Operation Helping Hands is a ministry developed by Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck the our area, leaving 80 percent of the homes in New Orleans filled with flood water that lingered for weeks.
The program, which uses volunteers and skilled workers to gut, repair, rebuild and repaint the homes of the elderly and disabled, has been tremendously successful.
We are grateful and humbled to have been able to serve so many homeowners and eternally thankful to have had the opportunity to work alongside the 29, 076 volunteers who came to our Archdiocese to assist us in the rebuilding effort, including rebuilding 195 homes and gutting 1,983 homes.
After Katrina, Catholic Charities was a sponsor of the Catholic housing initiative Providence Community Housing, which is progressing steadily with the rebuilding of the Lafitte Housing Development and the surrounding Treme neighborhood. In the six years since the flood, Catholic Charities has partnered with many rebuilding groups, some of which did this type of work before Katrina and will continue to do the same. Operation Helping Hands by design was a time-limited initiative.
Over the next year, we will be winding down the Operation Helping Hands program and will continue to work with Providence Community Housing and others in rebuilding our community.
Last week, our Operation Helping Hands program celebrated 3 milestones: 200 homes rebuilt, 450 homes painted and 30,000 volunteers since Hurricane Katrina. Pictured are some of our volunteers visiting from across the country at the home of the Roberts family in New Orleans East.
Operation Helping Hands volunteer coordinator Bethany Billman recently welcomed her parents on a visit to New Orleans from their native Wisconsin. But the Billmans didn’t come empty-handed – they brought slightly used work boots from Mr. Billman’s co-workers at Grande Cheese to donate to Catholic Charities Community Centers.
Want to make an in-kind donation like the Billmans did? Call Cathy Gomez in our Development Department at (504) 592-5694.
A group of 48 employees from Kluber Lubrication came to volunteer with our Operation Helping Hands program this week. (Some are pictured here at a home in the Ninth Ward.) The group donated enough paint to allow three lucky homeowners to customize their homes’ paint colors. The team from Kluber also gave a monetary donation to enable our volunteers to continue rebuilding homes devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
You may have heard Archbishop Gregory Aymond or Archbishop’s Community Appeal (ACA) Chairperson Mark Spansel on the radio lately talking about Betty Landry, a former Catholic Charities client.
Betty was left homeless after Hurricane Katrina. The apartment she and her three children called home in Kenner was flooded. Her automobile was also lost to the flood. She came to Catholic Charities, with a load of debt and unable to get credit.
Betty enrolled in the Bridges to Self-Sufficiency Program that provided her with life skills counseling, job support, financial literacy training and more.
For the second year, Pictage, Inc. has partnered with us to provide free professional photography sessions to our clients and the wider community. If you were impacted by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav or Ike, or the recent oil spill, you are eligible for a free family photo session.
The session is Thursday, November 11 from 1:00 PM – 6:00 PM at the Jean Lafitte Civic Center in Lafitte, LA. If you would like to sign up, please call Sara Galliano at (504) 906-6128.
Operation Helping Hands, our home-rebuilding program, is in great need of volunteers to come help paint and/or rebuild homes damaged in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Our elderly and disabled homeowners need your help to get home!
We need volunteers to join us for the following dates: the entire month of November, the week of December 6, January 17-28, the week of February 7, April 4-15, and the week of April 25.
Thanks to the help of many dedicated volunteers, our Operation Helping Hands program has rebuilt 177 homes and painted 359 homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Gain valuable project management experience while making a difference in the lives of New Orleanians whose homes were devastasted by Hurricane Katrina as a Long-term Volunteer (LTV) with Operation Helping Hands.
Long-term volunteers (LTVs) apply to work with Catholic Charities for commitments ranging from 3 months to 1 year. LTVs are the project supervisors on many of our Operation Helping Hands home rebuilding sites and they teach short-term volunteers valuable painting and construction skills while learning project management.
The LTV position is open to both skilled and non-skilled individuals ages 21 and up. Operation Helping Hands provides housing, meals and a small stipend for our long-term volunteers. We work Monday – Friday 7:30 AM – 4:15 PM.
August 29, 2005 was a day that changed us and our beloved city forever. After Hurricane Katrina struck our coast, we started our work for those who had lost everything as a response to our loving God’s call to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and comfort the hurting.
Director Spike Lee, third from right, with Catholic Charities clients
Director Spike Lee interviewed a group of Vietmanese-American fishermen who have been left unemployed by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The fishermen are receiving services through Catholic Charities oil spill response center in New Orleans.
Lee with staff member Joanne Stampley and volunteer Thao Tran
Lee is documenting the area’s progress five years after Hurricane Katrina, and is including information on those impacted by the oil spill.
Volunteer Thao Tran, Assistant to the Mayor of Seattle, WA spent all last week assisting at our center at Mary Queen of Vietnam CDC. Thao wrote:
“It was my honor to come and work with Catholic Charities to aid those in need from the BP spill. I took and gained more from this experience than what I was able to give. I hope that I am welcome back.”
We welcome Thao back and thank him and the many others who want to help. To volunteer, click on the volunteer page above. To make a donation to oil spill relief, please click the button at the upper right.
Operation Helping Hands is a ministry developed by Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck the our area, leaving 80 percent of the homes in New Orleans filled with flood water that lingered for weeks.
Be sure to visit our Operation Helping Hands Weekly Update page to learn of the progress New Orleans has made since Hurricane Katrina.
