|
The Fall 2005 edition of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's newsletter, Casey Connects, is a special electronic issue designed to chronicle evolving responses from our network of grantees and partners to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. We hope to use this vehicle to inform the public and our "extended family" about our responses and to encourage ongoing discussion and action.
In Keeping With Casey's Mission, Hurricane Relief Focuses on Children and Families Left Behind
When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on August 29, the effects were staggering for the region's entire population, but children and families already struggling with the challenges of poverty had no safety net to buffer the utter devastation.
"This catastrophe revealed, sadly, that many cities in this country have too many people who are too poor, too isolated, and too invisible to protect themselves, their children, and their future," says Douglas W. Nelson, president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation. "The folks left behind offer a measure and a symbol of the very families whose future circumstances we have to change as a country and whose circumstances are at the very center of the mission of the Annie E. Casey Foundation." MORE...
Casey's Focus
Children in Care
The fate of children in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems of Louisiana and Mississippi, two of the nation’s poorest states, is even more in jeopardy during this chaotic period when facilities, group homes, and foster care arrangements are under tremendous stress and in some cases have been damaged, destroyed, or severely compromised. More children may enter foster care – and fewer leave – at a time when fewer foster resources are available. Children in the juvenile justice system are more likely to get stuck in facilities far from home and the systems themselves are vulnerable. MORE…
Recovery and Restoration
The Foundation’s recent experiences in working to create better circumstances for Baltimore residents in the course of a major redevelopment project in its hometown have particularly important implications for the Gulf Region. As in Baltimore, we want to help ensure that the rebuilding in the Gulf Region fully reflects resident voices, participation, and needs. "There is an opportunity here to engage residents in a recovery and rebuilding process that does not further victimize the most disadvantaged residents," notes Foundation Senior Vice President Ralph Smith. MORE…
Extended Family
In addition to these focal areas, we’re working at several levels to help members of its larger "family" of staff, consultants, grantees, and partners get the support they need and assist hurricane survivors and evacuees in accessing appropriate services and assistance. For example:
- Casey's Family Economic Success unit is exploring ways to help grantees, consultants, and partners in the Gulf Coast Region by seeing if they are safe, if and where they have relocated, and how local grants can be adjusted to meet new pressing needs. MORE…
- The Foundation is working to play a constructive supporting role in helping displaced families relocating to Casey’s "civic sites"— a handful of cities where we have a special connection and long-term commitment because of their strategic importance to us. MORE…
- Agenda for Children, the Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT grantee organization in Louisiana, has had to relocate temporarily but is committed to ensuring that residents’ needs are met and that they play a meaningful role in recovery. KIDS COUNT grantees are also playing a role in relief efforts in Mississippi and Alabama.
- Casey Fellows serving in leadership roles in public and private organizations also have been heading up efforts in their states to coordinate relief efforts and serve evacuated families, and the Foundation is providing technical assistance and support to them wherever possible. MORE…
- Many organizations with whom the Foundation has long-term partnerships are lending expertise to hurricane relief efforts to address immediate as well as long-term family needs for economic security and stability. The work of these Casey Partners is critical because they help to spread family strengthening principles and practices to a broad range of influential constituencies.
Citizenship
The Foundation’s Human Resources teams both at its headquarters in Baltimore and in New Haven, the headquarters of its direct services operation Casey Family Services, are working with individual staff members whose families have been personally affected by the hurricane and offering appropriate assistance and support through Casey’s Employee Assistance Program. Under the category of good citizenship, we have also introduced a special program to match staff donations to charitable organizations providing hurricane relief. Casey will match contributions of up to $1,000 per employee to any of a pool of organizations identified by a team of staff members as being best able to respond effectively. MORE…
|