Lower 9th Ward Community Coalition

Make It Right has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Lower 9th Ward Stakeholders Coalition to work toward building sustainable and affordable homes for pre-Katrina residents seeking to return to the neighborhood. The Coalition includes leaders from the following Lower 9th Ward organizations:

Holy Cross Neighborhood Association

Founded in 1981, Holy Cross Neighborhood Association (HCNA)’s mission is to improve the living conditions and serve the needs of its residents in Holy Cross New Orleans. HCNA works to preserve cultural and architectural heritage, serves as a clearinghouse for information, and actively represents the interests of the neighborhood with city, state and federal agencies, private businesses, community organizations, and individuals, for the purpose of actively improving the community.

Charles E. Allen, III, MPH
President
The Assistant Director for External Relations and Director of the Research Academy at the Center for Bioenvironmental Research (CBR) at Tulane and Xavier Universities, Mr. Allen attended Xavier University of Louisiana and received his Master's Degree in Public Health from Tulane University. Since Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Allen has spearheaded efforts to guide the restoration and recovery of the Holy Cross/Lower 9th Ward community. He is involved with many organizations, including the U.S. Green Building Council.

New Life Intracoastal Community Development Corporation

New Life Intracoastal Community Development Corporation (NLICDC) is a non-profit organization that was founded in September of 1993 with the vision of building affordable housing for residents of the Lower 9th Ward. The board members are all community minded residents of the Lower 9th Ward. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, NLICDC successfully built five homes for Lower 9th Ward families. Since the Hurricane, NLICDC has been providing homebuyer training, design services, and information to residents.

Willie Calhoun, Jr
Founder
A soon-to-be retiring FAA inspector of non-federal airports, Willie Calhoun is a product of George Washington Carver Sr. High School and Southern University of New Orleans. He is a lifelong resident of the Lower 9th Ward and is also a Baptist minister. He founded the New Life Intracoastal Community Development Corporation during the 1990's to encourage community development and to create affordable housing in the area. Since Katrina, he has been diligently working to help his community recover.

All Congregations Together (A.C.T)

All Congregations Together, ACT, is a congregation-based community organization dedicated to empowering people to affect change and improve the quality of life of families and communities in Greater New Orleans. ACT does this by developing leaders in member congregations and teaching them to organize. Sponsored by the New Orleans Interfaith Sponsoring Committee (NOISC), ACT works to utilize faith to allow people of diverse backgrounds to help each other recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Mary Croom-Fontenot
Executive Director
A native New Orleanian and resident of the 9th Ward, Mary Croom-Fontenot is a graduate of the New Orleans Public School system and received her Bachelor's degree from Southwestern Louisiana University. A mother of three daughters and sister of five, she found the conditions of the Lower 9th Ward to be deplorable after Hurricane Katrina and, therefore, felt compelled to use her strong leadership to empower people to improve their quality of life and the Lower 9th Ward.

Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED)

The Lower 9th Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development (CSED) is an initiative of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association that seeks to stimulate civic engagement and restorative rebuilding in the community. The project strives to encourage repopulation, sustain natural systems, assist community leadership and preserve resources in the Lower 9th Ward. The CSED assists returning residents by acquiring resources in bulk and training residents in rebuilding homes using energy efficient, sustainable materials and technologies.

Pamela Dashiell
President
A resident of the Lower 9th Ward for the past 15 years, Pamela Dashiell is the former President of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association. She now directs the Lower Ninth Ward Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development. After Hurricane Katrina, she relocated temporarily to St. Louis where she continued to advocate for her community. Now back at home, she helps Lower 9th Ward residents rebuild through her work with CSED and by directing volunteers.

Lower Ninth Ward Homeowners Association

The Lower Ninth Ward Homeowner's Association, located in the heart of the Lower 9th Ward community, has been working diligently to rebuild and revive the community. The goal is to restore the Lower 9th Ward to the thriving, loving and caring community it was before the disasters of poverty, crime and Hurricane Katrina. The Homeowners Association has spent countless hours helping their neighborhood by organizing residents and maintaining community contiguity.

