The Trumpet - March/April 2012

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March/April 2012 • Community Voices Orchestrating Change • Issue 6 Volume 2

NEIGHBOR OOD SPOTLIGH HT

Village de L’EST

INSIDE • School Discipline & Crime in New Orleans • Nine Resume Tips for Today’s Job Market • Village de l’Est – Neighborhood Spotlight • Life As a Neighborhood Activist • Ce Ce Gets 20 Thoughts from Lucky Johnson

Neighborhoods Partnership Network’s (NPN) mission is to improve our quality of life by engaging New Orleanians in neighborhood revitalization and civic process.

THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

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Letter From The Executive Director

EDUCATION: The “New” Civil Rights Movement Photo by: Odd but Complete

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“Every citizen needs an education proportional to the condition and the pursuits of his life.”

—Thomas Jefferson (1814) “The undeniable truth is that the everyday educational experience for many students violates the principle of equity at the heart of the American promise. Its our collective duty to change that. “ —Arne Duncan (2012)

his is NPN’s third year bringing neighborhoods to the table around education. A table that we believe has been set with tools and limited resources for all to participate and partake in the discussion of how do we define excellent public education. Understanding that education is the foundation for civic engagement, I constantly ask the question, “what type of citizen are we attempting to produce?” As the nation lauds the successes in public education that New Orleans is having, there are still some dynamics that we are failing at miserably. The landmark Supreme Court decision of Brown vs. the Board of Education, which led to the integration of the public school system granting all children the right to receive a quality education regardless of sex, color of skin, faith, disability, or income, a right that for the past 58 years is constantly being attack. The very basic civil rights of students are being denied, and with no recourse or reconciliation.

There has been no resolution in the city or state with the termination of local education employees around the dismantling of the middle class infrastructure.

The lack of accountability and oversight is consistently creeping in one direction with little to no consequences, and are having a long term impact on thousands of children. Even the recent release of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights mirrors the “Push Out” document released in 2010 by FFLIC (Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children) and has me questioning the discipline policies that essentially criminalize (Black) students, specifically boys.

As a parent, I have been a part of these very dynamics for the past five years watching my son and many of his peers stumble and some fall through the cracks of this “innovative” experiment, as we play mad scientist hoping not to create a monster. Considering myself somewhat familiar with the system, and how to navigate a process, I am often thrown for a loop and find myself in a maze of confusion. I can often be found in an attack mode, researching and quoting laws, always carrying a school handbook, and constantly writing, because of my mistrust of the real result for the student and never clearly understanding how we as a community are defining what it is we want as outcomes for our children, and how those outcomes will lead to productive citizens. Despite what we want to believe, this is not just a charter school issue, nor is this an individual issue: This is a systematic problem. It is a problem that is impacting not only our most vulnerable communities, but also engaged, middle-class single mama’s like me.

I encourage you, as you are reading this issue of the Trumpet Magazine, that you sit with an awareness that education is not only a constitutional right, but that it is also the equalizer that will stabilize many of our city’s communal ills. But if we continue to only address those things that come easy to us, we will find ourselves back at the space we were in the summer of August 2005… or worse.

NPN provides an inclusive and collaborative city-wide framework to empower neighborhood groups in New Orleans.

Find Out More at NPNnola.com

NPN Board Members Victor Gordon, Board Chair, Pontilly Neighborhood Association Angela Daliet, Treasurer, Parkview Neighborhood Association Benjamin Diggins, Melia Subdivision Katherine Prevost, Upper Ninth Ward Bunny Friend

Neighborhood Association Leslie Ellison, Tunisburg Square Civic Homeowners

Improvement Association Sylvia McKenzie, Rosedale Subdivision Tilman Hardy, Secretary, Leonidas/Pensiontown

Neighborhood Association Wendy Laker, Mid-City Neighborhood Organization Darryl Durham, St.Anna’s Church Rashida Ferdinand, Sankofa CDC

Third Party Submission Issues Physical submissions on paper, CD, etc. cannot be returned unless an arrangement is made. Submissions may be edited and may be published or otherwise reused in any medium. By submitting any notes, information or material, or otherwise providing any material for publication in the newspaper, you are representing that you are the owner of the material, or are making your submission with the consent of the owner of the material, all information you provide is true, accurate, current and complete.

Non-Liability Disclaimers The Trumpet may contain facts, views, opinions, statements and recommendations of third party individuals and organizations.

The Trumpet does not represent or endorse the accuracy or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement or other information in the publication and use of or reliance on such advice, opinion, statement or other information is at your own risk.

Copyright Copyright 2012 Neighborhoods Partnership Network. All Rights Reserved.

Any copying, redistribution or retransmission of any of the contents of this service without the express written consent of Neighborhoods Partnership Network is expressly prohibited.

Sincerely, Timolynn Sams

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THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

N E I G H B O R H O O D S

P A R T N E R S H I P

Contents

The Trumpet

4 6 7 11

15 16 22 27

N E T W O R K

What Happened to Quality Public Education Being a Right?

School Discipline & Crime in New Orleans 9 Nine Resume Tips for Today’s Job Market Building Youth Power through Fountain of Youth Foundations Village of Dreams in Village de l’Est Neighborhood Spotlight – Village de l’Est Life as a Neighborhood Activist A Vital Component of Healthy Start New Orleans Ce Ce Gets 20 Thoughts from Lucky Johnson

NEIGHBOR OOD SPOTLIGH HT

Villag de L’ESe T

14 A Community Vision for Public Education in New Orleans

16 Neighborhood Spotlight: Village De L’Est

On the cover: Four dragons dancing, fireworks and the aroma of delicious cuisine highlighted the kick off of the Vietnamese New Year at Mary Queen of Vietnam Parish in Village De L’est. Photo by Scott Bicking

The Trumpet Editorial Board

The Trumpet Editorial Staff

Brian Opert, Talk Show Host, WGSO 990AM

Scott Bicking, Art Director

Becki Chall, Global Green, USA

Tara Foster, Communications Coordinator

Jessica A. Goins, Spears Consulting Group

Nora McGunnigle, Local History Editor

John Koeferl, Holy Cross Neighborhood

Lakshmi Sridaran, Policy & Advocacy Editor

Linedda McIver, AARP Louisiana

Patricia A. Davis & Tia Vice, Associate Neighborhoods Editors

Melinda Shelton, Xavier University School of Journalism Ray Nichols, Maple Area Residents Inc. Rocio Mora, Puentes Lindsay Nash, HandsOn New Orleans Zoé Belden, Creative Industry

Special thanks to Mimi DiMassa for her photos

THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

4902 Canal Street • #301 New Orleans, LA 70119 504.940.2207 • FX 504.940.2208 thetrumpet@npnnola.com www.npnnola.com

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Goodbye Neighborhood Schools

What Happened to Quality Public Education Being a Right?

By Lakshmi Sridaran

When I first moved to New Orleans in 2006, I was excited about the prospect of implementing the “Algebra Project� model of schools as community anchors, part of a strategy that would place families at the center of neighborhood revitalization by ensuring that their children had a quality public school to return to. Inherently, this meant that students would have the option of attending their neighborhood schools and parents would have a strong incentive to return to the city and rebuild their homes in their neighborhoods.

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owever, the structure of incentives has been completely reversed in the post-Katrina New Orleans K-12 education landscape. There is no longer an incentive to repopulate all parts of the city because children have no incentive to attend their neighborhood schools, and in many cases are severely inhibited from being able to do so. New Orleans East is a classic example of this phenomenon. Currently, Abramson Science and Technology Charter School has been shut down and Sarah T. Reed High School will be phased out. This leaves only New Orleans Charter Science and Math Academy (Sci Academy) as an option for families in New Orleans East who do not have the time or the means to transport

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their students to other parts of the city because of the dismal public transit system that neither provides reliable city nor school bus services. But, there is no guarantee that just because a student lives in New Orleans East and does not have the means to travel to other parts of the city, he or she will be accepted to Sci Academy, which has an enrollment of just over 200. There will be a total of 588 displaced high school students after Sarah T. Reed shuts down. And, there is the additional problem that less than a handful of the available charter schools serve eleventh and twelfth graders. Where will these students go? The continued disinvestment of services and retail in New Orleans East is tied to the disinvestment in education in that part of the city.

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“No Public Oversight” The majority of my peers and I have never underestimated the responsibility of public schools in providing the quality education that I and every one of my classmates and every child in this country deserve.

There is a fundamental responsibility in every level of government to provide the funding, facilities, and faculty to ensure that at the very least, K-12 education is free and of the highest quality. That sense of responsibility has completely vanished in the post-Katrina New Orleans education landscape. There is no public demand that local government be responsible for ensuring that every student receives a free and high quality public education that provides him or her the ability and option to attend a 4-year university, although Rick Santorum would beg to disagree. There are also no accountability measures enforced by local or state government to ensure that charter schools are serving all students.

The patent forms of exclusion by charter schools include hidden fees, transportation costs, and lotteries combined with more latent forms of exclusion such as application deadlines, parent support, and acceptance criteria have pushed out the students most in need of support. Public oversight over education has been stripped away because of an assumption that New Orleans residents do not know what is best for their students. Instead, large charter management organizations are being funded through federal taxpayer dollars known as I3 (Investing in Innovation) and subsidized with FEMA repaired school buildings to experiment “innovative” curricula on New Orleans students.

The recent report released by New Schools for New Orleans titled “New Orleans Style Education Reform: A Guide for Cities,” goes to great lengths to recommend how other cities can provide charterfriendly environments full of subsidies and incentives with little evidence as to how well the reform is actually working. Simply narrowing an achievement gap between the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana, a grossly subpar standard compared to national standards, is not sufficient, and nonetheless without disaggregating the results by each of the three school systems (RSD-direct, RSD-charter, and OPSB) as the New Orleans Research on Reforms group points out. They examined the data more carefully and found that 79% of the 42 charter RSD schools assigned a letter grade received a “D” or “F” as compared to 0% of the 11 OPSB charter schools graded; and of the RSD students attending charter schools assigned a letter grade, 76%, or 15,040, are attending schools with assigned grades of either “D” or “F.” In addition to the poor performance by these experimental schools, there is also no process in place to reintegrate schools back into the New Orleans Public School System as promised when the RSD took over the failing schools in 2004.

Lastly, there is weak media coverage of the class action lawsuit filed by the public school teachers who were unilaterally fired after Hurricane Katrina, dismantling the United Teachers of New Orleans union and replacing their voice for collective bargaining and negotiation with a fragmented system of independent schools. This has undermined the power and possibility of a unified voice demanding equitable service provision for all students from school bus contracts to IEP support.

“Who are New Orleans Schools Serving or not Serving?”

Over 25% of school age children in New Orleans attend private or parochial schools and 95% of New Orleans public schools comprised of students of color1, a vast majority of those being African-American.

Although this article does not fully explore the magnitude of racial disparities in the New Orleans school system, there are critical issues concerning the re-segregation of schools and inequitable disciplinary measures disproportionately affecting African-American males that must also be considered. Black students, especially boys, face much harsher discipline in public schools than other students, according to new data from the Department of Education. Although Black students made up only 18 percent of those enrolled in the schools sampled, they accounted for 35 percent of those suspended once, 46 percent of those suspended

THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

more than once and 39 percent of all expulsions, according to the Civil Rights Data Collection’s 2009-10 statistics from 72,000 schools in 7,000 districts, serving about 85 percent of the nation’s students. The data covered students from kindergarten age through high school.2 Miller McCoy Academy for Mathematics and Business charter school in New Orleans East, serving an all male African-American student body, doles out school suspensions for minor infractions such as bringing a cell phone to school and subjective disagreements between students and teachers, many of those concerning issues of cultural competence and ideological theories of education: being discipline-focused rather than encouraging critical thinking. Why is there an overwhelming focus on behavioral assimilation among New Orleans charter schools rather than a cultivation of “innovative” and critical thinking? And, what is the longterm impact of placing students out of school for days at a time?

