Katrina Response
As Hurricane Katrina began to shift her course in the Gulf of Mexico in late August 2005, Reconcile New Orleans was gearing up for a new group of students to enter its Youth Workforce Development Program. Already more than 300 at-risk youth had graduated from the program which is conducted at the nonprofit Café Reconcile restaurant. With an eye on the weather reports on that Friday in late summer, the windows were boarded, and both Café and staff members returned to their homes to await developments, fully expecting to return on Monday morning and begin the new training sessions.
But the week of August 29, 2005 brought an unprecedented, unanticipated, and unfathomable challenge to the residents of the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. The flooding of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina exposed not only the failure of human engineering but also, more profoundly, the failure of society to create a just and secure community.
The racial and economic inequalities in New Orleans were laid bare in those first days. Now, two and a half years after Katrina made landfall, New Orleans is still grieving, as loss permeates many families.
In the midst of the confusion and chaos which followed Hurricane Katrina, a group of volunteers and neighbors scrubbed, cleaned and opened Café Reconcile on October 17, 2005- serving warm and nourishing midday meals to first-responders, construction crews, local businesses, and the slow trickle of returning neighbors and citizens. As an integral part of this community’s revitalization and recovery, Reconcile New Orleans stands as a beacon of hope for a new and better life.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina Reconcile has revised its programming to meet the needs of post-Katrina New Orleans by expanding its Youth Training Programs to include instruction in the construction trade, instituted a second-tier program in the hospitality arts, expanded its operating staff, and initiated an affordable housing initiative with partners Jericho Road and CrossRoads Missions. In all these endeavors we seek a path of reconciliation for New Orleans youth and the Central City neighborhood.
With all mission-driven activities focused on providing young people with the professional and interpersonal skills necessary to change the course of their lives, Reconcile New Orleans is confident of the role these youngsters will play in rebuilding New Orleans-One plate of red beans and rice at a time, one piece of sheetrock at a time.