Peter's Story - St. Bernard Project

Volunteering in New Orleans' St. Bernard Parish was an amazing, eye-opening experience for me. Before Katrina hit, it was a thriving middle-class community of more than 68,00 people, many of them fishermen, oil workers, natural gas workers, and construction workers. A tightly knit community of normal, hardworking people, St. Bernard Parish was home to generations of families. Neighbors all knew each other well, families lived within minutes of each other; it was a true community.

Since the hurricane, less than a third of the people have returned. The ones that have, found their neighborhoods destroyed, their friends scattered, their families moved to other towns and other states. While there, I rarely saw a street that wasn't missing a few houses or that had several others under-going reconstruction and still others slated for demolition.

I was honored to meet and work with the Perez family. The dad is disabled and couldn't do the backbreaking work himself. He and his wife have two teenagers. We were one of the first teams in their home since the storms, so we did lots of demolition and mold treatment. It was dirty, filthy, hot work. AND at the same time, so much fun! Go figure. I'd hire someone to do it at my own house, but I loved doing it for someone else who truly needed the help.

I stayed at a place called Camp Hope. It was such an incredible place -- all staffed by volunteers and housing up to 1,200 volunteer workers at any one given time. It used to be a middle school, but when I was there, the classrooms were all being used as dorms, sleeping 20 to a room on bunk bed cots made by volunteer carpenters. We took cold showers and ate in chow lines. It was one of the best weeks ever! Very much like summer camp for grownups. I miss it so much already. I understand that it's closed now, which is really sad on one level, but really cool on another because it means that the school is re-opening.

I feel lucky to have worked with the St. Bernard Project. My experience was beyond explanation and words can't really do it justice. I think The Perez home was roughly house number 154 for the people at the St. Bernard Project. With little money and all volunteers, they make a difference every day. They are my new heroes. It was fun, hard, moving, gross and I'd do it again in a minute. In fact, I'm hoping to make it back early next year. Want to join me?

Peter Barton --

Rebuilding New Orleans

On August 28, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the United States, causing severe damage as it stormed throughout the South, leaving thousands homeless and an estimated 1,836 lives lost. When New Orleans' levees broke, America's hearts did too. We watched as homes were lost and families broken apart. Four years later, the devastation from Katrina continues to plague the area with roughly 15,000 families still living in temporary housing. St. Bernard Project Co-Founder Liz McCartney talks to us about her goal for St. Bernard Parish and the lessons learned to develop a new national model for post disaster rebuilding.

St. Bernard Project (SBP) has a unique story. You and Co-Founder Zack Rosenburg had successful careers in DC and chose to let it all go to help the people devastated by hurricane Katrina. Can you speak about how you got involved, how you started the group and how you came to choose to focus specifically on St. Bernard Parish?

Zack and I came to the New Orleans in February 06 with mom. We landed in St. Bernard by chance -- an organization doing relief work in St. Bernard was the only one to answer my email about volunteer opportunities. I had never heard of St. Bernard Parish before we got here.

We thought we'd volunteer for a few weeks and then go back to our lives as planned. But when we got here we were very surprised to learn: 1) there was so much work to do; 2) the people were great -- not at all like the media had portrayed; and 3) that the problems were very solvable. At that time, people who had a FEMA trailer were considered lucky. Most people were living either in their cars, on the 2nd floor of the their homes that did not flood or miles away in another community. More than anything the residents of St. Bernard just wanted to come home.

We decided to get involved because it seemed like the right thing to do. So, we went back to DC raised funds, bought a pick up truck and moved to New Orleans in the summer of 2006. First, we found a very generous resident who donated his building to us for an office space. We spent the first summer learning to how to hang drywall with him. We started working on our first client's home later that summer.

Since that time we have helped 226 families rebuild and move back into their homes with help from over 15,000 volunteers. We opened a Center for Wellness and Mental Health in partnership with LSU's Health Science Center in February 2009. We offer approximately 70 hours a week of one-on-one therapy and wellness classes. This fall we are starting the Good Work Good Pay Program that will hire, train and employ veterans and other unemployed Louisiana residents to do construction work. The program will pay them living wages and benefits however, because the Good Work Good Pay Program does not seek to make a profit we will be able to offer our clients submarket construction rates. This program will be a good fit for homeowners who have some funds but not enough to hire a contractor or nonprofit organizations who are seeking to develop deeply affordable housing.

How do you feel about SBP's progress so far? How do you feel about the reconstruction progress as a whole?

The New Orleans area has seen significant progress over the past four years: 75% of the population has returned in New Orleans and 60% in St. Bernard; many homes (although certainly not all homes) have been rebuilt, many businesses are open, and lots of the schools and places of worship are coming back. The historic sections of the city like (French Quarter, Garden District and Uptown near Tulane and Loyola, to name a few) which has very limited damage look fantastic. In other parts of the city (Gentilly, Lower 9th Ward, Lakeview) there are varying degrees of work to do.

While SBP is proud of the contributions we've made to the residential rebuilding efforts work that we've done (226 families homes, 50 homes under construction), we feel like it's a drop in the bucket. Today approximately 15,000 families are either living in FEMA trailers or government subsidized rental housing. And what's most shocking is that 70% of these people own a home. They can not rebuild it, however, because they either did not get enough funds, they don't qualify for a loan or they were ripped off by a contractor.

What does your long term plan look like? What does the future of New Orleans look like in your opinion?

The future of New Orleans is very bright. It was recently named one of the most entrepreneurial cities in the country. The city is attracting many creative, smart and driven professionals who are finding innovative ways to solve some of the regions most pressing problems. They are funding opportunities for new business ideas in the region.

SBP's goal is to work ourselves out of a job. Eventually, we hope that the St. Bernard Project will no longer be needed in the New Orleans area. We are committed to taking the lessons we've learned post-Katrina to develop a new national model for post disaster rebuilding.

Congratulations on winning the CNN Heroes Award. What did that mean to you personally and also for SBP?

The CNN Hero Award was for all the people in the New Orleans and from around the country who have worked so hard to rebuild the region. It has and will continue to be a group effort. We are truly grateful for the exposure from the Heroes Program which has helped us reach many more volunteers. We got to see that we've made tremendous progress down here but there is still a lot of work to be done.

St. Bernard Project in the Spotlight