Rebuild Volunteer
Volunteer with lowernine.org! We need your help to rebuild the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans! We are always looking for individuals to join our volunteer construction crew and work on residential construction projects in the Lower Ninth Ward under skilled supervision. We welcome all willing and able individuals regardless of skill level throughout the year. We provide the necessary project training, tools, and safety equipment. You must have an up-to-date tetanus shot and active health insurance, and should consult with your physician if you have asthma or any known mold or dust allergies. The work we do is physically demanding. Individuals will join an international team, which works from 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM Tuesday - Saturday on our open construction projects in the Lower Ninth Ward. We expect all volunteers staying in our volunteer house to commit to this schedule full-time. The vast majority of the time, we work on residential building projects for individual pre-Katrina residents of our neighborhood, but we occasionally take on lot clearing, data collection, or collaboration with other nonprofits in the area. Please be sure to let us know if you have any specific rebuild-related skills or previous experience. We will do all we can to make the most of your skills, but as our project schedules are determined by many variables, we can't make guarantees. Our most common volunteer projects are framing, insulating, sheetrocking, tiling, painting and siding. We cannot tell you ahead of time what you will be doing, but all our projects are guaranteed to contribute in some way to the rebuild efforts of our neighborhood. Logistics: There is a program fee -- our volunteer coordinator will reach out with more information! In order to participate in rebuild projects, volunteers should commit to a minimum of two full days of work. We will arrange half-day or weekend projects for large groups whenever possible. Groups with members under the age of 18 will need one legal adult chaperone (over the age of 23) for each five minors. Volunteers under the age of 14 can only participate on rebuild projects alongside their families and not as members of larger groups. Individuals and small groups are invited to stay in our volunteer house. Groups larger than 12 will need to arrange their own housing and we can provide some contact information for local options as needed. Volunteers are allowed to stay elsewhere and commute to the house for work, but long-term non-local volunteers are highly encouraged to live in our volunteer house. We ask a $150/week housing fee for the first 3 weeks, and $50/week for each week thereafter for up to 3 months, after which point the weekly fee will be waived completely.
Additional Details
- 14 and older
- Is Family Friendly
- MEALS PROVIDED
- CLOSED-TOE SHOES
- REQUIRED HOUSING AVAILABLE
- CONSTRUCTION RENOVATION
- DISASTER RELIEF
- HURRICANE KATRINA
- FOOD PANTRY
- HURRICANE IDA
6018 El Dorado Street
New Orleans, LA 70117
Who We Are
Founded by Maine boat builder Rick Prose, lowernine.org was the follow up organization to nonprofit Emergency Communities, which sprung up after Katrina in Waveland, MS, and in St. Bernard, Plaquemines, and Orleans Parishes providing early forms of disaster relief and recovery. As years passed and the initial feeding, mold remediation, and gutting work was completed, it was apparent that skilled rebuilding would be the next step in the process. Rick brought a group of volunteers from his home town of Boothbay Harbor, and quickly realized that under skilled supervision, unskilled volunteers could fully rebuild flood-damaged homes. lowernine.org was born. The Lower Ninth Ward, due to its proximity to the Industrial Canal levee breach, was one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods in the Gulf Coast region. Rebuilding in the Lower Nine has lagged behind that of other neighborhoods as a result of poverty, the scale of the devastation and local, state and federal government inaction. Dealing first with toxic mold, then toxic FEMA trailers and toxic Chinese Sheetrock, then with unscrupulous contractors, insurance and mortgage companies, and finally struggling under a discriminatory governmental recovery program*, it became clear that the Lower Ninth Ward would be much slower to recover than other areas of New Orleans.
What We Do
lowernine.org is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the long-term recovery of the lower ninth ward of new orleans, louisiana in the wake of hurricanes katrina and rita, and the levee breaches of 2005. To date, lowernine.org has fully rebuilt ninety homes, and has completed smaller repair and renovation projects on over two hundred more homes, bringing back more Lower Ninth Ward families than any other single organization. However, as of 2016, population return is only 36.7% – lagging far behind the rest of the City of New Orleans. Many of these “returning” residents are actually newcomers to the area, settling in the areas closest to the Mississippi in the historic Holy Cross section of the neighborhood, where property values are quickly rising, pricing pre-Katrina residents out of their own community. In the spring of this 2014, almost nine years after the levee breaches and flooding, residents received notices from the City that read “The City of New Orleans will soon begin repairing Katrina-damaged roads and infrastructure in your neighborhood”. The FEMA closeout date for the storm is 2025. Conservative estimates have the rebuilding of our neighborhood taking another decade.
Contact
(504) 278-1240
[email protected]
Laura Paul
Executive Director
Location
627 Lamanche Street
New Orleans, LA 70117