Baton Rouge Area Foundation, 2005 Annual Report
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Baton Rouge Area Foundation, 2005 Annual Report As Hurricane Katrina, a massive, slow-moving storm, crossed Florida and entered the Gulf of Mexico on August 28th, the National Weather Service issued an urgent warning: “…devastating damage expected…a most powerful hurricane with unprecedented strength…most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks…” By August 29th, most residents of the greater New Orleans area had evacuated— primarily via I-10, either to or through Baton Rouge. The Baton Rouge Area Foundation, dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in Louisiana’s capital region, began planning its response—hoping that Baton Rouge would only have to serve as a temporary refuge, sheltering our neighbors for a few nights before they could return home. We endured a night of increasingly powerful wind and rain, nervously waiting— Katrina lingering just off the coast until the early morning hours. Foyer, Chalmette, St. Bernard Parish By daybreak, Katrina lashed Louisiana and Mississippi, churning through the brackish waters and destroying hundreds of miles of wetlands, barrier islands, and reefs. Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed. Towns across the region were rendered unrecognizable as hundred-year-old landmarks were wiped away, some pushed miles inland by a devastating storm surge. It appeared, though, that New Orleans had been spared. By 8 a.m., troubling, fragmented reports began surfacing—claiming that the levees had failed, and that New Orleans was flooding. Soon those reports were verified, and those of us with power watched the first images of a flooded Crescent City in disbelief. Searching for Survivors, September 8, 2005, Gentilly, New Orleans Realizing that much of Louisiana had been badly damaged and that an unprecedented relief effort would be necessary, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation began organizing its resources and planning its first steps. Immediately, two funds were created—the Hurricane Katrina Displaced Residents Fund, to benefit the individuals and families that evacuated to the Baton Rouge area; and the Hurricane Katrina New Orleans Recovery Fund, to help rebuild critical infrastructure and human services as displaced residents returned to their homes. The Foundation also launched www.FoundationsForRecovery.org, to raise awareness and fulfill its reporting duties to donors. In the first month, more than five million people visited the site. Emergency Shelter, August 31, 2005, River Center, Baton Rouge Within a matter of hours, our phones were ringing nonstop, overloading our system and operators. Requests for aid and offers of assistance poured into our emails. The local and national community wanted to help, and relied on the Foundation’s knowledge of this community and ability to coordinate partnerships between people, government, and businesses. In the month following Hurricane Katrina, the Foundation fielded more than 6,000 phone calls and countless emails. Our staff and volunteers talked with displaced residents—most of them uncertain about where to turn, and began linking them to local service organizations and shelters. We also spoke with generous people from around the country looking for ways to help, directing monetary contributions to our two relief funds, and connecting more unique offers with organizations that could benefit from them most: to Woman’s Hospital, the services of a private airplane; to shelters across the region, trucks full of relief supplies; and, in St. Bernard Parish, the services of a French rescue team. FEMA Busy Signal, February 13, 2006, New Orleans In the meantime, the Foundation convened a meeting of key leaders from throughout the relief sector. This group, known as the Hurricane Katrina Task Force, immediately began sharing information and working to provide the best care possible to all displaced residents. They met daily at first, later shifting to a weekly and then biweekly schedule. Members of the Hurricane Katrina Task Force: Community Foundation of Acadiana Advance Baton Rouge American Red Cross Baton Rouge Area Foundation Capital Area Human Services District Capital Area United Way Family Road of Greater Baton Rouge Greater New Orleans Inc. Greater New Orleans Foundation International Rescue Committee The Irene W. and C. B. Pennington Foundation The Huey and Angelina Wilson Foundation Return to St. Dominic Catholic Church, November 27, 2005, Lakeview, New Orleans The amount of need facing our community was staggering. In order to best utilize our available resources, the Foundation established a set of basic priorities from which it would consider issuing relief grants from the Hurricane Katrina Displaced Residents Fund. Basic Human Needs became the first priority. Consisting of food, shelter, security, and health care, the presence of quality services in this category across our region was essential to the survival of our neighbors immediately after the storm. After speaking with colleagues at the New York Community Trust and Oklahoma City Community Foundation, we learned that the most pressing and unanticipated problem they faced in dealing with disasters in their communities was the emotional impact on victims and the responders who worked with them, especially on a long-term scale. We quickly began thinking of health care in terms of both physical and mental health. With thousands of families living in shelters and other temporary housing, the Foundation realized that stabilizing children and returning them to school would be paramount to their future success, and designated Education as its second priority. Finally, the Foundation partnered with the Baton Rouge Area Chamber to work in the areas of Employment and Opportunity. Going Home, October 28, 2005, Ninth Ward, New Orleans Through its grantmaking department, the Foundation assembled assessment teams who searched the surrounding region, identifying shelters and service organizations, and measuring their ability, according to our priorities and the local need, to maintain quality assistance. These teams, consisting of staff, Foundation alumni, partner organizations, and expert volunteers, performed hundreds of assessments in the first few weeks. They reported their findings to the Hurricane Katrina Displaced Residents Fund Screening Committee, noting organizations with the capacity to provide critical relief. The Screening Committee, composed of key board, community, and Task Force members, reviewed each assessment, and recommended relief grants to the Foundation’s Executive Committee for final approval. Through this process of assessment and review, the Foundation ensured the highest level of integrity in our grantmaking program, inspired confidence in donors, and issued its first set of grants within 10 days. St. Rose of Lima Chapel, Creole, Cameron Parish The Foundation’s conference center has been an asset during this crisis. The meeting point for our city’s nonprofit response, our offices overflowed with volunteers, community leaders, displaced and partner organizations, and others. The space quickly filled with a great sense of urgency and determination. The Foundation offered office space to displaced New Orleans’ organizations Greater New Orleans Inc. and the Greater New Orleans Foundation. They gratefully accepted temporary offices and began organizing their individual relief efforts. The Foundation also invited and hosted the International Rescue Committee, experts in refugee resettlement, as they performed their Rapid Assessment Report and made recommendations for best serving people in need. Created, in part, with funding from the Foundation, the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps began shaping their organization in our offices, and are now working to coordinate a case-management network across our state for impacted families. Second Line, Ninth Ward, New Orleans Many local businesses approached the Foundation in search of ways to help their impacted employees. Allowed by the IRS during disaster conditions, the Foundation helped several companies establish employer-sponsored assistance programs. These funds let companies create and administer aid programs for their impacted employees, keeping many of them just above the breaking point and allowing them to secure their families. Some companies, like Oreck, sheltered employees, providing aid and counseling, and assuring them that their jobs were secure in the interim. Through December 2005, 1,325 grants were issued to impacted workers, totaling more than $2.8 million. For most, this assistance meant that they were able to hold their lives and families together. Crushed Refrigerators, Slidell, St. Tammany Parish On September 8, 2005, the Foundation’s grantmaking staff reported the assessment teams’ initial findings to the Hurricane Katrina Displaced Residents Fund Screening Committee, detailing the tremendous scope of need across our region, and recommending organizations with the capacity to provide continued, quality care for grants. Emphasizing the need for a swift response, the Foundation issued its first set of grants only 10 days after the storm. Of the $1 million raised in those first few days, $669,794 was disbursed immediately to help relief organizations and shelters provide critical services. After another two weeks, the Screening Committee met again, this time recommending almost $1 million in grants. Over the next several months, assessment teams continued to report on community conditions and need across our region. Through the end of the year, the Foundation issued more than $3.8 million in relief funds from