New Orleans

Working Alongside Communities

On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 hurricane made landfall in New Orleans, Louisiana. Sixteen-foot-tall storm surges overwhelmed the levy system and 80% of the city became flooded. The damage was catastrophic. The country responded.

Headwaters’ began as a grassroots volunteer effort providing disaster relief in 2005 in response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, one of the most devastated areas of the city. Initially we assisted with gutting and interior debris clean up. As more volunteers joined us, we developed partnerships with other organizations and moved into re-building.

In 2007 Headwaters’ volunteers committed to long-term support of the Ninth Ward community when we opened a walk-in mental resource health center. The River of Hope Mental Health Resource Center was founded to help the Ninth Ward community. Its goal is to help the community recover psychologically and deal with lingering emotional trauma.

The resource center offers free counseling, referral to other resources if needed and community education to those who might not otherwise have access to mental health support. The center is particularly important in supporting the unmet needs of children in that area. We have published three research studies related to our work in New Orleans, two in partnership with Lesley University and one with Georgetown University.

Walk-in Mental Health Resource Center

Headwaters began as a grassroots volunteer effort providing disaster relief in 2005 in response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward, one of the most devastated areas of the city. Initially we assisted with gutting and interior debris clean up. As more volunteers joined us, we developed partnerships with other organizations and moved into re-building.

In 2007 Headwaters’ volunteers committed to long-term support of the Ninth Ward community when we opened a walk-in mental resource health center. The resource center offers free counseling, referral to other resources if needed and community education to those who might not otherwise have access to mental health support. The center is particularly important in supporting the unmet needs of children in that area.
The center is open every Saturdays and Thursdays, twice a week.

After School Program

The main objective with this initiative was to provide a comprehensive model that helps mitigate systemic inequities that affect children of color and in doing so we will address health disparities by increasing fitness and overall nutrition and wellness; confront educational inequities through additional support to the education these children receive at school; and provide leadership training for future successes during the pandemic.
This program ran through the academic year of 2021- 2022.

We recruited a dedicated team of two staff members (teachers), one security personnel and volunteers- all from the same community and people of color. We recognize that we are guests in this community and have always worked with community leaders to design programming that meets the needs of the community.
We were able to connect the center with high-speed internet, equip with two new laptops, purchase required stationeries and supplies.
Covid-19 precautions- The center was setup following standard Covid-19 protocols. All our staff and volunteers have completed their vaccination schedule. We also provided the center with children’s masks and hand sanitizers. Wearing a mask was compulsory, for both students and the staff while in the premise.

We also have resumed our walk-in mental health resource center for the youth in the community which was temporarily halted due to the pandemic.