• Child Welfare / Permanence
• Community Change
• Center for Family Economic Success
• Education
• Health
• Juvenile Justice
• Special Interest Areas
• Digital Stories

• Providing Direct Services
• Reforming Public Systems
• Providing Strategic Consulting
• Transforming Neighborhoods
• Strengthening Families
• Building Economic Success
• Using Data & Evaluation
• Ensuring Racial & Ethnic Equity

• Child Welfare / Permanence
• Community Change
• Economic Security
• Education
• Juvenile Justice

Casey's Focus

Recovery and Restoration

A Foundation team looking at the rebuilding effort is working to identify opportunities for channeling philanthropic, public, and private sector investment resources into a Gulf Coast reconstruction planning and implementation process that secures a genuine role for low-income residents and builds communities that increase opportunities for all residents.

As part of this effort, the group will explore opportunities to advocate for federal and state policy changes consistent with these objectives. At this early stage, while recovery is still under way, the team is discussing potential strategies with key Foundation partners, including community groups based in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities, Living Cities (link to website), the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the Enterprise Foundation, and the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy program.

As New Orleans and other large Gulf Coast cities affected by Katrina rebuild, the Casey Foundation will work to ensure that the many displaced low-income families who are renters or homeowners have the affordable housing they need to return. "Many of those folks that we saw struggling, to whom our hearts went out to, are low-income renters," says Smith. "We need to make sure as folks commit to the New Orleans recovery and build new infrastructure that people victimized by the disaster aren't doubly victimized by the recovery."

One key will be working to make sure that low-income residents and community-based organizations "get a seat at the table" during the rebuilding process, says Nelson. This dovetails with the Foundation's long-standing community development and place-based work.

"Not since the reports describing hunger in America has there been a better opportunity to develop a commonsense consensus on the need to address the pervasive and enduring poverty characterizing so much of urban and rural America," says Smith.