“Community Leaders attempt to work with RSD” NPN’s Advocacy Task Force has been working tirelessly over the last year and a half on the question of what it would take for families to re-enter a traditional public school system. This means one in which parents are encouraged and able to be involved because the school is in their neighborhood and seen as a long-term investment even when their own children have moved on. The Task Force has attempted to work with the Recovery School District in helping shape the New Schools for New Orleans community engagement process that would at least allow communities and potential charter operators to discuss the vision, mission, and programming objectives of each school slated for “transformation” before an operator is finalized. However, the RSD has shown blatant disregard for this process even after several in-person meetings poring over and finalizing the proposal. This was clearly shown by their charter operator placement announcements last year and charter approval announcements earlier this year. Not a single charter in New Orleans was granted to a community-based organization and there is no appeals process in place to review the state’s selection criteria and subsequent decisions. No technical assistance was provided for smaller organizations that do not have dedicated staff to compose lengthy charter applications. The Coalition for Community Leadership in Education (with guidance from the Orleans Public Education Network), a collective of New Orleans community organizations and churches that were all denied charters, laid out these challenges and structural biases during a press conference in January and again during the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) meeting in New Orleans in February. However, there has been no action to address these challenges

by BESE or the RSD.

“A False Choice” Many have summarized the notion of “choice” touted by the charter school movement as a false choice because of the exclusionary practices in enrollment and the services provided for students in New Orleans schools. Let’s examine what the choices really are: 1) Send my child to a charter school knowing that there are both patent and latent forms of discrimination keeping certain students out of the school and where performance results are highly questionable; 2) Pay between $2,000 – $20,000 per year per child for a K-12 education in a private or parochial school that is mediocre at best when compared to national standards; 3) Send my child to a failing public school; 4) Wield any social capital I may have to bypass all of these options.

I wonder which one of these “choices” Superintendent John White would pick for his child.

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From the Classroom to the Streets

School Discipline & Crime in New Orleans

By Everett Henderson & Sarah Baird, Louisiana Association of Public Charter Schools

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he intersection of families, education and crime in the city of New Orleans has been a hotly debated topic for decades, with city officials, school leaders and parents all looking for the best ways to ensure our students are safe and engaged, both inside and outside the classroom. Recently, claims have been made that much of the crime in New Orleans is being driven by the new expulsion policies put into effect by the RSD: Policies that are considerably less lenient than those in place in New Orleans public schools prior to Katrina. The argument has been made that stronger expulsion policies lead to more students being kicked out of school, and that many of those expelled students don’t return to school and end up committing crimes.

The in-depth analysis of crime data, however, does not support this claim and actually suggests that stronger expulsion policies help make New Orleans safer.

Except for 2007i, the most violent years New Orleans experienced in the past 21 years all occurred during the 1990s.ii If tougher expulsion policies lead to more crime, and more lax expulsion policies lead to less of it, why did 9 of the 10 years with the highest violent crime rates during this time occur during the 1990s, a time when expulsion policies were far more lenient?

Get Connected to the New Orleans Neighborhood Network.

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Murder ratesiii exhibit a slightly different pattern than the violent crime rate overall, but the murder rates in 2009 and 2010 (the two most recent reporting years) are still considerably less than most years during the 1990s, and are less than the murder rates in the three years leading up to Katrina. Moreover, there is no information that indicates that the expansion of charter schools has led to increased crime rates, as some commentators have posited. In fact, quite the opposite: The data suggests that the higher behavioral expectations in charter schools may have helped reduce violent crime in New Orleans.

Supporters of lax discipline policies often seem to have very little regard for the welfare of the vast majority of students who are wellbehaved and come to school motivated to learn. They would have us believe that it is nobler to allow a handful of disruptive students to thoroughly degrade the learning process for the vast majority of students than it is to remove chronically unruly students from the school so that the motivated children can reach their full potential in a safe, positive learning environment.

One of the primary reasons why high schools in New Orleans performed so poorly pre-Katrina was the fact that the learning process was constantly being undermined by unmotivated students with chronic behavioral issues who made classrooms chaotic and hallways unsafe.

Reasonable and effective expulsion policies are not solely the answer, but they are, along with a viable network of alternative schools and effective special education programs, a critical part of the solution.

Post News & Events for Your Organization at NPNnola.com THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

Nine Resume Tips for Today’s Job Market

By Deborah Russell Director, Workforce Issues, AARP Education and Outreach

Looking for a job at 50+ is not easy.

Because the job market has changed, it’s not enough to focus on what you have done in the past. Employers want to know what you can offer now. Have you taken a good, hard look at your resume?

Here are two simple words to remember when writing a resume: “yesterday” and “tomorrow.” A “yesterday” resume dwells on what you did in the past. A “tomorrow” resume turns your past experience into a dynamic statement of what you will offer an employer now.

Here are nine tips for creating a “tomorrow” resume that gets employers’ attention.

1. Focus on your job goal. Start your resume with a very brief job objective for the position, level, and industry you are targeting. Apply only for jobs that closely match your skills, and research the employer.

Would you be a good fit for this company?

6. Deal with dates. While it’s not a good idea to fudge your age, there are ways to de-emphasize it. Go back only 15 years in your employment history, and do not include graduation dates. If you have gaps in employment, list dates in years, not months.

2. Highlight your accomplishments. Is your resume simply a laundry list of past job duties? If so, weed out the words “responsible for” and “duties included.” For example, instead of using vague statements like “responsible for writing grants to funding sources,” cite specific accomplishments: “Wrote three successful grant applications to private foundations, resulting in funding to serve an additional 100 clients.”

7. Grow your network. Do your resumes disappear into cyberspace? It may be time to ramp up your networking efforts. It’s not the number of resumes you send that matters. It’s making sure your resume gets to the right person.

3. Cut the clichés. Strip your resume of buzzwords, such as “strong work ethic,” “self-starter,” “detail oriented,” and “team player.” Why? These are the same clichés that show up in many other resumes. To demonstrate that you have these qualities, point to the results you’ve achieved.

4. Use keywords. Keywords are the industry-specific terms necessary to get attention. The keywords in your resume should match the skills and qualifications stated in the job posting.

5. Choose the right resume type. A chronological resume works well if you want to remain in the same field. It is organized strictly according to your work history. A functional resume is organized by skill area.

It is useful if you’re changing careers and want to show transferable skills. Note: A functional resume should also include a work history with dates. Learn more at www.aarp.org/jobtips.

THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

8. Build your online presence. Many employers today look for job candidates on social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook.

That means you must be “findable” online. Your online profile is really an extension of your resume—so be sure your profile is complete and up-to-date.

9. Proofread more than once. One typo can send your resume to the trash. After you’ve proofed your resume, have a friend or mentor take another look.

Deborah Russell, Director of Workforce Issues at AARP, leads the educational and outreach efforts aimed at improving employment options and the economic security of individuals 50+. This includes working with the business community to create employment opportunities that are fair, flexible, and that capitalize on the wealth of knowledge and expertise mature workers bring to today’s workplace.

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Central City Partnership

Eighteen Years & Strong

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entral City Partnership (CCP) was established in 1994 by the Central City Economic Opportunity Corporation (CCEOC) for the purpose of strategic planning and development of a neighborhood collaborative to facilitate Enterprise Foundation assistance and other national funding sources. Since its inception, the Partnership has developed into a community governance structure to facilitate and promote revitalization of the Central City neighborhood. CCP is a collaboration of community-based organizations, faith-based institutions, public schools, such as Edgar B. Harney Charter School, businesses, universities, residents and community leaders.

In addition, CCP is a member of Neighborhoods Partnership Network as a nongovernmental organization.

The purpose of the Central City Partnership is to empower Central City residents with awareness and dexterity to recognize, develop and execute strategies to approach matters that negatively impact the community and take advantage of opportunities that will generate a stronger, involved and healthy community; and to facilitate the development and unremitting enhancement of the neighborhood collaborative through planning and strategic direction.

During the present, difficult economic times of the nation’s unemployment status, CPP has incorporated the CCP Skills Bank (Job Match database) which assists the non-traditional skilled job seeker with employment. Not only does the CPP Skills Bank seek to place skilled workers, but will provide coaching service with a personal job mentor and make every attempt to connect motivated individuals with specific training. Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) has assisted CCP with employment status. On a personal basis, the job coaches (mentors) engage with the non-traditional job and employers to search the Crescent City Job Match website to locate customized employment.

Under the direction of CCP’s President, Barbara Lacen Keller and its board of directors, several committees are in existence: • Comeback Committee which consists of the partnership with the 6th District Police Force; • CCP’s Youth Committee, a Youth Think Tank Position Paper which was created by professionals with twelve Central City youths, developed a Safe Routes to School initiative with Edgar B. Harney Charter School; • Health Committee partners with community health providers; • Public Relations Committee is establishing a new and up-to-date website; • Economic Development Committee is partnering with developers to provide employment opportunities for residents; • Education Committee partners involves educational entities; • Culture and Fundraising Committee is planning a historic event in celebration of the Partnership’s association with the Central City Community and the reopening of the Dew Drop Inn. It is important to mention that the Dew Drop Museum and Institute will display Dew Drop history and artifacts, while telling the story of how the Dew Drop became the launching pad for many international performers, businessmen booking agents, record labels, and “ground zero” for the New Orleans Civil Rights Movement, with its then partners, attorneys Ernest “Dutch” Morial and A.P. Tureaud.

Contact the Central City Partnership at info@centralcitypartnersip.com.

NOECA Keeps on Fighting for Us

My Move to the Michoud Area

By Myron Miller

By Greg Estas

In New Orleans East, we have this community-based charter school group, called New Orleans East Charter Association (NOECA). It is a group of people from within the Sarah T. Reed community, who have worked hard to gain their right to run their own school. However, they were never given the chance to because the school board has turned them down four times. As a student at Sarah T. Reed, I give them honor for continuing the fight. At the end, we are going to win control over our schools, because it is us who will be living in the community, even after all the members of the school board leave their post, so we must always remember to never back down. I want to leave you with this quote, “Be heard, be strong, be proud when the going gets tough, and keep on fighting. God is love.

Moving out of the city and into the Michoud Area of New Orleans East, I thought it would decrease my chances of getting into a good college, because of the history of the high schools I would have to attend, such as Sarah T. Reed High School. Going to Sarah T. Reed was the best thing that have ever happen to me. I got to meet good people and make nice friends, like Myron, Ruben, and Gerson. Ruben introduced me to NJROTC, Gerson helped me join the Reed Soccer team, and Myron recruited me to join the Reed Renaissance Initiative. These things would not have happened. These wonderful friends always say things that make me want them as friends. As I quote the words of my best friend, Myron, “In order to have more a more dedicated school, we must have a more dedicated community”. Without moving into the Michoud Area, none of these things would not be possible.

Post news & events for your organization online.

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THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012 Captured Moments Photography & Video

Health Education

A Vital Component of Healthy Start New Orleans new orleans

By Dr. Karen DeSalvo MD, MPH, MSc. Commissioner of Health, City of New Orleans

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ealthy babies, healthy families, and healthy communities. This is the motto and goal of Healthy Start New Orleans (HSNO), a program funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human services and run by the City.

We are incredibly proud of the work that HSNO does.

HSNO is committed to establishing effective preventive programs which blend healthcare, health education, environmental modification and public policy to create a more healthy culture and reduce infant mortality, low birth weight deliveries, and other negative birth outcomes.

Health education is a vital piece of ensuring the success of positive health outcomes for children, mothers and families. Health education is a mandated component within all national Healthy Start programs, and HSNO consistently ranks in the top 3 of these programs nationwide. Last year, HSNO staff performed 113 health education presentations to 236 individuals, covering topics such as parenting, prenatal care, support groups, life skills, and teens.

HSNO does not charge any fees for services, and I encourage any

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expectant women or mothers with an infant under the age of two years old in Orleans Parish to take advantage of these great educational services.

