New Orleans Gets Rockefller Grant For Rebuild

New York, NY, June 18, 2007—The Rockefeller Foundation announced today a $2.2 million grant to fund a series of fellowships to advance the redevelopment process in New Orleans. The Rockefeller Foundation Redevelopment Fellowships, to be administered by the Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania, will enable key redevelopment organizations in New Orleans to recruit talented urban redevelopment professionals both from New Orleans and from around the country to work on the rebuilding process currently underway there.

“The Rockefeller Foundation’s New Orleans Fellowships will allow us to attract the best and brightest urban development professionals, so that the city can accelerate its recovery and rebuilding efforts,” said Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation. “The need is great and the task complex. Recruiting top-notch talent will guarantee that the rebuilding efforts are undertaken with the highest degree of professionalism and urgency.”

Edward Blakely, the Director of the city’s Office of Recovery Management, said, “The Rockefeller Fellowships will be critically important in helping the city build the necessary human capital to assist in New Orleans’ recovery.”

The University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence brings new leaders into the field of urban redevelopment, and accelerates their development through specialized training, exposure to national best practices, and opportunities to build professional networks both within the region and nationally. In the past, the Center has successfully recruited and placed teams of fellows with top urban redevelopment organizations nationwide. National fellows work as project managers on large-scale real estate developments to improve the quality of life in distressed communities.

“Our Penn community is proud that talented professionals from our School of Design’s Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence will be applying their knowledge, their energy, and their hearts to rebuilding New Orleans,” Penn President Amy Gutmann said. “This project is a great example of how Penn engages with communities across the globe to drive progress and improve lives.”

The Rockefeller Foundation Redevelopment Fellowships will build upon the Center’s national program and adapt it for work specific to New Orleans. To implement the New Orleans program, the Center is collaborating with the Department of Planning and Urban Studies at the University of New Orleans and Nancy Montoya, the New Orleans-based Community Development Manager of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, who will serve as the fellowship program’s local liaison.

The Center expects to recruit 15 fellows for new jobs with participating organizations; staff employees may also be nominated for fellowships by their current organizations. Participating employers will be organizations already playing major roles in the implementation of public/private redevelopment projects. These include for-profit and non-profit development organizations, government agencies, financial institutions investing in affordable and mixed-income housing and other firms directly involved in the redevelopment process. In addition to facilitating job placements, the fellowship program will offer specialized classroom training, national site visits, and professional development and network-building activities to the fellows and other redevelopment professionals working in the New Orleans region.

Organizations participating in the fellowship program include:

• City of New Orleans Office of Recovery Management

• New Orleans Neighborhood Development Collaborative

• AFL-CIO Investment Trust

• Columbia Residential

• Community Development Capital

• Enterprise Community Partners

• Enterprise Homes

• Gulf Coast Housing Partnership

• Michael’s Development Company

• Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater New Orleans

• New Orleans Redevelopment Authority

• Providence Community Housing

• Unity New Orleans

• Volunteers of America of Greater New Orleans

Additional organizations are also considering participation in the program.

The fellowship application and program information can be downloaded at http://www.upenn.edu/curexpenn/application_rfrf.htm. Applications are reviewed monthly. The program aims to place all fellows by September 2007. Fellowship activities will be scheduled through March 2009. Questions about the program should be sent to rockfell@design.upenn.edu.

Since Hurricane Katrina, the Rockefeller Foundation has invested more than

$10 million toward the rebuilding and redevelopment of New Orleans. Foundation investments include major support for the development of the Unified New Orleans Plan, a comprehensive rebuilding and recovery plan, that was recently approved by the New Orleans City Planning Commission.

Other Rockefeller Foundation investments in the rebuilding of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina include $3 million for immediate humanitarian and housing aid; funding for “When the Levees Broke,” a documentary by filmmaker Spike Lee; and a

$1 million grant to Teachers College at Columbia University to develop a curriculum, based on the film, about the role that race, class, poverty and politics might have played in putting so many people at risk. Starting in September 2007, the curriculum will be distributed, along with a DVD of the film, to colleges, secondary schools, libraries and community centers around the country.

Additionally, the Rockefeller Foundation, joined by the Ford Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, authorized grants totaling more than $1.5 million to support the activities and operations of the New Orleans Office of Recovery Management, the city agency that’s playing a critical role in overseeing and implementing the rebuilding of the city.

The Rockefeller Foundation was established in 1913 by John D. Rockefeller, Sr., to “promote the well-being” of humanity by addressing the root causes of serious problems. The Foundation works around the world to expand opportunities for poor or vulnerable people and to help ensure that globalization’s benefits are more widely shared. With assets of more than $3.5 billion, it is one of the few institutions to conduct such work both within the United States and internationally.