Collaboration for Better Lives
A new public-private partnership leads to innovative solutions to disaster recovery and resilience issues across the state.
June 1st, 2017 by: Misty Milioto
The newly created Louisiana Disaster Recovery Alliance aims to build more resilient communities by bringing Louisiana’s philanthropic community together with federal and state government partners. As if Hurricane Katrina wasn’t bad enough, Louisiana also has had to respond to other catastrophic disasters including the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill, the Great Floods of March and Aug. 2016, and the tornadoes that hit New Orleans East in Feb. These events have uprooted the lives of many Louisiana residents, while stretching the resources and capacity of communities. In order to find new solutions for the future, the LDRA has created a Joint Fund for Recovery & Resilience, which will prioritize long-term, sustainable disaster recovery, resilience and climate change adaptation models that address the needs of vulnerable communities in Louisiana.
For starters, the LDRA has created a Donor’s Guide to the 2016 Floods. It provides information for philanthropic organizations so they can better target assistance to non-profits involved in continued recovery efforts. There is also the Resource Guide to the 2016 Floods, which provides a view of non-profit resources available to support vulnerable populations and individual households with unmet needs. The LDRA is also working to develop a GIS-based tool that will identify populations with high social vulnerability and unmet needs in order to improve the targeting of non-profit disaster assistance.
The public-private partnership includes founding member organizations such as the Irene W. and C.B. Pennington Foundation, the Foundation for Louisiana and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, plus the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Office of the Governor of Louisiana, and the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (among others). Public sector partners have agreed to work in concert with the philanthropic sector and to inform them about emerging needs and government investments in resilience and recovery. louisianarecoveryalliance.org