These community based services improve not only the health of mothers, babies and families, but ultimately our entire community in New Orleans.

Healthy Start offers educational opportunities, including prenatal and parenting classes, every Thursday at 1515 Poydras, New Orleans, LA 70112. Prenatal classes are from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., and Parenting classes are from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

To learn more about our educational sessions, fatherhood classes, clinical visits or any other Healthy Start program or information, please call the Healthy Start office at (504) 658-2600 or visit http://www.nola.gov/ RESIDENTS/HealthyStart/.

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Hollygrove 3 in 1

Hollygorove Seniors

What Can Separate Us?

By Bill Pastellak

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n New Orleans, we celebrate the diversity and complexities of our city. We celebrate the fact that New Orleans is a city that is identified by neighborhoods. In most cities across the U.S. when someone asks you, “where you from?” they mean what town or suburb. But in New Orleans they are asking, in which neighborhood you live. In Hollygrove these complexities become greatly polarized because we live in a neighborhood that consists of 3 neighborhoods in 1.

Hollygrove, Hollygrove Dixon, and Palm Air are the neighborhoods within the Hollygrove boundaries. When there are too many ingredients in a dish they usually work against each other. But, like a good pot of gumbo these separate neighborhoods have worked very well together and have experienced some success in the process. We have fought blight and crime, built playgrounds, organized health fairs, and many other things, and we have done them together. We have not allowed

Airline Highway, the New Orleans Railway, or canals to separate us from being Hollygrove: 3 neighborhoods in 1.

Now that crime is on the decline, homes are being rebuilt, our park is being revitalized, and there seems to be a buzz about the Hollygrove neighborhoods, where do we go from here? It is time to shift to a holistic approach. It is time for us to “Get Healthy Hollygrove.” In a partnership with the CDC REACH Core, NPN, LPHI, Hollygrove Seniors, and Conrad Park Boosters, “Get Healthy Hollygrove” seeks to help residents combat the drivers of Type II diabetes, increase awareness and opportunities for physical fitness activities, and become aware of healthy living options.

We are creating a great neighborhood for the future. You cannot cook a great pot of gumbo without tasting it. It is my hope that we will all be here to enjoy this neighborhood together. For more information about “Get Healthy Hollygrove,” contact Bill Pastellak at bpastellak@gmail.com.

NPN Would Like to Thank Our Generous Sponsors For Their Support of The Trumpet Newspaper and Trumpet Release Parties!

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THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

Building Youth Power through Fountain of Youth Foundations Sabrina Short stays up late at night thinking of the ways to change a life and inspire youth to lift their voices, be heard and accounted for. Our young people have so much to contribute to the world but rarely get a chance to show who they really are.

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o often decisions are made for them, without them, or even to exploit them. Sabrina, Executive Director of the Fountain of Youth Foundations, has been with the organization since 2008 and was one of the original founders of the Fountain of Youth Foundations. Their vision was to empower youth and teach them the benefits of working together to change their communities.

Their mission, to guide New Orleans youth to reach their full potential in their communities and lives, reminds youth they have everything within them to be successful, that it is up to them to take charge of their lives and their destiny. The organization teaches the basics of advocacy, grassroots organizing and social justice. “In a small classroom in the back of a church, Sabrina learned that youth had so much to say about their communities and helping their peers, but their voice had been silenced by the noise of adults defining their destinies in a post-Katrina world.” FYF, as the youth call the organization, has a motto of “Youth Power.” Once a Youth Leader realizes that they have a voice and discover their own power, it is amazing to see them move from a place of oppression and step into a position of authority, and become a leader.

Recently there has been so much violence and heartbreak with our youth, it is reassuring that not all youth have lost their way. In fact, a small percentage of young people seem to cast a shadow over an entire generation.

The Fountain of Youth Foundations takes pride in creating a safe place for youth to be youth, the freedom to discover who they are, be socially engaged and be surrounded by supportive adults who love and nurture them. Clarence Williams, a graduate of Sarah T. Reed Senior High School still volunteers with FYF. “I joined the Fountain of Youth Foundations, in January of 2008 ... this program helped me in my life.

It showed me how to speak from my heart and showed me that helping others matters. The Fountain of Youth Foundations helped to build the person I am today. I can say this program is like my second family; they are all about building power in the relationship and helping the problems in people’s lives,” says Williams.

The organization has been planning for over a year to open a Youth Resource Center in New Orleans East to provide a space for youth to get the holistic services and resources they need to successfully transition into adulthood. The Resource Center, scheduled to open in the fall of 2012, will partner with local agencies, community organizations, schools and

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businesses to provide comprehensive services for youth that focus on academic success, post-secondary planning and job readiness.

“Kids have not really changed since I was one, they still want love, guidance, support and independence to make their own decisions. As the values of the world change, the adults must remember our responsibility to maintain a sense of community, tradition and accountability to each other, says” Sabrina Short, Executive Director of FYF. In Summer 2009, FYF surveyed over 450 youth throughout the New Orleans East community around education and recreation, and learned that 79% of youth ages 14-19 wanted to participate in activities in their own neighborhoods but 72% said there weren’t enough out-of-school activities for their age.

The Youth Resource Center will be the only one of its kind in New Orleans East targeting 1421 year olds and providing wrap-around services to specifically meet the needs of each youth— making it a one stop shop for youth development.

We must be reminded that our young people are not adults, and that there is value in youth and all that it brings. Let’s treasure them, as they are, where they are. Taking our time to teach them the treasures that come from day-to-day, and the jewels that will remain with them throughout the rest of their lives.

We must be reminded that our young people are not adults, and that there is value in youth and all that it brings.

The Fountain of Youth Foundations is still looking for financial supporters and community partners to help them meet their goal of opening the Youth Center in the fall. If you are interested in learning more about the organization or the Youth Resource Center, contact Sabrina Short Executive Director at Sabrina@youthfoundatins. org or 504.241.6598.

Fountain of Youth Foundations Sabrina Short 504.376.7272 Sabrina@youthfoundations.org 11

Edna Carr High School Youth Address Violence at the

“Reducing Crime in Hollygrove Forum”

By Patricia A. Davis, NPN Neighbor Liaison/CDC Health Liaison

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n February 9, 2012, the Tulane University Center for Public Service presented the New Orleans Community Panel and Forum: “Reducing Crime in Hollygrove.” Carrollton Hollygrove Community Development Corporation is a nongovernmental NPN Member and a recipient of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention REACH-Core Healthy Neighborhoods New Orleans cooperative agreement, which focuses on the drivers of Type II Diabetes. Carrollton Hollygrove CDC has worked diligently to address obesity and lack of physical exercise which are often the drivers leading to Type II Diabetes. Initiatives such as the AARP Soul Steppers, Healthy Cooking sponsored by Second Harvest Food Bank, the Biggest Loser Program with the partnership of Daughters of Charity Clinic and a “Get Healthy Hollygrove Health Fair” are a few of the events and programs that address the drivers of Type II Diabetes.

Carrollton Hollygrove residents know what it is to live in a healthy neighborhood, and while they are promoting the goals and objectives of a healthy lifestyle, it is understood that violence is a culprit that eats away at their purpose.

The forum consisted of Tulane students, faculty and staff, New Orleans residents, high school students, and community organization representatives. Several topics on violence were discussed, including:

• Know your neighbors • Know your neighborhood • Invest in education • Focus on positive youth programs • Find a way to celebrate problems in order to turn negatives to positives Youth violence is an enormous problem in the city of New Orleans.

One way that Edna B. Carr High School, which is not located in the Carrollton Hollygrove area but is part of the greater New Orleans community, addresses violence is through establishing the company, NOLArtees, made up of a group of young, artistic students. The students were vendors at the forum and introduced NOLArtees, a company which has a strong passion for neutralizing local crime in neighborhoods and communities. NOLArtees believes that with “funding after-school art programs, students will be more willing to stay after school and stay out of the streets; funds from the sales of a number of #NOLALOVE t-shirts will go to the creation of after-school arts programs to involve at-risk youth from across the city in positive activities.” Edna B. Carr students believe the publication of their t-shirts will engage at-risk students and find a way to turn negative issues into positive ones.

Liberty Bank

Senior Science Lab at Sci Academy

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n Tuesday, February 28th, community members joined Sci Academy scholars and staff at the unveiling of Sci Academy’s new senior science laboratory. Using funds donated by Liberty Bank, Sci Academy recently outfitted a science lab including mobile lab tables, class sets of chemicals, gas lighters, test tubes, beakers, flasks, clamps, and all necessary materials for biology and chemistry experiments. All components of the new lab are mobile – the school will continue to use them while in a temporary facility at 5552 Read Boulevard in New Orleans East and will transport the lab materials to their permanent home.

Mr. Alden J. McDonald, President of Liberty Bank and Trust Company commented, “Liberty Bank and Trust Company has taken its role as a good corporate citizen to heart since our founding in 1972, and it is important now more than ever to the New Orleans Community. We will continue to invest in the education of the youth in New Orleans.” McDonald added, “Education is the key to revitalizing a community, we look forward to being on the forefront of the movement to revitalize our community.”

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Saturday, March 24th

POMM Youth Summit at Dillard University Power of a Million Minds (POMM) is a youth-led, youth organized, and youth run collaborative comprised of five youth serving organizations in the city of New Orleans. Our youth come from all over the city, including the African American, Latino, and Vietnamese American communities. Our five groups are: 1. Fyre Youth Squad (FYS) is a diverse youth-led, youth organized group (ages 14-24) in the Greater New Orleans area striving to effect positive educational change. FYS advocates for a “worldclass” learning environment in all public schools, accountability of elected officials and policymakers, and promotes awareness and activism amongst New Orleans youth.

2. The LatiNola Youth Leadership Council (LYLC) is a group of inter-ethnic, primarily Latino, high school students who promote leadership development and civic engagement among youth in their schools and communities. They work to improve conditions for all New Orleans’ youth, especially its growing immigrant populations.

3. Kids Rethink New Orleans Schools (Rethink) is a civic engagement program for middle school youth who want to have a voice in the rebuilding of New Orleans’ public school system. Rethink has six after- school clubs at public schools and a citywide agenda which includes a summer program and weekend action committees.

Rethink works to inform policies that ensure excellence in education for all New Orleans youth.

4. Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association of New Orleans (VAYLA-NO) is a youth-led community-based organization that empowers Vietnamese American and underrepresented youth through supportive services and organizing for cultural enrichment and positive social change.

5. Young Adults Striving for Success (YASS) is a youth-led, youth run group of youth between the ages of 14-25 who have been instrumental in uplifting voices on the issues of education and juvenile justice within New Orleans. Our mission is to develop, educate, and improve ourselves and our community through youth leadership, and to tackle the issues that affect our youth.

Our groups have been working together for three years to build cross-cultural relationships and increase diversity in dialogue on critical issues that our young people are facing in New Orleans, including issues of equity in education, employment, juvenile justice, and advocating for more youth voices and community involvement. Our goal as a collaborative is to sustain leaders, create positive working relationships, and improve the quality of life and educational system in New Orleans.

POMM plans to host our first Youth Summit at Dillard University on Saturday, March 24, 2012 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. for 450 youth from middle school age to college students. At this youth summit, we will address issues that are affecting youth in education and their communities.

The purpose is to provide space to allow dialogue between the different communities of youth and find the issues that are plaguing our city and the possible solutions to these issues. Our vision for the summit will feature a general assembly to harvest the genius from our youth and several programmatic components in the form of workshops. These organizational workshops include: 1.Know Your Rights 2. School-to-Prison Pipeline (showing video, Maria Full of Hope) 3. Equity in Education 4. THUGLIFE: How Haterism Towards Youth Hurts the Future of New Orleans 5. Digital Media Workshop 6. Theater of the Oppressed The workshops will focus on areas such as adequate social services in schools, school nutrition, secure schools, multicultural competency, community support in schools, the school-to-prison pipeline, and Know Your Rights. We will be screening several films on youth empowerment in the realm of education. There will be cultural performances highlighted to expose participants to the different aspects of the New Orleans Metropolitan Community. The goal of the Summit is to move more young people to become civically engaged in their communities, while also allowing for a platform that addresses the needs of youth today. We will use this summit as the catalyst to start a citywide youth movement in New Orleans. Please come out and support us! Get in touch and get involved!!

