ACHI Annual Conference: CHA Presents on New Orleans [03.07]:

Rebuilding Community Capacity to Protect New Orleanians’ Health after Katrina
Shelia Webb, PhD, RN, Vincent Lafronza, EdD, MS, and Natalie Burke

Rebuilding community capacity to protect and improve the health and well-being of New Orleanians requires substantial leadership effort. Katrina’s impact completely decimated the safety net throughout all of New Orleans. One year later, while many programs and services exist to support children and families, providers lack a comprehensive plan to assess and address community needs in a coordinated, strategic manner.

In late September 2005, the New Orleans-based Center for Empowered Decision Making and CommonHealth ACTION commenced a collaborative effort to facilitate the safe return home of families across Orleans Parish. To inform the basis of policy and program recommendations for service providers and policy makers, to date, the Safe Recovery Partnership has:

  1. Convened groups to characterized needs of children and families as they return to Orleans Parish
  2. Identified current programs and services available to facilitate children and families to return and thrive (schools, mental health, health care, faith community, etc.)
  3. Identified gaps in programs and services
  4. Developed a specific plan of action to address gaps, strengthen community programs and services
  5. Captured the voices of youth to inform New Orleans’ redevelopment efforts

This session will share our progress, challenges, assessment approaches, and lessons learned about repopulation and health service restoration efforts following the nation’s largest disaster. This session will also include a 20-minute video of youth voices, as our young partners share their vision for a brighter city.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Learn about, contribute to, and share approaches to rebuild community capacity to assess and address health issues in repopulation efforts following a disaster.
  2. Share models that work.

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