City Year's presence in Louisiana began in March 2005, with a $25,000 planning grant from the Louisiana Serve Commission to begin the process of developing a City Year program in Baton Rouge.
In the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005, City Year was asked by Louisiana community, philanthropic, and political leaders to launch City Year Louisiana on a rapid basis - in the 90 days that followed the hurricane - rather than over a two-year period. City Year's service focus would be on addressing the needs of displaced families and children, especially with regards to supporting recovery and relief efforts, planning and implementing after-school and recreational programs, and mobilizing volunteers.
In the 2006-2007 program year, City Year Louisiana piloted a program in New Orleans and fully launched the program in the 2007-2008 program year. We are currently serving in both cities.
City Year Louisiana has already made great impact in Southeast Louisiana:
- Graduated 100 corps members
- Served 240,000 hours
- Last year alone, corps members completed 62 service projects
- Corps members have served as mentors to over 2,000 students living in either Baton Rouge or New Orleans
Since our founding, City Year Louisiana has met the needs of both the Baton Rouge and New Orleans communities in a variety of ways.
.jpg "Founding Corps")
.jpg "06-07 Corps")
2006 Founding Corps Members 2006-2007 Corps Members at Opening Day
Since January 2006 City Year Louisiana has:
- Assisted programs at Renaissance Village, the largest FEMA Trailer Park in Louisiana.
- Recruited more than 3,00 volunteers to participate in physical service events.
- Engaged corporations, public officials, residents and national figures to be part of the National Service Movement and the rebuilding efforts in Southeast Louisiana.
- Introduced 80 middle school youth to social justice issues and provided them active ways to solve those problems.
Learn more about the history of City Year.