For more information contact: Power of A Million Minds Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana 1600 Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard New Orleans, LA 70113 Office: (504) 207-4592 Fax: (504) 522-5430 Debbie: (504) 818-6474 Miguel: (504) 645-0796 Email: powerofamillionminds@gmail.com; mnunez@jjpl.org Website: www.jjpl.org

NPN needs bloggers Sign up at: thetrumpet@npnnola.com THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

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The People’s Agenda

A Community Vision for Public Education in New Orleans By: Courtney Hardwick

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he Orleans Public Education Network (OPEN) is proud The Agenda itself is presented in three sections and Community to present “The People’s Agenda,” the collective voice of Members respond to the question, “How do we envision public community members and the vision for the future of high education in New Orleans?” Expectations such as, “We envision quality public education in New schools that have diverse, well-trained, Orleans. This detailed report is effective, and experienced teachers than the result of a lengthy project that amplified can meet the needs of all children” and “We To amplify the the voices of our community members and envision nurturing schools that provide a represents their diversity, centered on the safe environment for our children to learn” community’s voice, common idea that a high-quality public were outlined. The community also provided OPEN uses “The People’s education system that serves all children well recommendations to improve education in should, and can, exist. This report represents New Orleans to federal, state, and local Agenda” to highlight the a community agenda for public education. policymakers. Recommendations concerning central issues for OPEN’s The central aim of OPEN has always such as “fund and offer free universal prebeen to serve the community by building kindergarten to ensure community access to 2012 Policy Agenda: and maintaining civic capacity in public high quality pre-kindergarten options and to Governance, Educator education and advocating for excellent ensure that children are school ready” were education citywide. Since its creation in late put forth. The community also highlighted the Workforce, and Early 2007 by a coalition of community groups, need to expand and offer greater college Childhood Education.

OPEN has worked to ensure there is an and career readiness options for high informed and engaged community that school students; implementing fair measures exercises influence on policy and programs of teacher evaluation that moved beyond to realize excellence for every child attending New Orleans’ public using test scores to gauge teacher effectiveness; and the need schools. To reach members in a meaningful way, OPEN launched for a locally controlled public school system. Finally, parents and a participatory action research project and by early 2010, over community members alike reaffirmed their pledge to the children of 1,000 members had offered their insight on issues they felt were New Orleans by answering the question, “What can I do to make most important in public education. From these responses, nine a child’s life better?” topics emerged as central to building a quality public school system To amplify the community’s voice, OPEN uses “The People’s in New Orleans. These nine topics served as the foundation for Agenda” to highlight the central issues for OPEN’s 2012 Policy the ONE STEP campaign, a year-long initiative that sought to Agenda: Governance, Educator Workforce, and Early Childhood bridge the gap between education policymaking and community Education. In connection to what Governor Jindal has highlighted involvement. The nine topics highlighted were Crisis of the Black as educational priorities for his 2012 legislative agenda, OPEN Male, Early Childhood Education, Educator Workforce, English as will continue to monitor legislative action taking place and ensure a Second Language, Kindergarten through Eighth Grade Reform, that the community’s voice and vision is recognized and considered High School Reform, Neighborhood Schools versus Choice, School when decisions are made influencing New Orleans. Additionally, Community Partnerships, and Special Education.

OPEN is launching its Power Curriculum, a series of workshops Through the ONE STEP campaign, OPEN informed the and trainings to enhance community members’ advocacy skills. community of national, state, and local best practices through Through OPEN’s partnership with the community, New Orleanians presentations from experts who were knowledgeable in the subject are empowered to influence policy in a way that promotes equity matter of the nine topics. By “Meeting the Village in the Village,” for every child in our public schools. We are upholding our pledge OPEN was rewarded with the opportunity to engage over a to amplify the voice of New Orleans through efforts that inform and thousand community members. It was through these efforts that engage the community at all levels.

Working Groups – small collectives of family members, parents, advocates, friends, and neighbors who came together to discuss Come out to celebrate the release of “The and analyze the nine topics in great detail – were formed. These groups of concerned citizens offered invaluable insights and People’s Agenda” on Thursday, March 29th at recommendations that served as the basis for the community-driven 5:00 p.m. at the Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood and community-led educational policy agenda. In October 2011, and Family Learning Center. these Working Groups and the community at-large were invited to participate in the annual ONE STEP Convening where the For more information, call 504-821-4004. recommendations were discussed in greater depth. It was through this work that “The People’s Agenda” was formed.

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NEIGHBOR OOD SPOTLIGH HT

Village de L’EST

Village of Dreams in Village de l’Est

By Nora McGunnigle, Local History Editor

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illage de l’Est has gone through many plans and identities as part of the large and, for most of New Orleans’ history, undeveloped and untamed area in the easternmost part of New Orleans. The history of this specific neighborhood is intertwined with the development of the entire East area.

Like much of New Orleans land, the original owner of the area now known as Village de l’Est, bound by Paris Road, Lake Ponchartrain, US Highway 11, and Chef Menteur Highway, was granted by the King of France in 1763 to one of his loyal subjects. The gentleman who was the recipient in this case was a New Orleans merchant named Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent who intended to use the land as a plantation.

In 1796, he sold the land to Lt. Louis Brognier de Clouet, who turned around and sold it five years later to the noted New Orleans character Bartholomy Lafon.

Lafon was described as being “the master of an iron foundry, a notable architect and builder, planter, real estate appraiser, militia officer, town planner, cartographer, publisher, theatrical impresario, military engineer, the best surveyor, and according to the journals of Jean Lafitte, a privateer and smuggler.” (Source: New Orleans Public Service, 1978.)

After Lafon’s death, the land passed to his brother Jean Pierre Lafon. Jean Pierre held on to a large lot within the original plantation, but creditors took parcels through municipal sales and auctions. Jean Pierre left his property to his children upon his death, who, shortly after inheriting it, then sold the land to eccentric art dealer Antoine Michoud.

Michoud spent over 25 years reassembling the lots and parcels that had been sold off to creditors, so that by his death, the original estate was intact.

In 1862, upon Michoud’s death, his nephew Jean Baptiste Michoud inherited this large property and didn’t do much with it until 1910, when John Stuart Walton purchased it for $400K. In 1923, Edgar de Montluzin (developer of Gentilly Terrace) purchased the tract and called it “Faubourg de Montluzin.” His dream was to develop the property into a suburb, and went so far as to commission an artistic rendering of his vision in 1926, but actual drainage and development did not occur until 1961.

At that time the corporation called New Orleans East held by the Wynne-Murchison Interests of Dallas, TX began building residential subdivisions. The subdivision called Village de L’Est was opened in 1964, followed by a second subdivision called Willowbrook in 1976. The New Orleans East corporation also donated ninety acres for the eight mile, five

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exit stretch of Interstate Highway 10 running through the whole East area at the time of I-10’s construction.

The existence of the Village de l’Est subdivision (among others such as Venetian Isles) was a major selling point in the push to build a scientific industrial community in the East. The 1960’s and 1970’s, during the oil boom and subsequent expansion of the East, held the promise of building a “city within a city” by New Orleans East, Inc., called New Orleans East. Although the extent of development they envisioned did not come to pass, the name New Orleans East stuck to refer to the Eastern New Orleans area.

The 1970’s also brought an influx of Vietnamese immigrants seeking asylum from their war-ravaged home. The climate and access to water gave these new New Orleanians the ability to make a living through fishing, gardening/farming, and landscaping quickly. In 2008, the Rev. Vien The Nguyen, pastor of Mary Queen of Vietnam Church, which is the spiritual and economic center of Village de l’Est, was quoted in the TimesPicayune saying that his parish is home to the most “concentrated number of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam.” More than 6,000 native and firstgeneration Vietnamese live within a 1-mile radius of the church. (Source: “In New Orleans’ Vietnamese community of Village de l’Est, gardening is a way of life” by Renee Peck, Times-Picayune/NOLA.com, September 27, 2008.)

In more recent demographic trends, the 2000 census found that African Americans were the majority of residents in Village de l’Est with a residency percentage of 55.4%, while Asian residents made up 37.1%.

Whites had 3.6% of the population, and Hispanics 2.4%. In 2010, the Asian population increased to 44.7%, while African Americans decreased to 43.4% and Whites to 1.5%. Another demographic increase in 2010 was the Hispanic population, more than tripling its representation to 8.9% in the 2010 census. (Source: GNOCDC analysis of data from U.S. Census 2010 Summary File 1 (SF1)). It’s a significant and interesting demographic shift stemming from post-Katrina recovery. Statistically, overall population recovery in Village de l’Est stands at 68% as of June 2010. (Source: GNO Community Data Center analysis of Valassis Residential and Business Database.)

As the eastern most part of Orleans Parish, Village de l’Est with its French neighborhood and street names has a history of inspiring dreams of a special place to live. Although many of those dreams didn’t end up working out, I think the residents there today would agree it is unique and special in its own right.

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NEIGHBOR OOD SPOTLIGH HT

Village de L’EST

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Students Organize for Education Equity in Village de L’Est through

VAYLA’s Raise Your Hand Campaign

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he Raise Your Hand Campaign began in May 2010, when Vietnamese American and African American youth came together to reflect on the conditions they experienced every day in New Orleans’ public schools. Notwithstanding some of the city’s Post-Katrina success stories, it was clear that high-quality educational opportunities were not reaching everyone, particularly in the Village de L’Est neighborhood. Some students spoke of selective-admissions schools that did not provide transportation to their geographically isolated community. Others reflected on the lack of school interpreters and translators at charter schools. Still other students, particularly those from direct-run RSD high schools, shared stories of counselors who could never be found in their offices, bathrooms that were too dirty to use, and lunches that were barely edible. As the list of student issues grew, the group realized it needed to create a program to amplify student voices, build student power, and challenge the city’s glaring inequities. Without representation on the state or local school boards, a voice in school restructuring decisions, or a substantive role in school evaluations, students were finding it challenging to hold officials accountable.

VAYLA created the Raise Your Hand Campaign to empower marginalized youth to organize themselves, articulate their own agenda for educational change, and build the power necessary to influence local policies and system-level changes. Beginning with an emphasis

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on participatory research, young people acquire the tools to identify educational inequities, produce knowledge on prevailing conditions, and advocate for system-level reforms, all the while developing core competencies in critical thinking, applied research methods, public speaking, media design, and written expression.

Recent Accomplishments From June 2010 to June 2011, VAYLA’s Raise Your Hand Campaign embarked upon its first major initiative—a student-led research project to evaluate six New Orleans public high schools. Using both qualitative and quantitative research methods, a group of 25 VAYLA members carried out the most extensive youth-led, student-centered evaluation of New Orleans public high schools since Hurricane Katrina. Our groundbreaking 40-page report, Six Public High Schools, Six years After the Storm: 450 Student Voices from Inside New Orleans’ Educational Experiment, garnered five major news articles. Since releasing the report, our youth leaders have leveraged their research to drive system-level changes. After a series of meetings with RSD officials, the district agreed to Spanish and Vietnamese interpreters at the district’s Family Centers, adopting one of our most critical recommendations to improve equitable access to educational resources.

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Current Initiatives Since the completion of our landmark research project, the Raise Your Hand Campaign has launched several community-led initiatives to organize around concrete issues and advocate for system-level changes.

These initiatives are aligned to address pressing institutional barriers that students and families face in Village de L’Est. The Reed Renaissance Initiative is an intergenerational, interstakeholder community group composed of students, alumni, teachers, staff and neighborhood residents whose mission is to facilitate the creation of a democratic, bottom-up vision for the Sarah T. Reed High School’s transformation. Acknowledging that the school must be transformed and adequately resourced in order to ensure its students are properly served, the Reed Renaissance Initiative has distributed a visioning survey to 300 stakeholders, which student organizers will use to lay out the community’s programmatic and cultural vision for Sarah T. Reed. Over the last four months, the group has worked tirelessly to create a democratic sphere and empower student voices amidst a political environment characterized by wholesale community disenfranchisement.

In the coming months, Reed Renaissance will construct a report outlining student demands for the school’s improvement and will build a student advisory committee to ensure student voice during the school’s restructuring.

Los Mundos Unidos (One United World), engages Spanish and Vietnamese-speaking families to learn more about their rights in schools, and to create a united voice around the need for language access and high quality language programming at charter and direct-run schools.

We discovered through our research that 71% of Vietnamese students and 82% of Latino students report that their parents “rarely” or “never” receive forms in their native languages. We also found that 70% of Asian and Latino students believe they have been misplaced in an ESL class that does not challenge them or fit their specific language needs. Lastly, a number of families have stepped forward with stories of charter schools that are failing to provide Limited-English proficient students bilingual education or ESL services.

Ride to Success For years, Ben Franklin and other selective-admissions OPSB schools have denied school transportation to students, jeopardizing our community’s access to the city’s highest performing public schools. Ride to Success, led by an intergenerational organizing committee of parents and students, is currently mounting a campaign for free, viable transportation options for Benjamin Franklin students. In just two months, the group has over 50 committed members.

Looking forward, VAYLA’s Raise Your Hand Campaign is working to engage more community members in our grassroots organizing efforts to bring about equity in New Orleans pubic education, and to ensure access to learning opportunities for the families of New Orleans East. Whether you are interested in immigrant educational rights, transportation access to selective-admissions school, the democratic transformation of Reed High, or joining the RSD Student Task Force to pioneer the country’s first comprehensive student evaluation of schools, we need your support.

Viet’s Comeback

By Cyndi Nguyen, Executive Director, Vietnamese Initiative in Economic Training (VIET)

The VIET organization has been blessed in many ways after the devastation of the Hurricane Katrina. With the entire staff’s homes flooded, VIET responded back in November 2005. Life has been tough; however, the organization has been supported by so many groups that we would like to thank for their support. We want to triumph: HandsOn New Orleans, the Village de l’Est Homeowner Association, City Year, Hike for KaTREEna, Parks and Parkways, British Petroleum (BP), Archdiocese of New Orleans, Mary Queen of Vietnam Church & Parish, Common Grounds, the McClure Foundation, KaBoom & Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

Their support has helped VIET to restore over 8 acres of land, transforming it into a productive recreational and community center. Because of their support, we have the largest sandbox (20 x 20) in the city of New Orleans, children have a safe place to be playful, community members have opportunities to stay healthy and fit by using the walking path and other recreational activities. We definitely want to salute and send a great THANK YOU to our partners and supporters.

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Why Should We Care About the Budget:

’Cause it’s Our Money!

By MK Nguyen

Why Do I Care?

I live in the Village de l’Est neighborhood. I pay more in taxes each month than I do on my rent. I wouldn’t mind investing my hard-earned tax dollars to New Orleans if I had the confidence that the City of New Orleans was investing its resources back into me, but I don’t. As a representative of one of the neighborhoods in New Orleans East, we oftentimes feel like our interests are forgotten. As much as we try fight for our stake in the city budget, we are not getting the results we need to restore our people’s faith in the city budget and governance process in New Orleans.

New Orleans East represents 71,000 residents and nearly 51% of New Orleans tax base. The City needs New Orleans East for its land, tax base, rich and diverse social and cultural capital, and labor force.

However, New Orleans East residents do not feel like the relationship is reciprocal. As people who live in the easternmost fringe of New Orleans, folks out here oftentimes feel like the city is balancing its budget on their backs. The lack of economic development in New Orleans East has led residents to contribute their income in Jefferson and other parishes. The lack of public services, like libraries, schools, parks, reliable transportation and emergency hospitals has rendered the most economically and politically vulnerable communities in New Orleans East to shoulder the weight of these disparities. The lack of educational and economic investment in New Orleans East has rendered many people to be either unemployed or unemployable, which thus has forced our people to rely on public services.

New Orleans East continues to struggle with the absence of hospitals, lack of job opportunities, abysmal road conditions, broken street lights, unreliable public transportation, and deplorable public schools, the

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majority of which are still housed in trailers. With most services reestablished in New Orleans ‘proper’, many residents in New Orleans East feel like the city has left them behind. Public divestment over time has led to the deterioration of the environment, economy, health, infrastructure, and schools in this area.

The community’s economic circumstances reached their nadir this past year due to the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill. One third of all fishers and shrimpers in the Gulf Coast are Vietnamese, and we estimate that over half of the residents in our neighborhood derive their livelihoods from businesses that are inextricably tied to these industries. The toxins have seeped into our canals and local waterway networks, and are threatening neighborhood soil and farm plots. The toxicity of our crops will not cause the death of a person immediately, but research has shown that cancer and other diseases will be contracted in people after years of ingesting small amounts of toxins from our plants. Moreover, strong policies, regulations, and law enforcement regarding the proper management and disposal of waste are lacking at the local and state level to the continuous detriment of our community. The health, safety, and way of life of our community are being negatively affected by policymakers who do not live, work, and eat with us.

Due to its isolation and lack of political will, the region is a prone target for industrial zoning and illegal dumpsites, which dot the less populated landmass to the east and south of Versailles. Historically, the New Orleans East community has battled illegal dumping and landfills since the 1960s, when it was first established, and particularly since clean-up efforts began after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. There are at least 3 major landfills, 23 illegal dumpsites, and 13 illegal auto junkyards in New Orleans East, the majority of which are in close vicinity to our community. The disproportionate number of illegal dumpsites and landfills

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in our communities cover over 7,000 acres of wetlands and pollute our groundwater, soil, and air quality. These wetlands are vital to the City’s ability to protect itself from future natural disasters. Scientific soil and water tests in the water and soil of our area yielded very high levels of mold, endotoxins, arsenic, carcinogenics, and mercury. This impacts the health of our community members and prevents our agrarian and fishing communities from developing.

These conditions have exhausted the human resources in New Orleans East, which has made the area vulnerable to disparate and discriminatory treatment from local government lawmakers and agencies, especially in areas related to education, economy, and environment.

This has made the New Orleans East community, especially its most marginalized residents, defenseless to the deluge of local, state, national and multinational private interests seeking power over the land and future of the residents in New Orleans East.

I recognize that the City’s leadership has inherited a great task ahead of them in putting the pieces of a city back together that has been ravaged by natural disasters and unaccountable leadership from the past administration. If the City truly believes that “We are one team, one fight, one voice, one city” (Source: 2012 Annual Operating Budget, p.

10), then the City needs to listen to the voices in the East with more care.

However, the current condition in New Orleans East has created a litany of issues within our system, particularly within our education, economic, transportation, healthcare, and environmental protection systems. If the city does not move faster on their projects in New Orleans East, the problems of this entire city will only grow exponentially. In order restore people’s confidence in civic engagement and to unify the multifaceted voices of New Orleans, the City must first have courage to show the people some equity in the budget. If the City can show love to the people who have the least in New Orleans, then the City has proven that it can show love to anyone in New Orleans.

What is The City Doing About It? The City’s approach to balancing the budget is a process, called Budgeting for Outcomes (BFO), in which citizens lay out their desired outcomes and the City tries to figure out how to balance these interests with an existing $805 million budget. To align with the City’s mission, vision, and values, the City has identified six budgeting categories, called result areas (or results to be achieved), and the percentage they get in the budget pie: Public Safety (61%), Open and Effective Government (18%), Sustainable Communities (15%), Children and Families (3%), Economic Development (2%), and Innovation (1%). The result areas were polished and prioritized by a few hundred citizens who knew and had the ability to attend these community input meetings. Clearly, the budget pie renders some result areas robust and the others still hungry. Does this truly reflect the interest in Village de l’Est and New Orleans East?

What Are People In New Orleans East Doing About It? If it was up to the community who live in the far corners of New Orleans East to prioritize the budget result areas, we would prioritize differently. If it was up to us to shape the budget process, maybe we would structure it differently, like use a participatory budgeting framework, through which community members directly decide how to spend parts of a public budget (www.participatorybudgeting. org). Maybe we would develop a civic engagement plan that informs, educates, and provides opportunities for youth and community members to engage in collaborative work that will strategically leverage programs and partnerships to strengthen, support, and help build the power and capacity of the civic sector to meaningfully participate in the New Orleans city budget process.

Last year, I joined a group, called the Villages of the East Coalition (VEC). The Villages of the East Coalition is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, forum that brings together representatives from the Michoud area of New Orleans East towards a common vision of creating a better future

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for the children and youth in their community. VEC is comprised of the Village de l’Est Neighborhood Improvement Association, Maple Ridge and Oak Island Neighborhood Associations, Mary Queen of Vietnam Church, MQVN CDC, Vietnamese Initiatives and Economic Training (VIET), Vietnamese American Young Leaders Association (VAYLA), parents from Einstein Charter School, participants from the Metropolitan Youth Foundation, RENEW, Sarah T. Reed High School, Neighborhoods Partnership Network (NPN), and Puentes-New Orleans.

In the last year, I have watched the power of the VEC grow from a community-based coalition to a player in the political landscape. VEC members reached consensus on three priority issues. At every monthly meeting, new issues and information came in and members stepped up to take on action steps in between meetings to advance the goals of VEC. Members have worked together to monitor city progress on their issues and hold city official and department heads accountable. We helped turn community members out to City Hall to advocate for their budget priorities during the 2012 budget hearings. Here are the priority issues we have united to win for our community:

Village de L’Est Playground Currently the playground suffers from a number of problems in terms of programming, facilities and maintenance. Notwithstanding these conditions, over 100 people use the park on a daily basis for recreation and to play pick-up games for several sports including basketball, flag football, and soccer. A victory for the community on park revitalization must entail: 1) leveling the field and fixing all major surface holes, divots, dirt patches, etc; 2) reconstructing the concession stand and bathrooms, which suffered severe structural damage due to a fire; 3) resurfacing and repairing the basketball court to ensure it is safe to play on; 4) installing high-powered lights on the field so as to permit evening sports; and 5) repairing, or replacing, the “roof” over the basketball court.

Street Repair and Potholes Many of our streets and infrastructure are severely damaged, creating car damages, accidents, unsafe driving conditions, and eyesores. A victory for the community on street repairs must entail the complete repair of 33 damaged streets, with the streets around the Village de L’Est park as the highest priority.

Lamp Repairs Streetlamp repairs are also a high need in our community. The lack of lighting resulted in fallen light poles, burnt light bulbs, and exposed wires, have posed serious threats to the safety of our community members. We are currently assessing the needs and would love your help.

After learning about participatory budgeting, I began to recognize the alignment between Villages of the East developing our framework and the principles of participatory budgeting. Because the principles of participatory budgeting is embedded within VEC’s organic growth, VEC has the potential to create a road map for participation that can help other underserved communities develop their capacity to win concrete outcomes and change the course of the New Orleans budgeting process.

Villages of the East Coalition meets on the first wednesday of every month (location changes every month).

To learn more about Villages of the East Coalition, please contact MK Nguyen at mk@vayla-no.org or 504.253.6000.

To learn more about Participatory Budgeting in New Orleans, please visit www.NOCOG.org or contact MK again 21

Life as a Neighborhood Activist

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isit any New Orleans neighborhood, and you will find somebody just like me. Someone who spends a good portion of each week tending to residents’ needs, engaging City Hall and reporting the latest happenings. The press call us neighborhood leaders, though I prefer the term activist, as that best describes my chosen role. We are the squeaky wheels bent on rounding up our neighborhoods’ fair share of the grease. I hope to describe the various missions activists pursue within the community, and to characterize our working environment at home, on the street and behind the scenes.

