In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans faces challenges unprecedented in the history of our nation.  Yet inherent in even the worst disaster is opportunity.   The short, medium and long term objectives of CBNO/MAC are to bring the entire New Orleans community together to make the best possible use of this opportunity.

CBNO/MAC is uniquely suited to this role by its very nature:  a diverse, multi-racial, multi-generational community organization with a history of bringing people, organizations and institutions together to address and solve systemic problems.  CBNO/MAC served New Orleans as a convener and catalyst before the storm; post-Katrina, our unequaled ability to help every voice be heard in the recovery and rebuilding is a critical resource as the city moves forward.

CBNO/MAC began its post-Katrina work by playing a substantial role in the Bring New Orleans Back Commission appointed by Mayor C. Ray Nagin, who in fact modeled the Commission after the CBNO/MAC structure and format.  Of the seventeen commissioners, six were present or past CBNO/MAC Co-Chairs.

Concerned about the multiple, duplicative and potentially conflicting planning efforts that were launched soon after Katrina, CBNO/MAC first worked to help the community coalesce around the BNOB Commission.  Its next role was to encourage and facilitate citizen and organizational participation in the Commission’s work, and to promulgate its own values in the planning and priority-setting.  Both written and verbal input was provided to most of the BNOB subcommittees, and CBNO/MAC Board members served on every subcommittee.

With the city now moving on to the neighborhood planning phase, CBNO/MAC will have as its priority mission in the year ahead:

1. Working to ensure that there is full citizen input as the neighborhood plans are developed and implemented.  This includes working with a network of community partners as well as national organizations to ensure that maximum outreach efforts are made, both to those individuals who have returned to the city and to the many New Orleanians who remain internally displaced around the country.  Further, it means building the capacity of all citizens to be effective participants and advocates, for themselves and for their neighborhoods.  This is a complex but critical issue that is essential to rebuilding New Orleans for all New Orleanians, and to ensuring that every citizen has the right to return home.  As a key component of this, CBNO/MAC will continue working with the administration, the City Council, the City Planning Commission, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, and various neighborhood organizations to maximize the effectiveness of the unified, citywide neighborhood planning effort.

1. Building on the momentum established during the neighborhood planning process, and the high level of citizen engagement in New Orleans, to implement the formal Citizen Participation Program (CPP) that we have developed for New Orleans over the past three years.  Based on national best practices as well as extensive local citizen input, the CPP provides a mechanism for citizens to have effective input into government policy-setting and decision-making, and for government to communicate with citizens.  We have a unique opportunity to establish the CPP as an enduring legacy of this difficult time, ensuring that the people of New Orleans will always a voice in, and connection to, their city government.

Also in the year ahead, CBNO/MAC will be restarting some of its own programs that are most vital to bringing the community together and moving the rebuilding effort forward.  Among these are:

1. The CBNO/MAC Education Summits.  Bringing together more than sixty nonprofit organizations working in public education, along with representatives from the teachers’ union, principals’ union, administration, and school board, the Education Summits have produced instant results in terms of collaboration and increased service capacity.  Prior to Katrina, the next focus was the establishment of a working group to redraft school system policies on working with outside groups, the better to facilitate the application of outside resources to the public schools.  With the extensive changes to the system resulting from the storm, reconvening the Summit participants is critical to helping all groups realign themselves with the new structure, to reconsideration of system needs, and to developing policies and communications methods that will help focus resources where they are needed most.

1. The Metropolitan Leadership Forum.  A New Orleans institution for four decades, the MLF brings together a diverse group of future community leaders, exposes them to the core issues facing the city, and begins relationship-building among them.  In the aftermath of Katrina, the need to build leadership capacity in the city is clearer than ever.  A proven tool like the MLF – which is offered free to all participants – is a crucial resource for the city’s future.

1. The CBNO/MAC Transportation Summit.  This annual gathering brings together the city’s transit agencies, along with city and regional planners, user groups, business interests, and citizens.  Each of the four transit agencies presents its strategic plan for the year ahead, and is informed by each other’s plans as well as comments from the other participants.  Past Summits have been critical in fostering inter-agency collaboration as well as playing the lead role in the development of the Transportation Element of the city’s Master Plan; monitoring progress of the Element is an ongoing role of the CBNO/MAC Transportation Task Force, which includes representation from all the transit stakeholders.  Hurricane Katrina had a severe impact on every aspect of public transit in New Orleans and the region, and this year’s Summit will be a critical step in the reconfiguration of the entire system.

The primary working mechanisms of CBNO/MAC are the individual Task Forces:  City Management, Education, Housing, Public Safety, and Transportation.  These entities, with the full support of the Board of Directors and staff, will assume the responsibility for implementing these and other programs in the year ahead.

CBNO/MAC remains absolutely committed to the concept of building a better New Orleans.  To do anything less would be a dishonor to those who suffered and perished in Hurricane Katrina, and a terrible disservice to the tens of thousands of people who have already made their own commitment to bringing our city back safer, stronger and better than ever.  We look forward to working with our many local, regional and national partners to write the new history of a better New Orleans.