The vast majority of lowernine.org's work is in residential construction in the Lower Ninth Ward, including but not limited to the following: carpentry; electrical wiring; plumbing; roofing; framing; installing insulation; hanging, taping, mudding or sanding sheetrock; tiling; painting; installing windows and doors; installing bathroom fixtures; installing kitchen cabinets and counters; gardening/landscaping. We cannot tell you ahead of time what you will be doing, but all our projects are guaranteed to contribute in some way to the rebuild efforts of our neighborhood.

We work Tuesday to Saturday, 8:00am-4:30 pm with a one hour lunch break from 12-1:00pm. Each day starts with a meeting of all volunteers and staff at our office at 1739 Jourdan Ave, New Orleans, LA 70117. New volunteer orientations occur on Tuesdays, so you should do your best to schedule a Monday as your arrival day. We strongly encourage volunteers to join us for a minimum of two full consecutive work days. We will provide all necessary project training, tools and safety equipment. Skilled Crew Leadersteach unskilled volunteers all the necessary tasks for repair and rebuild projects.

All volunteers should consider that we work and live in an urban community before arriving in New Orleans to work with us. We haven't had many issues with safety and security on Jourdan Ave, and wouldn't be working and living in the community if we felt it endangered our volunteers. We do enjoy a wonderfully positive relationship with the resident community and are respected for the work we've done and are committed to continuing, but please consider if you will be comfortable working in this type of environment before you arrive.
It is important for all of our volunteers, especially long term volunteers, to understand, engage, and empathize with the community we are working with. We appreciate the work ethic and energy our volunteers bring, but we must all be aware of the history of institutionalized racism that brought us here to the Lower Ninth Ward in the first place. Many of our clients identify with marginalized communities and therefore it is essential that we as staff, interns, and volunteers (especially those identifying as white) are aware of our own privileges and identities in that context. As we step into this space, we must constantly work to understand where people are coming from, rather than judging, stereotyping, or assuming.

🏠 Accommodation on site

Our volunteer house, located at 1739 Jourdan Ave, New Orleans, holds our offices as well as our volunteer housing. We have four bedrooms with 4 bunked beds per room plus one trundle bed, four full baths, laundry, wifi, full kitchen and living space. Our house is secure and only accessible to lowernine.org volunteers, but we ask everyone to reconsider bringing along valuables as there may not be a place to lock them and we void all responsibility for any lost or damaged possessions. We hope all volunteers will consider their personal comfort levels with communal living before committing to stay with us--there is little personal space and even less privacy. Chores are assigned to everyone staying in the house, and volunteers are responsible for completing these chores daily. Also consider that the house is only as clean as the volunteers who live there keep it.

🍲 Food

lowernine.org will provide three meals a day to all volunteers staying on site with us. Our meals are generally pretty basic and we can always accommodate vegetarians, but vegans/gluten free/etc should plan to bring or supplement their food. Please let us know in advance whether you have dietary restrictions or allergies of any sort. All volunteers staying in the house take turns cooking dinner for the other volunteers in the house. Volunteers make breakfast and lunch for themselves. Grocery shopping is done once a week by the House Manager. Grocery requests can be made, but our limited budget means we may not be able to honor all requests.

📍 About the location

All volunteers should consider that we work and live in an urban community before arriving in
New Orleans to work with us. We haven't had many issues with safety and security at our old
volunteer house on Jourdan Ave, and wouldn't be working and living in the community if we
felt it endangered our volunteers. We do enjoy a wonderfully positive relationship with the
resident community and are respected for the work we've done and are committed to
continuing, but please consider if you will be comfortable working in this type of environment
before you arrive.

🎒 Leisure activities

Volunteers are encouraged to spend time off-site exploring the city, sampling the local cuisine and enjoying a brass band or second line. Unfortunately, we are not able to coordinate recreational activities for volunteers, but there are usually several opportunities to get out and about in the evenings and we'll be more than happy to direct you to our favorite spots. We do ask that if you plan to take any days off to sight-see that you plan these at either the beginning or end of your time in New Orleans and outside of your scheduled time with us.
We expect all volunteers to behave in a responsible and respectful manner towards everyone at all times. We do not tolerate illegal behavior: please remember that the legal drinking age in Louisiana is 21.

⚠️ Requirements

You must be at an intermediate conversational English level, as well as intermediate listening
English level to volunteer

🤝 Meeting point

If you are in a group of more than 4 people, you must bring your own
vehicles. lowernine.org does not own any organization vehicles, and staff simply do not have
room in their personal vehicles to transport large groups.

ℹ️ Additional information

All volunteers who stay in our house are asked to pay a one-time $60 fee, plus a housing fee ($250/week for the first three weeks. $200 per week for week 4 - 12) to help offset the costs of three meals a day, house utilities and maintenance as well as project expenses, which include fuel, safety equipment, insurance and tool and vehicle maintenance.

Volunteers who wish to stay longer than 12 weeks will be assessed on a case-by-case basis and only agreed to after satisfactory performance review.

You must obtain either a visa or visa waiver before entering the United States. If you will be in
the US for less than 90 days, you may only need to apply for the Visa Waiver Program through
ESTA. If you intend to visit the US for longer than 90 days, you need to apply for a Visitor Visa
B. This will allow you to volunteer with us, and will not allow you to earn money while you are in
the US. We are happy to provide documentation about our organization's work as needed for
visa and visa waiver applications.

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