There are nearly 400 neighborhood representatives throughout New Orleans, some nominated, some self-appointed, all of them dedicated. It would be hard to explain why any of them would volunteer for this fulltime job, in exchange for little or no compensation. Their reasons are likely as unique as the neighborhoods they serve. I can only assume they find it as challenging, broadening, educational and empowering as I do.

The lessons I have learned from these dedicated peers over the past 25 years are invaluable.

Many Hats To Wear

My roles within the neighborhood shift throughout the day. During my exploratory walks, for instance, residents might see me as a liaison who channels their quality of life complaints, a surveyor documenting instances of graffiti, or a concerned neighbor, trying to find out whose dog is running loose. At other times I am the organizer scheduling group meetings, or an activist trying to get our ailing streets repaved. Standing at the podium before City Council, I transform into a spokesperson, voicing concerns and airing grievances. An activist’s arsenal includes countless forms of leverage, subtle and otherwise.

When physical work needs doing, I become the handyman pulling down bandit signs, or the conservationist plotting where to place our community composting station. Each Spring, I carry the mantle of fundraiser, soliciting business ads for the newsletter and signing up families wanting to sell their wares at our annual Big Yard Sale. As hurricane season approaches, I switch into emergency preparedness mode, reviewing and disseminating evacuation plans, then don my maintenance man work gloves to clear storm drains and saw down dead tree limbs ahead of severe weather.

There are countless hats that we neighborhood activists must wear.

One organization’s especially tireless president even mows grass on untended lots, fills potholes with store-bought asphalt and organizes large group events on a regular basis! For a factotum like him, it is increasingly hard to delegate responsibilities back to the general membership; they take his work for granted. Such is the nature of volunteerism: Make it look easy, and you’ve got a job for life.

Choosing The Right Name

This may surprise you, but the most common question I get – from outsiders as well as residents within my own subdivision – is, “What do you call your neighborhood?” The answer is far from obvious. Today’s digitized maps, with overlays like Council Districts, Wards and Precincts, Census Tracts, Assessment Zones and copious other designations, only tell half the story. The rest of the story, like the rich tapestry from which our city is woven, emerges from a colorful, centuries-old collision of culture, custom, character and circumstance. Place names in New Orleans often reflect a strong socioeconomic bias, and bend to current marketing goals.

Take for instance the intersection of Earhart Boulevard and South Jefferson Davis Parkway, which happens to mark the northeast corner of my neighborhood. Upscale apartments here are “situated in a Louisiana Cultural District,” according to sales literature. Just behind this gated community, however, lies Zion City with a reputation for tall weeds, discarded tires and ubiquitous blight. When proposing a dog park, Broadmoor claimed the neutral ground, but faced strenuous opposition

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from Claiborne-University members whose homes overlook it. A wellappointed retail business a few steps steps away serves Mid-City, while the plant nursery two doors further over is located Uptown. News outlets reporting on crime unswervingly refer to this area as Gert Town. Across the way, meanwhile, rental trucks parked along a sliver of the old Fellman Tract obstruct the view from properties assessed as Marlyville. What a broad set of labels to choose from for such an unassuming acre of land!

Who Can You Call?

Today’s activist also serves as a glorified switchboard operator, ready to respond when asked, “Who can help with my problem?” To cope with situations ranging from the mundane (“My trashcan is missing”) to genuine emergencies (“My tenant just overdosed”), one must keep handy a long list (such as this one) of phone numbers, hotlines, contact names and email addresses. Numbers I dial most frequently include Sewerage & Water Board, the Streetlights Division of Public Works, and, of course, City Hall’s 3-1-1 complaint line, whose operators never fail to recognize my voice.

Even before making the call, a neighborhood activist must play detective, able to classify problems by cause (“Is that puddle from rain, a water leak, sewer break or clogged drains?”), by type (“Am I smelling gas, sewage, dog mess or trash?”) and even legality (“Can we park on the neutral ground?”). A layperson would be forgiven for not knowing that storm drains and street flooding fall within the purview of Public Works, not Sewerage & Water Board. One could even be excused for trying to report a vicious stray dog to 911 instead of calling the SPCA dispatcher directly. But neighborhood leaders – like the NOPD Quality of Life Officers we often rely on – have to know all these details, and more, by heart.

Downside to Being on the Inside

Not everyone appreciates what I do for my neighborhood. One aspect of my job that renders me most effective – the steady accumulation of knowledge – worries a few people, who regard me as The Man, invading their privacy as I scan the block for problems to report. Once in a while, a disgruntled resident will bark at me, “May I help you?” It is unsettling to be accosted by the occasional unstable person (stern glare, vice-like handshake lasting five seconds too long) or cornered by an irate bully (“I carry a gun and know where you live!”) who thinks I am encroaching on his family territory. You learn face-to-face diplomacy real fast at moments like that.

Such incidents are thankfully rare. Among the 1000 or so residents I serve, I would guess no more than 50 (the Contrary 5%) object to my presence or consider me a troublemaker. Only five people (for whom restraining orders, I hear, are commonplace) ever cussed me out or acted maliciously, and fewer than ten seem to carry a chronic chip on their shoulder. There is even a vocal contingent of 20 or so homeowners who resent all forms of change, and will oppose whatever new undertakings I propose (“I would rather die than have a community garden around here,” to quote one surly naysayer). To my relief, the vast majority of residents show support for my efforts, and I thrive on their generous smiles, expressions of gratitude and candid feedback.

We Got Your Back

Which is not to say support equals active involvement! In the course of a year, I am lucky if 50 residents pitch in with donations, help clean out catch basins, pick up trash, volunteer to tear down bandit signs, offer to host a block party, attend meetings, report crime, fill out surveys and so forth. The Helpful 5% always show up at community meetings, often getting quoted in the news, and are the most avid readers of neighborhood email. Give them a link and they will click it! I am blessed to have such well-informed and enthusiastic neighbors as partners.

Other neighborhoods around town confirm that they, too, enjoy the

THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

backing of their own Helpful 5%. These boosters are invested in the community, and they comprehend the disparity between how great New Orleans is and how great our city could be. Many outspoken community members moved here with a sense of possibility which longtime locals overlook. Our city’s infamous status quo is being confronted by advocates from the non-profit sector, so-called Gov 2.0 reformists, and transplants from other cities and countries who see in New Orleans the potential to transform from second-class to world-class. We sorely need their input.

The Promise of 3-1-1

I spend an inordinate amount of time tracking my neighborhood’s blighted properties, abandoned vehicles, vandalism, infrastructure deficiencies and the like. Ideally, one could dial 3-1-1, tell the complaint to an operator who issues a ticket number, and the responsible agency would fix it. That’s how the system works in places like Boston and Baltimore, but not (yet) in the City of New Orleans. When I learned that some cities allow citizens to submit complaints directly through a dedicated mobile app, I cobbled together just such a system, but the Landrieu administration was quick to discourage the public from using my “AskNOLA” website.

Residents have traditionally called or emailed complaints to City Council – legislators by trade, mind you – expecting them to route everything to the appropriate department.This method is not without merit, since it allows Councilmembers (who also set the city’s operating budget) to plot where government dollars go and where additional resources are needed. But on the whole, it’s a monumental waste of lawmakers’ time! Fixing potholes and law enforcement are rightly executive branch functions, but engaging those departments directly can be challenging.

When City Hall releases its enhanced 3-1-1 system, capable of directing a broader ranger of complaints and allowing citizens to request status information, things should improve.

Let’s Form a Committee

Following Hurricane Katrina, when the public’s trust in city government reached its nadir, many neighborhoods began creating internal committees with catchy titles like “Fight the Blight,” “Crime Task Force,” and “Clean Sweep.” A few dozen even established “Security Districts” to pay for increased patrols. Larger geographic areas, eager to pool scarce resources and expedite post-storm recovery, coalesced into meta-groups like Beacon of Hope, CAN, ENONAC, CUNA and GCIA. Their collective mission: Identify and track substandard conditions (infrastructure, crime, quality of life) at the neighborhood level, forward such items to municipal agencies for assistance, and demand the attention of elected officials throughout the process.

The City responded by creating its own macro-committees – unimaginatively named BlightStat, COMSTAT, QoLStat, CrimeView, etc. – aimed at increasing transparency in governance, as well as streamlining departmental efficiency by exposing bottlenecks in each process. Here, deputy mayors call on department heads to present statistics, backlogs and projections. The audience, mostly neighborhood representatives, can then gauge whether City Hall services are in sync with constituents’ needs, and set their expectations accordingly. One especially tunedin attendee, Charlie London of Faubourg St. John Neighborhood Association, has never missed a BlightStat meeting! He set the bar high in terms of how many hours (not to mention parking meter dollars and blog posts) he spends weekly on behalf of his organization.

Paradoxically, by pulling citizens’ attention in so many directions, this growing multitude of committee meetings, public hearings and town hall forums has become an unwelcome distraction, a poor substitute for the actual repairs needed in New Orleans’ crumbling infrastructure. So often the conversation at City Hall gets stuck on “Where is the money for that?” and “Who dropped the ball?” rather than sending out skilled hands to fix things. All the data collection and Powerpoint presentations in the world cannot fill a single pothole. The unfortunate net result is that while neighborhoods’ wish lists grow longer, many items remain unfixed after years of waiting for City Hall to fulfill its obligations, and citizen participation languishes.

THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

“One” to The Rescue

Yearning for a more direct pipeline between our neighborhoods and City government, a coalition of community leaders has been calling for the adoption of a citizen participation plan (CPP) within New Orleans.

In response, Mayor Landrieu established his Office of Neighborhood Engagement (also known as ONE) and tasked it with overhauling City Hall’s approach to customer service. These internal reforms, which include how the Planning Commission solicits development-related input from neighborhoods, are collectively known as the Neighborhood Participation Process (NPP).

Eventually, with the full legal backing of the Master Plan, a combination of CPP and NPP should emerge as the official way of doing business in New Orleans, in which everyone benefits from fewer roadblocks and a more level playing field. The overarching hope is that, as the collaborative process becomes more timely and inclusive, decision-making in Orleans Parish will better represent the people’s will.

Neighborhoods, in turn, should experience fewer surprises.

Gatekeepers No More

All this latter-day democratization brings hope of displacing one outmoded type of neighborhood leader known as the gatekeeper.

The gatekeeper maintains his or her benevolent dictatorship over a neighborhood by controlling the flow of information, consolidating personal power and withholding access to the organization’s inner workings. In this way, as so often occurs in Louisiana politics, the civic leader comes to be identified with the office itself, in some cases for decades. Constituents have historically tolerated this arrangement – call it apathy or acceptance – because the gatekeeper “gets things done.”

But the gatekeeper’s days are numbered; over the past 15 years, the Internet has dismantled his/her stranglehold on citizen engagement.

Residents today can connect with each other, form impromptu coalitions and more easily hold elected officials accountable. Social networks like Twitter and Facebook facilitate consensus-building at the grassroots level, free of undue influence from any individual. As City Hall brings more of its operations online, citizens gain unfettered access to proprietary data that in the past only gatekeepers could extract. This “open source” approach to civic affairs – by spreading information far and wide – empowers everyone. Historically under-served portions of our community now recognize that computer literacy trumps money, power or prestige as a form of political leverage – the philosophy behind my own NOLAhoods neighborhood blog.

Notes to Self

Every day, I ask myself these questions: “Have I become a gatekeeper?” “Are neighbors engaged?” “Does information flow freely?”

“How can we reach more people?” “Is the neighborhood safe?” “Could we improve our relationship with City Hall or NOPD?” “Am I responding to the needs of others?” “Are problems getting fixed?” “Have I taken steps to render myself obsolete?” Perhaps the most important and challenging question neighborhood organizations should ask themselves is, “Are we acting in a sustainable, democratic, just and effective way?” Without clear answers, we are just going through the motions as activists.

