Highlights from the Inspired to Serve Site in New Orleans

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Convened by Interfaith Works

The New Orleans interfaith service-learning initiative was born in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as a strategy for engaging young people from diverse faith traditions as change agents and community builders in the midst of the devastation of their city. InterFaith Works collaborated with a wide range of community-based youth development and community service-learning efforts to begin rebuilding the city's infrastructure with young people as active voices at the table for priority setting, funding, and uniting the city.

Accomplishments

Conducted days of service and other projects to restore and rehabilitate schools damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Worked with multiple partners to integrate interfaith service-learning into their programs.
Expanded the network of partners to integrate the interfaith service-learning throughout the city.

Stories

Global Youth Service Day

More that 700 young people from five faith traditions (Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim) participated in Global Youth Service Day service projects. Their event involved 44 sponsoring organizations and a dozen service sites. The event included opportunities to learn about religious diversity in the city and intentional learning about the environment and global warming. Young people have formed an Interfaith Youth Roundtable, organizing a sustainable youth leadership and service structure for New Orleans.

Repairing Katrina-Damaged School

Interfaith Works organized a community listening process for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, which consisted of hands-on service—repairing and painting a Katrina-damaged high school—plus an interfaith youth summit organized around sharing of civil rights history and community listening. Youth were encourage to respond to the community listening through art, and Interfaith Works brought the work to the attention of the Arts Council of New Orleans to assure that they would be included in a major public arts project in the St. Roch neighborhood.