Welcome home, Miss Jessie Thomas! Miss Jessie moved into her home last Friday after living in Texas post-Katrina. Our Operation Helping Hands volunteers had worked on her home since April, and it looks great. Miss Jessie is thrilled and thankful to be back home.

Learn more about Operation Helping Hands >

Catholic Charities and the Office of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of New Orleans are offering a summer service camp, SERVE, or Students Engaging in Reflective Volunteer Experiences.

SERVE is an opportunity for high school students to give back to the community and achieve the service hours required by many parochial high schools.  Sessions run for one week with three 40-hour sessions, one 20-hour session, and one 12-hour session available.  Each day of camp will start with prayer  and one full day of reflection led by local campus ministers (SERVE- 40 hour week only).  Students may sign up for more than one session.

SERVE sites include Catholic Charities program Operation Helping Hands and affiliated ministry Second Harvest Food Bank. Mini-SERVE sites are 4 Head Starts and Second Harvest.   Students must be incoming freshman and are required to participate in the full week to receive verification of completion of service hours. 

Registration is non-refundable – $25.00 for SERVE and $15 for Mini-SERVE.  All participants will receive a free t-shirt. Registration is open now until full.  For more information contact Shannon Murphy, Director of Volunteers at (504) 310-6962. 

Register online here >

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.

Click here to learn about Operation Helping Hands >

Click here for information about volunteering with Operation Helping Hands >

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.

Catholic Charities is currently in need of volunteers to help us outreach to families who work in fishing-related industries affected by the oil spill.  All volunteers must initially attend an Oil Spill/ Disaster Relief Volunteer Orientation; orientations will take place every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday  at 2pm on the 10^th floor of 1000 Howard Avenue New Orleans, LA 70113. 

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Be sure to visit our Operation Helping Hands Weekly Update page to learn of the progress New Orleans has made since Hurricane Katrina.

We have welcomed more than 23,000 volunteers to help rebuild our city.

Operation Helping Hands Weekly Update >

Volunteer with Operation Helping Hands >