Most groups evolved organically in response to one trauma or another – poor housing conditions, a natural disaster or heinous crime – and it’s easy to lose direction once that problem is addressed. After tackling Mission One, what becomes Mission Two? A highly respected fellow neighborhood activist, H.V. Nagendra of Carrollton Area Network, once advised, “A neighborhood group should have a common cause underway at all times. That is what brings people together, allows neighbors to meet each other and iron out their differences.” In light of this wisdom, I strive to conduct neighborhood business with a positive outlook, a flexible agenda and an attentive ear – the very habits that have made my life as a neighborhood activist so fulfilling.

Tim Garrett has served as a New Orleans neighborhood activist since 1986. He is the owner/director of the city-wide neighborhood blog NOLAhoods.com

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After 32 Years

Village de l’Est is Still Home Sweet Home

By Yolanda Merritt

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lenn and Wanda Wiltz brought their first home on Corsica Place in 1980. They were happy and excited. Glenn was employed by South Central Bell, and Wanda was a hairdresser. Living in Village de l’Est was a dream come true and a move upward from their Seventh Ward roots.

Glenn remembers, “It was nice, quiet, and clean. It was a good place to raise a family. Neighbors knew neighbors. There was a good mix of whites and blacks. The kids could play outside without any problems.”

Their son, Glenn Jr., enjoyed his childhood playing team sports at the Village de l’Est playground. Wanda and Glenn were parishioners at St. Bridget Church on Granville. Glenn Sr. served as lecturer, usher, choir member, taught Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, and provided pastoral care. Their son, Ryan, served as altar boy. There were schools, churches, supermarkets, banks, parks, hospitals, and shopping centers. Most of the residents were upper middle class people with good paying jobs.

Village de l’Est was a growing community. In the late 1980’s, the Vietnamese community began to move into the neighborhood, with most folks settling around Alcee Fortier. Wanda recounts, “They were nice people, good neighbors. They kept up their property up.” While there were language barriers between residents, there were no problems between different races. There are now more Vietnamese homeowners than Blacks, and Whites no longer lived on their block.

Glenn Sr. is now retired and Wanda works in childcare. Glenn Sr. is now an ordained Deacon assigned to St. James Major Church in Gentilly.

Glenn Jr., now 35 years old, moved to Houston, Texas, after Hurricane

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Katrina and works in Information Technology for a large company. He now has a family of his own, and recently purchased his first home.

Glenn’s younger brother, Ryan, now 30 years old, serves in the military since high school and is also married. When asked about how their neighborhood has changed, they said it is different, especially since Katrina. Wanda felt there is some progress being made, but it’s very slow. Glenn Jr. expressed that he sees a decline in the community when he comes to visit from Houston. He feels it is caused by economics, in that there has been a decrease in middle class residents. Glenn answered, “There has been a decline in growth because of the increase in crime and lack of businesses and jobs.” You have to travel long distances to shop, eat at a nice restaurant, visit a doctor, or go to a hospital. There is more crime and problems with damaged streets. Most of the people are renters, so there is a steady change of your neighbors. There is a lack of neighborhood bonding. You don’t really get to know your neighbors.

Most people now stay to themselves. There are less children and young families in the neighborhood.

In 2012, thirty-two years later, they live in the same house. St. Bridget Church has been damaged by Hurricane Katrina and never re-opened. It is now the site of VIET Community Center. The Wiltzs, like many others, still hope for the best. They want Village de l’Est to be a great community again, where there is a good quality of life, and neighbors know each other. A place where families can live safely and children can grow, play, learn, and thrive – a place that is home sweet home.

THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

Final Community Meeting

Former Six Flags Jazzland Site Update

By Lakshmi Sridaran

Last year, the city of New Orleans created a selection committee to review development proposals for the abandoned Six Flags Jazzland site in New Orleans East. Through a series of meetings and a final community meeting on Monday, March 5th, the committee chose a plan put forward by Provident Realty Advisors and DAG Development to turn the site into an upscale outlet mall and entertainment boardwalk, with future phases including a big-box retailer, amphitheater, sports field, water park, and hotel. According to the Times Picayune, while most attendees at Monday night’s community meeting were in favor of the project, several raised questions about how the project would be financed and the developer’s commitment to local and minority business participation. The negotiation process has just begun and the city has promised that it will not be finalized until the community’s concerns have been addressed by the developers. Additionally, the developers have to go through their own pre-construction phase which will take between 1-2 years. Although it will be a while before any ground is broken, you can imagine what it might look like compared to now.

THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

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Advancing Effective Public Participation in 2012

by Lucas Diaz, director of the Mayor’s Neighborhood Engagement Office

It’s been almost a full year since the Neighborhood Engagement office came into existence in spring 2011. We learned a great deal in our first year and realized quickly that people not only wanted to be heard, they wanted to know what’s going on. And they wanted to know how they could have a say on decisions that affect their lives.

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verything that participation and open government advocates were saying about New Orleans neighborhoods was affirmed to us in our day-to-day experiences with community leaders. As a new office in city government concerned about participation, we spent a great deal of 2011 listening, learning and responding. We listened to people’s concerns, researched practices of similar offices across the United States, learned from fellow community advocates and other voices, and talked to city administrators. The result of this work was the creation of a City Neighborhood Participation Plan (City NPP) and a re-evaluation of how the Neighborhood Office will engage communities in 2012.

Who isn’t familiar with the saying, “if you could walk in my shoes?” We noticed that both the community and City Hall felt this way about each other. Walk in my shoes for a minute, each side said, and see if you can hear or understand me better. Unfortunately, little understanding ever happened. The problem was that the City didn’t have the adequate mechanism to create understanding. We couldn’t even begin to walk in each other’s shoes until we learned to listen to each other.

We developed the City NPP, which will be available for the general public in April, to provide a foundation for better understanding through improved participation practices. In a nutshell, the City NPP provides a roadmap for all of us, a roadmap that leads towards more meaningful participation and partnership between the City and you, its residents.

The document does not provide a hotline, or an office, or any such structural solution. The City NPP does, however, give clarity to what the City considers to be strong, effective participation and what it takes to make that happen. It’s the first piece in a long-term process to bring to city government new ways of working better with neighborhoods. I encourage community organizations, neighborhood leaders, and residents to read the document and use it as a tool to identify opportunities to help build stronger engagement for all.

After completing the City NPP, our office set out to help targeted departments build better participation practices. We helped the Office of Community Development create a more meaningful public participation plan, which is now in use. We are finalizing a participation plan for the Capital Projects department and the New Orleans Recreation Development Commission, and are assisting NOPD with the Police Community Advisory Boards and the City Planning Commission with its participation plan. Through these initial efforts we are moving the public participation needle towards more accessible, equitable, and inclusive practices for all residents. For example, we have helped various communities partner more meaningfully with Capital Projects as they move projects from design to construction. As a direct result of our work, communities now engage with Capital Projects directly and discuss the potential for design changes and modifications prior to a final design decision.

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In addition to the work on NPPs, we focused on how our office could better serve neighborhoods in 2012. In 2011 we helped neighborhoods with their constituency services concerns, such as light outages, street repairs and other public services issues. As an office dedicated to all things about participation, this work was very important, but one that at the end had more to do with departmental work order and customer service processes and less with public participation.

With the 311 system coming online (the service begins March 26th and will take calls for Department of Public Works, Code Enforcement, Sanitation and the City Assisted Evacuation Plan), we focused on improving upon our core mission to provide meaningful public participation. Beginning in April 2012, our office will focus on our mission through three key strategies: Neighborhood Outreach, Neighborhood Participation, and Neighborhood Revitalization.

As part of our Neighborhood Outreach strategy, we will continue to attend neighborhood meetings, meet with you one-on-one and coordinate conversations and meetings between residents and city government. We will also launch new initiatives that help build strong relationships with city government, such as:

We will launch new initiatives that help build strong relationships with city government.

1. A quarterly Neighborhood Leaders’ Roundtable 2. A monthly Coffee on Your Corner program in which we’ll bring department heads to your neighborhoods 3. A Citizen Leadership Academy in the Fall in which we’ll present how different departments in City Hall work 4. A citywide neighborhood conference in the fall in which we’ll bring neighborhood groups together to network, collaborate and learn with each other and city government.

Through our Neighborhood Participation strategy, we will continue to assist city departments in designing, implementing and sustaining improved participation processes for the issues that matter most to residents. We will also continue to focus on assisting and encouraging residents to use these new processes once they are fully implemented.

Finally, through our neighborhood revitalization strategy, we will focus on the Mayor’s placed-based development approach and provide strategic support and assistance to targeted neighborhood groups. This work enables our office to play a key role in identifying strategic opportunities across city agencies for proactive partnership with communities.

By the end of 2012 we will have increased opportunities for effective public participation across several key city agencies. In 2013 we will build on that work. It may just be the beginning of the work, but it’s a strong foundation that residents can help sustain and grow as the City moves towards becoming a stronger partner with neighborhoods.

THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

CeCe Gets n o s n h o J y Luck

By Christy “CeCe” Chapman, the author of the book, 20 Thoughts Every Woman Should Have.

She is a New Orleans native who is “twenty something years of age.”

Follow her on Twitter at @CeCetheAuthor.

It was a pleasure and honor for me to conduct this interview with New Orleans’ own Lucky Johnson.

As I sat at his desk, I came to appreciate him and his talent more than watching him at the movies or in one of his stage plays. I was able to take in and listen to wisdom and greatness from a man that has excelled through the experience we call “life.”

CeCe: Who is Lucky Johnson?

Lucky Johnson is a businessman, entrepreneur, father, hustler, philanthropist, mentor, extraordinaire.

CeCe: What is it that you do?

Produce, write, act, and I do comedy as well.

CeCe: What area are you from?

3rd ward, Uptown area.

CeCe: When did you realize that you had a gift?

At the age of 11, I found a $20 bill outside and gave it to my mom to buy honey buns and all types of snacks. We always had kids from the neighborhood over, so I decided to set up my own sweet shop and begin to sell snacks. I became an “Entrepreneur.” My brother had a music group and I was one of the dancers, and the first concert we opened up was the “Vanilla Ice” concert. I was so excited, that’s when I became an “Entertainer.” As a child I did several commercials, such as: British Knights (B.K.), Rally’s and even a child abuse commercial.

CeCe: What was your first official business?

St.Claude Audio & Car Wash and then BiggFace Barbershop/BiggFace Record Company that is still in existence with Producer Blaq-n-Mild as an affiliate and creative artist 10th Ward Buck.

CeCe: Who has been influential in your life and why?

Knowledge of discernment can never be taken away - “Thanks MOM!” I was taught the trade of carpentry, which taught me to build and the “know-how to do,” and to have drive -”Thanks DAD!” I can identify with this man’s struggles, and understand the person he was and the man he strived to become. I am doing plays and movies because of him and his “Blueprint” of life -”Thanks Tyler Perry!”

CeCe: What was the 1st play you produced?

“Catch Dat Beat” CeCe: What was the concept behind that?

I wanted to show what New Orleans’ Bounce music was and how it got started. My plays show everyday relatable situations like forgiveness, empowerment and healing.

CeCe: What has been your biggest accomplishment thus far? Why? Co-starring in the major motion picture “Contraband.” It was huge for me because the role that I landed was one that A- and B-List black actors tried for, and I received it.

CeCe: What keeps you grounded?

God first, and my kids and family.

CeCe: How was it working alongside Hollywood great Mark Walberg?

Great; he took me under his wing, and I consider him a friend forever.

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CeCe: How did it feel working on movie sets with A-List actors?

It was awesome. I fed off their energy, and by doing so, it made me a better supporting actor. It definitely polished me. I am a natural on the sets (smiling).

CeCe: As an actor, do you wish to be type-casted?

No, not at all, because I am versatile...I have played roles such as a ‘junkie’, ‘slave’, ‘cop’, etc...The list goes on....

CeCe: How do you give back to New Orleans?

