| For Immediate Release December 1, 2005 |
Contacts: | Milly Hawk Daniel 212-629-9570 x212 mdaniel@policylink.org |
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Catherine Heitma Louisiana Recovery Authority 225-376-7797 Catherine.heitman@la.gov |
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POLICYLINK CEO TO ADDRESS LOUISIANA RECOVERY AUTHORITY
BOARD MEETING, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1
STRESSES NEED TO INVOLVE EVACUEES AND RESIDENTS IN REBUILDING PLAN
Baton Rouge, LA, December 1, 2005. Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO of PolicyLink, will address the December 1, 2005, board meeting of the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA), in Baton Rouge. PolicyLink is the national nonprofit policy organization that works to advance equitable development policies and to ensure participation of people of color and low-income communities in planning for the redevelopment and revitalization of communities across the country.
"PolicyLink is honored to be invited by the LRA to consult on one of the most extensive redevelopment efforts in the nation’s history," Blackwell says. "Rebuilding in the Gulf Coast region is an opportunity to demonstrate how equitable development can result in opportunities for everyone in the region to participate and prosper. This requires affordable housing in vibrant, healthy, livable neighborhoods; making all schools, good schools; enhancing local and regional transit that connects to jobs; and creating the services and amenities that are key to successful communities."
PolicyLink work in Louisiana will include providing pro bono consulting to the LRA on economic and social equity issues; assistance in developing an affordable housing policy agenda; involving Louisiana residents in recovery efforts; and developing and implementing a media and communications strategy that connects displaced residents to services and information and for keeping redevelopment concerns before the general public to encourage support for change.
"We eagerly accept all of the resources and good ideas that people offer and especially value input from PolicyLink on ways to give people a voice in the process. The authority will benefit from the organization's assistance and suggestions," said LRA executive director Andy Kopplin.
Angela Glover Blackwell and PolicyLink have also been asked to represent Living Cities in the Gulf Coast region and to assist that group in identifying opportunities for strategic investments. Living Cities is an investor collaborative of 15 major financial institutions, foundations, and government agencies that work for the revitalization of American urban centers by creating strategic investment opportunities. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Company, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Fannie Mae Foundation and the Ford Foundation are, among others, part of the Living Cities investor collaborative.
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina and the devastating flooding that followed, PolicyLink developed “Ten Points to Guide Rebuilding in the Gulf Coast Region,” which have been widely distributed and were the focal point for an open letter to Congress and the Administration that appeared on November 1, 2005, in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Roll Call, and The Hill. The open letter was signed by 22 organizations and also ran for a month on the Congress/Daily page of Nationaljournal.com. (The text of the ten points is available at
http://www.policylink.org/EquitableRenewal.html)
"Everyone evacuated from the Gulf Coast region who wants to return should be able to," Blackwell concludes. "They and those still residing in the region should have assurance that their communities will afford them new opportunities to thrive. PolicyLink is working in the region to help make this happen."
PolicyLink is a national nonprofit research, communications, capacity building, and advocacy organization dedicated to advancing policies to achieve economic and social equity based on the wisdom, voice, and experience of local constituencies.