[StBernard] WEB PORTAL IS "FIRST STOP ON THE WAY HOME" FOR DISPLACED

[Westley Annis]

High Tech, State-of-the-Art Web Portal
is "First Stop on the Way Home" for Displaced Louisiana Residents and
Businesses



BATON ROUGE, La. - Finding information about jobs, affordable housing,
reviving a business, voting, and social services for displaced residents,
businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations starts with
www.LouisianaRebuilds.info <http://www.LouisianaRebuilds.info> . The
Louisiana Recovery Authority, in partnership with several national and local
organizations, today announced the web portal as the "first stop on the way
home" for the hundreds of thousands who have been displaced by hurricanes
Katrina and Rita. The state-of-the-art site features content and links to
resources both in the state and around the country and is a one-stop
compilation of information related to rebuilding and planning. Offline
resources are in development to bring the s! ame rich portal content to
residents without Internet access.

"We are excited and proud to be part of this effort," said Louisiana
Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. "The thousands of Louisiana residents
who have been uprooted need a reliable, secure, and accessible source for
information to help them make important decisions about their futures.
LouisianaRebuilds.info is that source." Blanco added that
LouisianaRebuilds.info would be the entry point to the state's new housing
assistance registry, The Road Home. Residents without Internet access can
also sign up for the registry by calling 1-888-Road2La. 

LouisianaRebuilds.info includes regularly updated information about:

*	Individual neighborhoods, parish, and statewide rebuilding efforts,
affordable housing, transportation, schools, and health care;
	
*	Help for business owners and entrepreneurs;
	
*	Pending legislation, policy issues, and voting; and
	
*	Community resources and funding opportunities for nonprofits.

"Since Katrina, it's been hard to find a source for reliable information in
one place," said Kysha Brown Robinson, a New Orleans resident who evacuated
first to relatives in Georgia, then moved to Illinois, and finally moved
back home. Representing the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Making Connections
Initiative on the portal steering committee, Brown recognizes the needs that
displaced residents have for such a one-stop information resource. "It's
hard to separate rumor from fact when you're far away from home. The portal
solves the problem by connecting you to all the information you're seeking,"
said Robinson. 

Living Cities, the national investor collaborative, provided the initial
funding for the portal because of its importance in providing information
crucial to recovery. "There is nothing worse than not knowing. Knowledge
really is power, and the Living Cities investors, by supporting the portal,
are enabling the residents of Louisiana to rebuild their communities," said
Reese Fayde, Living Cities' chief executive officer. 

The national organization PolicyLink, known for its efforts to insure that
the wisdom, voice, and experience of local constituencies are part of
conversations about policies that support economic and social equity, has
guided the development of the portal. "In addition to the information that
residents, business owners, nonprofits, and government workers will find
when they enter the portal," said Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and CEO
of PolicyLink, "the portal also is a place for them to share their stories
and to speak out about their needs. The portal thus becomes a virtual
supportive community for residents to share, 'on the way home'." 

Innovative Intermedia-the Colorado-based interactive media agency owned by
the former lead project manager for the development of the post-9/11 site
LowerManhattan.info-provided consulting and overall design and branding of
the site. The portal was built by New Orleans-based Carrollton Technology
Partners. Day-to-day portal oversight is the responsibility of the One
Economy Corporation. "The synergy between our mission and the goals of
LouisianaRebuilds.info is seamless. We seek to help low-income people use
technology to build better lives and that's exactly what
LouisianRebuilds.info will do," said Rey Ramsey, chief executive officer.


# # #


The Louisiana Recovery Authority is the planning and coordinating body that
was created in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita by Governor
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco to plan for the recovery and rebuilding of
Louisiana.

Living Cities is an investor collaborative of 15 major financial
institutions, foundations, and government agencies that have invested more
than $370 million to rejuvenate city neighborhoods throughout the nation.
(AXA Community Investment Program, Bank of America, The Annie E. Casey
Foundation, J.P. Morgan Chase & Company, Deutsche Bank, Fannie Mae
Foundation, Ford Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, John S. and
James L. Knight Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,
The McKnight Foundation, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Prudential
Financial, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the United States Department of
Housing & Urban Development) 

PolicyLink is a national research and action organization that works in
partnership with others organizations to advance policies to achieve
economic and social equity.

One Economy Corporation is the national nonprofit organization that uses
technology to connect low-income people to information and tools that help
them improve their lives