Linda Jackson
President
As president of the Lower 9th Ward Homeowners Association, Linda Jackson coordinates efforts to help homeowners in the community rebuild. She organizes neighborhood watch security of the Lower 9th Ward through Block Captains, seeks monetary resources to help reconstruct homes, and advocates throughout the nation, state and city of New Orleans to obtain help in rebuilding. She also informs residents of policy changes through monthly meetings and connects them to Legal Aid and Counseling resources.

Lower 9th Ward ACORN

ACORN and Lower 9th Ward homeowners have begun an unprecedented partnership that has allowed them to be able to work together to advocate for Lower 9th Ward residents. They have worked together to advocate both nationally and locally while working with public and private partnerships to improve conditions for those affected by Hurricane Katrina. They have developed community-based plans to rebuild the neighborhood and have facilitated the rebuilding process through volunteer led demolition and development.

Vanessa Johnson-Gueringer
Chair
A lifelong resident of the Lower 9th Ward, Mrs. Johnson-Gueringer has been a member of ACORN since 2001 and, during September 2005, became chair of the Lower 9th Ward ACORN. Upon returning home after Hurricane Katrina, she was distressed by the lack of interest in rebuilding her community. Her leadership role has allowed her to actively lobby for her community, meet with elected officials, lead protests and confront political leadership about foul treatment of the community.

Lower 9th Ward Health Clinic

The Lower 9th Ward Health Clinic is a nonprofit, community-based resource that arose out of a desperate need for primary healthcare in the Lower 9th Ward and surrounding areas post-Hurricane Katrina. The clinic provides high quality, cost effective, culturally sensitive healthcare services regardless of ability to pay. The staff provides all clients with the support and knowledge they need to successfully care for themselves, and also advocates for patients in healthcare and quality of life issues.

Alice Craft-Kerney
Executive Director
A New Orleans native, Alice Craft-Kerney is a product of the New Orleans Public School System. She graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Southern University of New Orleans and a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from LSUHC School of Nursing. She is executive director of the Lower 9th Ward Health Clinic founded by herself and other community members as a result of inadequate primary healthcare in the Lower 9th Ward post-Hurricane Katrina.

Lower 9th Ward Neighborhood Council, Inc.

The Lower 9th Ward Neighborhood Council, Inc. is a non-profit organization created on November 23, 1966 to serve residents, especially low-income residents, within the boundaries of the Industrial Canal, the Orleans Parish line, Florida Avenue and the Mississippi River (the Lower 9th Ward). The council works with various organizations to assist residents and improve the local quality of life. After Hurricane Katrina, the focus is to advise the dispersed and encourage residents to return home.

Vera McFadden
President
President of the Lower 9th Ward Neighborhood Council and resident since 1951, Mrs. McFadden is the secretary at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School for Science and Technology, where she worked pre- and post-Katrina. Through her activities with the Lower 9th Ward Neighborhood Council, Mrs. McFadden is an outspoken advocate for her neighborhood to help her neighborhood recover.

Common Ground Relief

Common Ground's mission is to provide short-term relief for victims of hurricane disasters in the gulf coast region and long-term support in rebuilding the communities affected in the New Orleans area, recently shifting focus to the 9th ward. It is a community-initiated volunteer organization offering assistance, mutual aid and support. It gives hope to communities by working with them to provide immediate needs and emphasizing mutual cooperation to rebuild their lives in sustainable ways.

Malik Rahmi
Founder
Raised in New Orleans' Algiers neighborhood, Malik Rahim founded and operated the Algiers Development Center and Invest Transitional Housing. He is co-founder and outreach organizer of "Housing is a Human Right" in San Francisco, California and co-founded Common Ground Relief in September 2005, with Scott Crow and Brandon Darby. Since Hurricane Katrina, nearly 13,000 volunteers have gutted over 3,000 homes in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans through their efforts.

The Lower 9th Ward Village Community Center

The Lower 9th Ward Village is a community-driven, community-led, nonprofit based in the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana. The main goal of the Village is to bring together the entire Lower 9th Ward and to empower community members to be self-sufficient and to sustain an equitable quality of life. The Village focuses on connecting the elderly and youth with services and providing care and guidance from the community as a whole. It takes a village...

Lower 9th Ward Village
1001 Charbonnet Street
New Orleans, Louisiana
70117
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Mack McClendon
1-504-799-8975

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