FUND UPDATE: The Hurricane Ida Relief & Recovery Fund is now closed. With your support, we surpassed our $500,000 goal and raised $531,206.31!
When launching the fund, we committed to splitting the fundraiser into three buckets:
- RELIEF: This includes cash distribution through community partners, purchasing of supplies, and infrastructure for emergency staging/distribution.
- RECOVERY: Mid to long-term support in the wake of the storm, as needs evolve in mutual aid groups and our communities across Southeast Louisiana.
- PREPAREDNESS: Infrastructure and supplies needed to prepare for future storms/floods.
As we shared back in September 2021:
“We fundraise for relief, recovery, and preparedness simultaneously because organizing through the full cycles of disasters keeps us more safe, both now and into the future. This has always been our strategy – knowing that the impacts of Ida won’t stop today, but will extend into the next month and the next storm and beyond.”
Because of your support, we were able to redistribute over $250,000 cash directly back out to individuals who were impacted by the storm, as well as a variety of supplies, for their relief and recovery efforts. The fund was also utilized, as promised, to help folks prepare for future storms – as we organized and resourced events such as:
- A multi-day Hurricane Ida Relief distribution at ENCORE Academy (supplies, FEMA paperwork assistance, computer lab, charging stations, healing/body work, prepared food, live music, and more)
- Supplies distributions to St. James Parish, Houma, Isle de Jean Charles, Dulac, Bayou Lafourche, Larose, and Lafitte for relief and recovery
- Various smaller distributions via mutual aid (people helping people!) to all impacted parishes below I-10
- A Fund The People hurricane preparedness event for Black, Brown, and Indigenous poor and working class residents
- A Trans Queer Youth NOLA preparedness event, including supplies, body work, and mental health support
- Preparedness kits to queer and trans artists, as well as free printing and distribution of the “Queer/Trans Guide to Storms”
- July Supply preparedness Wednesdays, distributing storm prep supplies and fresh food in partnership with Culture Aid NOLA every Wednesday throughout July 2023
- A preparedness event in Vacherie, including supplies and cash distribution
- Updates to the Hurricane Season Prep Checklist, as well as a “Navigating Anxiety & Hurricane Season” event with NOLA Black Mental Health Matters, Brightside Therapy Collective, and Dream House Lounge
- Preparedness support to SONG, Black Men Rising, El Pueblo NOLA, and VAYLA
- And lastly, in the preparedness bucket, we created and distributed the 2023 Hurricane Season Guide and paid local, queer and trans artists for their work on the Queer/Trans Guide to Storms
*Donorbox automatically archives fundraisers that are no longer accepting donations. As such, we have included screenshots of all updates on our fundraiser page below:
The text below is from our first website update, published September 19, 2021:
UPDATE: Wow, thank you all so much for the support!
FOR THE PAST TWO WEEKS, we’ve coordinated a public distribution and resource center out of a local elementary school. Hundreds of families have been coming every day to get a hot meal, emergency supplies, free bodywork (massages, reiki, and acupuncture), help with FEMA, and to listen to LIVE music. Check out our Instagram for more details and pics!
LAST WEEK, we spent $7500 to deepen disaster relief infrastructure for Yakani Ekelanna, a garden and cultural preservation project by the United Houma Nation, where we sent supplies to set up a medic tent, free market, and cooking/feeding tent with camping supplies that do not require power.
With your support, we’ve redistributed $120,000 quickly to hyper-local groups who were doing immediate relief work to BIPOC and LGBTQ folks across Louisiana. The majority of these groups then redistributed cash directly to their networks to help with emergency expenses. They include:
- NOLA Black Youth Fund
- Trans Queer Youth NOLA
- Bvlbancha Collective
- Birthmark Doula Collective
- Houma Protection Network
- Familias Unidas
- A community-led cash redistribution effort to BIPOC and LGBTQ folks who evacuated
We’ll soon be adding Operation Restoration to this list — a local, Black-led organization that will directly redistribute the funds to formerly incarcerated women and girls.
Within ONE WEEK OF LANDFALL, we:
- Directed over $90K (!!) to mutual aid funds around Southeast Louisiana within days of landfall for efficient and quick disbursal, with $105K committed in total. These funds went quickly into the hands of Black, Indigenous, transgender, and nonbinary individuals; peri-natal parents and birth doulas; undocumented coastal workers; and allows us to focus our time on additional needs that are not otherwise being met, such as Wi-Fi access and technical support.
- Continued to look ahead to long-term relief and safety, allocating one-third of the fund to recovery and another third to preparation for future storms.
- Secured multiple emergency spaces for private storage/sorting and public distribution.
- Engaged old friends and new friends, partners, colleagues, neighbors, and volunteers to assist with admin, logistics, supply distribution, and cash distribution.
- Partnered with CORE to set up a FEMA paperwork support site at Encore Academy, open this week from 12-4pm with computers, portable power, WiFi hotspots, and support on site to help with FEMA applications. Also distributing emergency supplies, as they last.
- Received and worked together to distribute a variety of supplies, including multiple barrels of gas driven in from our friends in Austin, to various mutual aid groups in the city and in the river parishes.
- Coordinated a private plane that delivered emergency supplies from Atlanta.
- Dropped supplies to our neighbors out in New Orleans East, including: brooms, charging packs, medicine, diapers, batteries, fans, hygiene kits, cleaning supplies, and baby formula.
- Received and moved supplies to Resurrection After Exoneration, including: 985 disinfectant wipes, 100 rolls of toilet paper, 257 diapers, 480 baby wipes, menstruation products, cleaning supplies, batteries, flashlights, face masks, plates and utensils, trash bags, and water.
- Delivered the contents of Pizza D’s freezer to neighbors across the 7th Ward.
- Set up our Community Power Map to share locations of BIPOC and LGBTQ safe charging stations around the city, which is listed on the NOLAReady website.
- Coordinated with 211 to provide Community Power Map information to those without internet access.
- Made countless connections to get money and supplies to students at Delgado Community College, Individuals in our Mutual Aid Response Network, and folks who find us through social media, friends, emails, and in the streets.
- Continued to amplify other grassroots efforts, both through social media and behind the scenes to reporters, funders, partners, and individual donors.
Our dream is to one day have a physical space in New Orleans, our Creole Indigenous ancestral land… from which to prepare for storms, organize in the aftermath of storms, and advocate as a community for long term change that will actually make us more safe before the next storm hits.
Lastly, but most importantly, many thanks to our partners throughout the years. Here are just a few photos from our early day:
