AmeriCorps Members Get Things Done in NOLA

The Appalachian MentorCorps and Ohio Outback Conservation Corps, of Sojourners, traveled to New Orleans recently to take part in a week of Katrina recovery work.

The Sojourners AmeriCorps members, joined by AmeriCorps program directors, Jamie Sullivan and Gary Kellough and Foster Care staff members, Joy Dickerson and Barb Tilley, stayed at Camp Hope, a converted school that is used as basic housing for volunteers. Camp Hope, which is run by Habitat for Humanity, provides a place to sleep, recreation space, wireless internet, meeting space, and two hot meals and a bag lunch for volunteers who are working in the greater New Orleans Area. The facility, which can house 700 people a night, is located in St. Bernard Parish, about 30 minutes outside of downtown New Orleans.

To coordinate recovery work, the Sojourners crew worked with the United Saints First Street Recovery Project, a community recovery organization combining local and national volunteers in the rebuilding of New Orleans and the surrounding area.

The Sojo volunteers worked on several projects all centered in the First Street Neighborhood in New Orleans’ Central City area, where many properties received wind and/or flood water damage in the storm and subsequent levy failures across New Orleans.

First Street United Methodist Churches—Volunteers helped remove mold, primed and painted walls and created signage.

Jessie Mae’s House—Volunteers assisted a first street neighbor with scraping, priming and painting her house which had received a lot of Katrina wind damage.

Volunteer House—Volunteers rehabbed a house next to the First Street Methodist Church which will be used to house volunteers who come to help the United Saints in the future. The crew put in plumbing, constructed and tiled new floors, replaced exterior siding and windows, primed and painted the whole house, and built several of bunk beds.

Charter School Library—Sojo volunteers also worked at a local charter school, staffing the library, collating health records, filing, and generally helping out and hanging out with the students.

The recovery trip was a transformative experience for many of the Sojourners group. They learned a little about New Orleans and a lot about the power of the human spirit to overcome terrible adversity. The United Saints were so thankful for their help that they put a picture of our “Sojo Saints” on their website. You can check it out at www.unitedsaints.org .