To learn more ...
On Service Learning and Alternative Breaks:
Campus Compact -- a national organization of over 800
schools and colleges, including Union College, interested in promoting community service and service learning among their students.
BreakAway -- another national organization of colleges that specifically encourage meaningful alternative breaks for their students. Union is also a member of BreakAway.
On Hurricane Recovery in the New Orleans and Gulf Area: In the 2 years since Katrina and Rita, thousands of volunteers, both local and from outside, have organized to rebuild and help the region recover. Here are just a few links of interest:
The Times-Picayune -- New Orleans' major newspaper, maintains an archive of its articles about the hurricanes. The T-P's offices were flooded by the storms. Nonetheless, the paper continued to publish uninterrupted online and resumed paper production soon after the flood, providing essential information for residents and responders when many other communications lines were down.
Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program -- A federally-funded program that works to protect and rehabilitate the
coastal wetlands which surround New Orleans to the south. Few of us are aware of how important Louisiana's coastal wetlands are to our country as a whole, economically, socially and ecologically. Wetland loss has dramatically increased the vulnerability of Gulf Coastal regions to hurricane damage. Since the 1930's, Louisiana has lost 1900 square miles of its coastal wetlands. The region is currently losing approximately 28 square miles per year. Hurricanes Rita and Katrina alone destroyed some 217 square miles of wetland area.
Common Ground Relief -- one of a number of grassroots groups working to be sure issues of race, poverty, and gender are dealt with fairly in the hurricane recovery process
New Orleans Habitat for Humanity -- the local Habitat affiliate, building hundreds of homes in the area.
