You can find all past articles and columns here. Search by entering a keyword, date or headline in the text field below.
Detailed reports on our healthcare and criminal justice systems. Read More>>
Get the facts about opportunity in America.Read More>>
The State of Opportunity in America
A report on the nation's progress toward protecting and expanding opportunity for all. Read More>>
The Road Back From Katrina . . .
. . . The Road Forward for America
August 29th marks the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. As media outlets, political commentators, and everyday Americans refocus briefly on the disaster, it’s important to reopen the discussion of unequal opportunity in America and to build support for real change.
Below you will find a set of tools designed to highlight the vastly unequal opportunity revealed by Katrina and advance solutions that can expand opportunity in the Gulf Coast region and beyond. These tools will be updated weekly through the anniversary. Please check back for new materials.
Talking Points - Suggested Messages for Katrina Advocates We recommend that communications around the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall (August 29th) convey two core messages:
Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath show the need for a public effort to achieve our national promise of opportunity for all. Race, wealth, and other aspects of who we are still heavily influence Americans’ life chances in the Gulf Coast region and around the nation.
Building a safe and prosperous nation in which we all enjoy opportunity means investing in an effective role for government systems.
One Year Later - A Series of Fact Sheets When delivering your message, it's important to have the facts to back you up. Our series of fact sheets - One Year Later - will provide you with the research and data to support your core messages. In this series, we examine the current state of Working Conditions, Health Care, Housing, Government Disinvestment, and Voting Rights in the Gulf Coast and across the nation.
Rebuilding the Gulf Coast: Expanding Opportunity Read More | Download(pdf)
Working Conditions in the Gulf Coast Region Read More | Download(pdf)
Need more research?These fact sheets by our partners at The National Alliance to Restore Opportunity to the Gulf Coast and Displaced Persons are another informative resource on conditions in the Gulf Coast region.
Audio/Video
In A Loud Color, Louis Harding (left) gives a tour of the community center he opened one month before the storm, and discusses the history of African Americans' struggle to achieve equality, mobility, and economic security in New Orleans. On the right, a video produced in collaboration with the Ms. Foundation for Women highlights the struggle of women in New Orleans to attain economic security and a fair chance to achieve the American Dream.
These clips illustrate a few of the many barriers to opportunity that residents of New Orleans face - before and after Katrina - in realizing America's promise as a land of opportunity for all.
If you are an advocate and would like to use these clips in your work, they are freely available through YouTube, the video sharing service. A Loud Color is available through the New Orleans Video Access Center Channel. You can find the video produced with the Ms. Foundation for Women on our YouTube Channel - Opportunity TV.*
To use these videos in your work, simply copy the "Embed" HTML code and paste it into a page of your website.
*YouTube displays suggested content by keyword. While viewing our content, YouTube may suggest videos that are not authored by, or representative of the views of, The Opportunity Agenda.
Drowning on Dry Land: Renewing the American Promise of Opportunity - A Podcast by A World of Possibilities
In Katrina's wake, promises were made to rebuild better than ever. Yet, to date, refugees remain scattered and rebuilding has hardly begun. How well are we fulfilling our commitment to a fair chance for everyone and what does it tell us about the sturdiness of America's ladder of opportunity? Start Listening
This podcast was produced by our friends at A World of Possibilities, an award-winning one hour weekly radio program that penetrates behind the headlines to uncover the deeper meanings of events.
Tools You Can Use Clearing House on Katrina Advocacy Activities: (pdf)Hundreds of organizations are working to improve conditions for those living in the Gulf Coast. This comprehensive list from the Center for Social Inclusion is an information resource of over 130 organizations conducting Katrina related advocacy. FEMA Answers: A one-stop-shop for all information related to the federal agency. Forms, FAQs, Policy Updates and Advocacy Tools – you can find them all, and contribute your own material - at this comprehensive wiki. Fema Photo Library: FEMA offers a large collection of photographs depicting the disaster and the relief and rebuilding efforts. These photos are all in the public domain. Katrina Events Calendar:Our partners at the National Alliance to Restore Opportunity to the Gulf have compiled a comprehensive calendar of Katrina-related events leading up to, and beyond, the one-year anniversary. The calendar is an open resource for all Katrina advocates, and all organizations are encouraged to coordinate their activities by publicizing their events through this calendar. Katrina Legislation Tracking:Stay informed about policy changes impacting the Gulf Coast region. The Katrina Legislation Tracking blog aggregates information about local, state, and federal legislation, which can keep you abreast of potential policy changes and help advocates coordinate their efforts. Katrina Timeline: With the one-year anniversary of Katrina less than a month away, media outlets will soon begin pumping out a flood of “anniversary stories.” Make sure they get their facts straight. This detailed – and well-sourced – timeline from Think Progress catalogues the government response to the Hurricane from August 26th through September 3rd. Opportunity Maps:Produced by the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, these maps illustrate the barriers to opportunity for many poor residents and communities of color in New Orleans along the following indicators: economic health and mobility, education, environmental health, housing and neighborhoods, and public health. American Opportunity: A Communications ToolkitProduced by The Opportunity Agenda in collaboration with The SPIN Project, our toolkit contains communications strategies to help advocates increase the effectiveness of their work.
Take Action Now Write to Your Elected OfficialsUrge your elected officials to ensure, through leadership and policy, that our country lives up to its promise as a land of opportunity for all. You can write letters on the following topics:
Contact National MediaContact your local media outlets to urge coverage that exposes the denial of opportunity and spotlights the important role that our government must play in ensuring opportunity for all.
The National Alliance to Restore Opportunity to the Gulf Coast and Displaced Persons is organizing a petition drive in support of a fair and equitable reconstruction process in the Gulf Coast region.
The petition calls on the federal government to:
Rebuild the Gulf Coast region, and ensure that the people of New Orleans never again face the devastation wrought by failed levees and decimated wetlands;
Ensure the right of displaced Gulf Coast residents to return to real opportunity by significantly improving the conditions that existed prior to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, conditions that embodied the racial and economic inequities of the nation;
Provide opportunities and support for displaced Gulf Coast residents who cannot or will not return, as well as support for the communities that have so generously received them;
Bring federal resources to the region without taking funds away from programs that already serve people in need; and
Establish an independent commission with regional and national representation to guarantee transparency and fairness in the rebuilding process.
The petition will be presented to Congress and the administration in September as part of the Opportunity Platform for Rebuilding the Gulf. Download the petition, and collect signatures from your congregation, union, neighborhood association, or any other civic or faith group to which you belong.
Visit Our Partners The Advancement Project- Using law, public policy and strategic communications, The Advancement Project acts in partnership with local communities to advance universal opportunity, equity and access for those left behind in America. Center for Social Inclusion - CSI partners with communities of color and other allies to create strategies and build policy reform models to end racial disparity and promote equal opportunity. Ms. Foundation for Women - The Ms. Foundation for Women has a long track record of supporting community-based organizations in the Gulf Coast that address the critical issues faced by low income women and women of color. Gamaliel Foundation- Representing over a million multi-faith, multi-racial church-going people who work on social justice campaigns. Katrina Information Network- An information and action clearinghouse. KIN shares expert viewpoints and action items from the communities that have been devastated by Katrina. Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity- A university-wide interdisciplinary research institute deepening our understanding of the causes of and solutions to racial and ethnic disparities and hierarchies. The National Alliance to Restore Opportunity to the Gulf Coast & Displaced Persons - An inclusive national coalition of faith-based and social justice non-profit organizations. Parntership for Public Service - The Partnership works to make the government an employer of choice for talented, dedicated Americans through educational outreach, research, legislative advocacy, and hands-on partnerships with agencies on workforce management issues. Project on Government Oversight - Founded in 1981, POGO is an independent nonprofit that investigates and exposes corruption and other misconduct in order to achieve a more accountable federal government. OMB Watch - OMB Watch is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting government accountability, citizen participation in public policy decisions, and the use of fiscal and regulatory policy to serve the public interest. Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference - The mission of the SDPC is to strengthen the capacity and network of the African American faith community and its leaders.
Receive our fact sheets via RSS
RSS