The Fish Foundation news and events

Today, Darlene Wolnik of marketumbrella.org took us on a three-hour tour of New Orleans, from the Ninth Ward to Lakeview and everywhere in between. It's very difficult to describe the devastation that still exists here, almost two years after Katrina. It's like visiting the Caribbean -- tourist areas like The French Quarter are just fine, but once you step outside that comfort zone, the city shows you its true face, warts and all. Some neighborhoods are doing better than others. Luxury homes are going up in middle-class Lakeview, just a stone's throw from the rebuilt levees, while the Ninth Ward is a ghost town, endless streets of broken windows staring back at you like empty eye-sockets. We deliberately refrained from taking many pictures -- we came here not to glorify a tragedy, but to see what we can do to help people rebuild their lives in innovative ways.

There appears to be little action to promote the development of small businesses in many neighborhoods. Sure, some corporations have returned -- fast-food joints and hardware giants, in particular -- but mom-and-pop stores that provide food and other basic necessities are in short supply. Why return and reclaim your home when your neighborhood still doesn't have a grocery store? Furthermore, most homeowners in poor neighborhoods simply can't afford the construction costs to rebuild their homes. Louisiana's Road Home program, which is designed to give grants to homeowners so they can return and rebuild, is bogged down in red tape. Certainly, this is an opportunity to use privately-funded microfinance initiatives to reshape and redevelop poor communities. Small-scale loans can help redevelop local businesses, and financial literacy programs can teach local residents good financial practices. So, we're going to put our heads together with the people we meet down here to explore those possibilities.

Darlene took us to New Orleans East to show us an area that's very much on the rise -- the Vietnamese community. Even though they were hit hard by Katrina, the Vietnamese community banded together to rebuild quickly and efficiently. They've set-up a temporary housing area to help the displaced, and then they work together to find and rebuild housing for these families. They've sucessfully lobbied Mayor Nagin for economic and environmental reforms -- you can read more about their efforts here. Looking at this community today, you'd find it hard to believe that any hurricance touched this area.

If anything, our trip through New Orleans East's Vietnamese community showed us the importance of strong communities. The pre-Katrina community structures of church, family and small business helped this community rebound far quicker than areas like the Ninth Ward and Gentilly. If these communities shared the same communal bonds, we might be looking at a very different New Orleans in 2007. Our hope is to use digital technology and FISHNET to create the kind of community space where ordinary citizens and grassroots groups can communicate, collaborate, redevelop and rebuild.

Hello all,
We arrived in New Orleans yesterday, and this was our first full day in the field. We're down here for two weeks, observing, listening, documenting, and spreading the word about the Foundation and project FISHNET. For those of you who need a reminder, FISHNET is a network we're building to connect donors to grassroots organizations working in educational advancement, financial literacy, psychological support and nutritional help. The goal is to help impoverished people (like folks in post-Katrina New Orleans!) by giving them access to the fundamental tools they can use to build self-sustaining communities.

This morning, we met with the Richard McCarthy and Darlene Wolnik, who run marketumbrella.org. These guys are working to bring better food to New Orleans through farmer's markets. Not only that, they're actively engaged in rebuilding the bonds of community with a lot of innovative methods. As Richard put it, they're basically recreating the model of the "town square."

Their markets not only accept cash and credit, but also food stamps. And everyone participates on an equal level -- all customers can convert their credit cards or food stamps into wooden tokens for market purchases. Market vendors come from far and wide to sell produce that people can actually use. Marketumbrella actively reaches out to poor communities to get them the food they can use, and they do outreach with rural farmers to create a community bond that stretches across the boundaries of young and old, rich and poor, rural and urban. Darlene described their market as one of the few "centers of happiness" in New Orleans after Katrina, where people came together to reconnect and begin the process of healing and rebuilding in a welcoming environment.

Tomorrow, Darlene is taking us on a "tour of devastation," encompassing the areas hardest-hit by Katrina. Stay tuned for more reports from the field!

This audio commentary by Bebe Moore Campbell is as much about New Orleans after Katrina as it is about mental health for underserved populations as a whole. The Fish Foundation plans to make a difference by helping raise awareness about mental health issues and mounting campaigns to help people get counseling and treatment. On our upcoming visit to New Orleans, we're taking a look at service gaps in mental health treatments and explore some unique ideas for getting people access to the treatment they need.
From NPR : Stigma Can Prevent Much-Needed Mental Help

Our first project, FISHNET, is nearly complete. FISHNET will give donors and volunteers the ability to connect with small, grassroots organizations who are rebuilding New Orleans and other areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. Our network will allow these organizations to show their work to the world through text, audio, video and photos. Our goal is to be THE digital bridge to get resources to where they’re needed most.

The Foundation has made a lot of great contacts in New Orleans over the past few months. The charities we’ve spoken to are very excited to hear that we’re addressing the fundamental causes of poverty in America -- limited access to education, nutrition, good financial practices and psychological support.

Here some ways that you can help FISHNET.

1. Suggest a charity for evaluation.
We’re actively seeking out small, grassroots organizations working in educational advancement, psychological care, financial literacy and nutritional help. We’re especially looking for charities in New Orleans, the Mississippi Gulf Coast and other areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. If you know a charity that falls into one of these categories, please use our online form to tell us more about them. All you need to know is the charity’s name, contact info and a little bit about them. We’ll handle the rest!
You can find our online form here:
http://www.fishfoundation.org/nominate.html

2. Get a charity to fill out our membership evaluation survey.
If you work at a charity and you’d like to become part of FISHNET, please fill out our membership evaluation survey online. We’ll contact you for further information.
You can find our online evaluation survey here:
http://www.fishfoundation.org/surveys/index.php?sid=1

3. Donate.
We’re heading down to New Orleans to gather grassroots organizations and document their work for FISHNET. If you want to help support our outreach costs, you can donate to The Fish Foundation online at http://www.fishfoundation.org/donate.html.

Click here to view a collection of photos from our first benefit for FISHNET.