I give back especially to the youth in the community, participating in “Bounce Festival” with motivational aspects, and also as a sponsor of the 9th ward park “Bunny Friends,” and I also have and will keep my businesses in the city.

CeCe: So what are you working on now?

Acting in the HBO Series Treme and producing stage play Men, Lies, Secrets, starring Latoya Locket.

CeCe: Who would you like to work with in the industry?

John Singleton, Denzel Washington, Ice Cube, and a few others.

CeCe: Did you ever have a moment where you wanted to give up?

NO!!! (Lucky says “no” from the top of his lungs; his eyes wide) Not ever!!! Giving up is failure, and failing isn’t an option.

CeCe: How does it feel coming from a place like New Orleans that has such negative scrutiny?

It is a great feeling; New Orleans is a happy city. Like any other major city, we can’t be exempt from crime. I like to show that we have a lot of great minds and people from New Orleans, such as Fats Domino, Lil’ Wayne, Ellen DeGeneris, Master P, Baby, Trombone Shorty, and now Lucky Johnson.

CeCe: What do people need to know about you?

That I am a spiritual and humble person. I have had struggles of life, but I was able to put my book, street, and penitentiary smarts to use and dictate my own future.

CeCe: What legacy will you leave behind?

Work ethics definitely, importance of loyalty, staying true to self and others, even your haters. The preacher said “Let Your Haters Be Your Motivators,” definitely my motivation. My own TV network, everything is possible. I mean, we have a black president and New Orleans-own Tyler Perry owns his own production studio, so great things can be done in this lifetime!!

Smoochies, Christy “CeCe” Chapman “Turning Empowerment into Results with a Feminine Twist” P.O. Box 3551, New Orleans, LA 70177 Cell: 504-610-5653

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6 Core Classes Taught by Professionals in the Field!

How do you get people to turn out to your meetings?

How do you raise money for your organization?

How do you navigate City Hall?

Capacity College is your training ground!

New! Symposium series with technical workshops and minigrant competitions every quarter to help fund your ideas.

2012 Symposium Topics: Public Contracting & Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, Crime & Criminal Justice, and Community Benefits Agreements Non-profit partners and NPN staff will assist your group from project development to implementation.

Enrollment Requirements: New participants must take all (5) core classes Enrollment Fees per semester: $70/individuals | $35/person: groups of 3 or more (member) $55/person: groups of 3 or more (non-member) | $25/class All participants will receive a bag with course materials.

How to Enroll: Visit www.npnnola.com to download enrollment form. Enroll by February 17th, 2012!

Email capacitycollege@npnnola.com for more information or call (504) 940-2207 and ask to speak with the Director of Programs.

Favorite Fathers New Orleans 2012 Why a “Favorite Fathers” program?

While father absence in families continues to be a problem, there are countless numbers of men who have dignified themselves by being great fathers to their children. Often, these fathers go unrecognized for the good things they do. We need YOU to nominate fathers to receive Favorite Father Awards of 2012.

To nominate a Favorite Father, please send your name and contact info along with your nominee’s name and contact info along with his age, number of children, and the answers to the questions: “I think my Favorite Father Candidate is a good role model because…” and “My Favorite Father has shown how much he loves and supports his family through…” to Gregory Rattler, Jr. at grattler@loyno.edu.

Nominations can also be submitted at Ashé Cultural Arts Center (1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd) or Lindy Boggs Center (6363 St. Charles Ave).

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Please submit the nomination by the deadline of Friday, May 17, 2012 at 5:00PM.

“FAVORITE FATHER AWARD” Form Guidelines & Criteria: May or may not be residing with their children; may or may not be married; must be a positive role model; works in partnership with the mother of his child(ren); consistently demonstrates love and support of his children; values the importance of education. There is no age limit and the individual does not have to be the biological father. There are no income criteria for favorite father candidates.

THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

2012 Capacity College Spring Course Schedule

THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

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Neighborhood Meetings

Neighborhood Meetings

Algiers Point Association Every 1st Thursday of the month @ 7pm Holy Name of Mary School Cafeteria

Central City Renaissance Alliance (CCRA) Saturday, September 19 @ 2p.m.

1809 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. http://www.myccra.org

Broadmoor Improvement Association 3rd Monday of every other month @ 7pm Andrew H. Wilson Charter School Cafeteria 3617 General Pershing St. New Orleans, LA 70125 http://www.broadmoorimprovement. com

Chapel of the Holy Comforter Every 4th Thursday of the month @ 6:30p.m.

2200 Lakeshore Drive

Bunny Friends Neighborhood Association Every second Saturday of the month Mt. Carmel Baptist Church 3721 N Claiborne Ave

Downtown Neighborhood Improvement Association (DNIA) Every 3rd Monday of the month @ 7p.m.

Musicians’ Union Hall 2401 Esplanade Ave (entrance through parking lot on Bayou Road and Rocheblave Street)

Bywater Neighborhood Association Every 2nd Tuesday of the month at 7p.m.

Holy Angels Cafeteria 3500 St. Claude Ave. Carrollton Riverbend Neighborhood Association Every 2nd Thursday of the month Parish Hall of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Corner of Carrollton and Zimple Carrollton United Every second Monday at 5:00p.m. every other month St. John Missionary Baptist Church, corner of Leonidas and Hickory Central City Partnership Every last Friday of the month @ 1p.m.

Allie Mae Williams Center 2020 Jackson Ave. http://www.centralcitypartnership.org

Claiborne-University Neighborhood Association Quarterly Meetings, time and date TBA Jewish Community Center 5342 St. Charles Ave

DeSaix Neighborhood Association Every 2nd Saturday of the month @10a.m.

Langhston Hughes Academy 3519 Trafalgar Street http://danadesaix.org East New Orleans Neighborhood Advisory Committee (ENONAC) Every 2rd Tuesday of each month @ 6 p.m.

St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church http://www.enonac.org Faubourg Delachaise Neighborhood Association Quarterly meetings, time/date/ location TBA http://fdna-nola.org Faubourg St. John Neighborhood Association Board Meeting: Every 2nd Monday

7p.m. Holy Rosary Cafeteria 1638 Moss Street General Membership: 3rd Wednesday, every other month 6:30pm Black Gold Room at the Fairgrounds http://www.fsjna.org

Every 2nd Wednesday of the month @ 7pm Gentilly Terrace School 4720 Painters St. http://www.gentillyterrace.org

Faubourg St. Roch Improvement Association Every 2nd Thursday of the month @ 6:00p.m.

True Vine Baptist Church 2008 Marigny St.

Hoffman Triangle Neighborhood Association Every 2nd Tuesday of the month @ 5:30p.m.

Pleasant Zion Missionary Baptist Church 3327 Toledano Street

Garden District Association 1 annual meeting per year, time/date/ location TBA

Hollygrove Neighbors Association Saturdays at 12:00 (noon) April 14 July 14 October 13 St. Peter AME Church 3424 Eagle St. (Eage St. and Edinburgh St.) www.neighborhoodlink.com (type in 70118 and click on “Hollygrove Neighbors”) blog us at http://www. hollygroveneighbors.blogspot.com/

Gentilly Civic Improvement Association (GCIA) General Membership- Every 3rd Saturday of the month 10am Board Meeting - Every 3rd Wednesday of the month 6:30p.m.

Edgewater Baptist Church 5900 Paris Ave.

Holy Cross Neighborhood Association Every 2nd and 4th Thursday @ 5:30 Center for Sustainability, Greater Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church 5130 Chartres, Lizardi and Chartres http://www.helpholycross.org

Gentilly Heights East Neighborhood Association Every 3rd Monday of the month @ 6p.m.

Dillard University Dent Hall – Room 104

Irish Channel Neighborhood Association 2nd Thursday of the month at 7p.m.

Irish Channel Christian Fellowship 819 First St. http://www.irishchannel.org

Gentilly Sugar Hill Neighborhood Association Every 3rd Monday of the month @ 6:30p.m .

VOA – 2929 St. Anthony Ave. (meetings on hold until further notice)

Lake Bullard Homeowners Association See website for meeting schedule Cornerstone United Methodist Church 5276 Bullard Ave. http://www.lakebullard.org Lake Catherine Civic Association Every 2nd Tuesday of the month @ 7p.m.

Filmore Gardens Neighborhood Association (meet the 4th Thursday of each month) Rouse’s Food Market (Leon C. Simon & Franklin Avenue) 6:30p.m. to 8:00p.m.

(No meetings in Nov. and Dec.)

Gentilly Terrace and Gardens Improvement Association

Get Connected to the New Orleans Neighborhood Network.

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THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

Neighborhood Meetings

Lake Willow Neighborhood Every 2nd Saturday of the month @ 10a.m.

St. Maria Goretti Church Lower Ninth Ward Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association (NENA) Every 2nd Saturday @ 12 noon NENA – 1120 Lamanche St. http://www.9thwardnena.org Melia Subdivision Every 2rd Saturday of the month @ 5p.m.

Anchoren in Christ Church 4334 Stemway Drive Mid-City Neighborhood Organization General Meeting – Second Monday of every month@ 6:30p.m.

Grace Episcopal Church 3700 Canal Street http://www.mcno.org Milneburg Neighborhood Association Chapel of the Holy Comforter 2200 Lakeshore Dr. 6:30 p.m.

Monthly meetings are every

4th Thursday of the month Oak Park Civic Association Every 3rd or last Tuesday of the month Paris Oaks/Bayou Vista Neighborhood Association Last Saturday of every month @ 4p.m.

Third District Police Station 4650 Paris Avenue Pensiontown of Carrollton Neighborhood Association Every 1st Saturday of the month @ 2p.m.

Leonidas House Community Center (under renovation) 1407 Leonidas St. Temporarily housed at St. Paul AME Church 8540 Cohn St. (corner of Leonidas and Cohn) Pontilly Association Pontilly Disaster Collaborative – Every 3rd Wednesday of the month General Meeting – every 2nd Saturday of the month http://www.pontilly.com

Ask City Hall

Rosedale Subdivision Last Friday of every month @5:30 Greater Bright Morning Star Baptist Church 4253 Dale Street Seabrook Neighborhood Association Monthly meetings are every second Monday Gentilly Terrace School 4720 Painters Street Tall Timbers Owners Association Semi-annual meetings: Second Wednesday of October & April 7p.m.

Board meetings: Second Wednesday of every other month 7p.m Tunisburg Square Homeowners Civic Association, Inc. Every 2nd Monday of the month @ 6:30p.m. http://tunisburg.org West Barrington Association 1st Tuesday of every month @ 6p.m.

Holiday Inn Express 70219 Bullard Avenue

Send your neighborhood meeting details to: web@npnnola.com

District A Susan G. Guidry City Hall, Room 2W80 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1010 Fax: (504) 658-1016 Email: sgguidry@cityofno.com District B Stacy Head City Hall, Room 2W10 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658 -1020 Fax: (504) 658-1025 Email: shead@cityofno.com District C Kristin Gisleson Palmer City Hall, Room 2W70 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1030 Fax: (504) 658-1037 Email: kgpalmer@cityofno.com District D Cynthia Hedge-Morrell City Hall, Room 2W20 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1040 Fax: (504) 658-1048 E-mail: chmorrell@cityofno.com District E Jon D. Johnson City Hall, Room 2W60 1300 Perdido Street Phone: (504) 658-1050 Fax: (504) 658-1058 E-mail: jdjohnson@cityofno.com Council Member-At-Large Jacquelyn Clarkson City Hall, Room 2W50 1300 Perdido Street New Orleans, LA 70112 Phone: (504) 658-1070 Fax: (504) 658-1077

Neighborhood Partnership Network 4902 Canal Street • #301 New Orleans, LA 70119 504.940.2207 • FX 504.940.2208 TheTrumpet@npnnola.com

THE TRUMPET | March/April | 2012

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NEIGHBOR OOD SPOTLIGH HT

Photo By: Scott Bicking

Village de L’EST