Earlier  this spring Surdna staff and a Board member spent two days in New Orleans as part of our ongoing learning about our work there.  The trip coincided with the end of the Foundation's fourth year of a 5-year commitment to the New Orleans Fund.  Established in 2008, the Fund seeks to advance long-term rebuilding and resiliency efforts in New Orleans by supporting civic engagement in multiple issue areas, including economic development, education, arts and culture, coastal restoration, and worker's rights.

While our staff members  visit the city several times a year, this trip had a different flavor than most; our 3 programs jointly designed the trip to meet with current grantees and explore the possible cross-programmatic linkages in New Orleans that unite our programs' interests.  Over the course of the two days, our meetings with grantees, city officials, and thought partners provided the group with a deeper understanding of the evolving cultural and political dynamics in the city, and magnified the opportunities and challenges at this moment in New Orleans' rebuilding.

Through our meetings with grantees such as Committee for a Better New Orleans, Neighborhood Partnerships Network, the Power of a Million Minds Youth Organizing Coalition, and the Neighborhood Engagement Office, it became clear to us that work to develop a formal mechanism and process for resident engagement has made great strides in New Orleans, and continues to evolve.  For example, we view the establishment of the Neighborhood Engagement Office by the city as a sign of progress that demonstrates the value  the city places on connecting residents to City Hall.  Yet, it was also clear that this formal mechanism for citizen participation will not necessarily lead to robust two-way engagement unless the culture of resident engagement is nurtured in an ongoing manner.    Our visit with the Center for Sustainable Environmental Development in the Lower 9th Ward was a good example of that kind of ongoing sustained work, and a meeting with The Lens highlighted ways that open access to information about happenings in the city contribute to this culture.

We were also struck by a desire for collaboration among organizations in the city, local philanthropic partners, and national funders. This feeling was captured at a funder reception hosted by Surdna for representatives from the Greater New Orleans Foundation, The Foundation for Louisiana, and the JP Morgan Chase Foundation. Over the course of the conversation, there was enthusiasm from all foundations in the room to connect our grantees and figure out how national and local funders can work together in the region to ensure greater impact.

Later in the trip we were privileged to experience impressive examples of collaborative thinking and sharing during two thought provoking meetings with sets of groups concerned with economic development concerns, and infrastructure development initiatives.  And, in our most touch-and-feel experience of the trip, we visited Grow 'Dat, a collaborative project of the Tulane City Center, the New Orleans Food and Farm Network, and City Park, through which New Orleans youth are engaged in transforming a corner of City Park into an urban farm to support public health, local economies, and a sustainable food system in South Louisiana.

New Orleans is a place where Surdna Foundation sees remarkable opportunities given our sustainable communities mission, and this trip served to further illustrate the natural overlaps that exist among the Foundation's programs' interests.   We are fortunate to have such strong partners in the city, and are eager to move into the last year of our five-year commitment to the New Orleans Fund, while looking ahead for future opportunities that intersect with Surdna's mission in the city.