Written by Jack Stiefel, member of UU Fellowship of Vero Beach, Fla., and volunteer UUSC national co-chair for the Central Territory

My wife and I recently volunteered in New Orleans through the UUA/UUSC Gulf Coast Volunteer Program. We had two primary emotional reactions. One was a feeling of being overwhelmed by the immensity of the task that is still before the residents and former residents of New Orleans, especially for people of color and low-income individuals.

We also felt inspired by the leadership and commitment of local nongovernmental organizations. In the disturbing absence of anything close to an adequate response by local, state, and federal government, grassroots organizations -- some of which are UUSC program partners -- are at the forefront of recovery actions, working effectively and diligently to empower people.

Now that we are home, we tell others about our volunteer experience and our perceptions of New Orleans. Not uncommonly, someone will respond “I don’t know why they would ever want to go back to New Orleans and live in a neighborhood that is below sea level.”

I have to admit that before I went to New Orleans, I too questioned the wisdom of anyone returning to a living situation in which exposure to the dangers of another flood and devastation seems inherent. But in New Orleans I began to understand what “home” means. Home in New Orleans seems to involve a sense of community, of supportive extended family over many generations, of stability that is foreign to many of us who barely know our next door neighbor, who communicate with our extended family primarily by e-mail, and who move every few years.

“Home” in the devastated parts of New Orleans is profoundly important. It may not be “rational” to build below sea level in an area of questionable levees, but who can argue with the merits of knowing your neighbors, of being surrounded by family, of being part of a neighborhood for many generations as the community seeks to overcome the disadvantages our society ravages on low-income people?

I say let’s get “The Road Home” repaved and heavily traveled back to New Orleans by those who evacuated! Let’s remove all the roadblocks to getting affordable, adequate housing for those who want to return. And let’s make sure that the surrounding natural environment is restored and that there are secure levees in place to prevent the devastating effects of future storms.

Written by Lisa Hartman, member of First UU Church of San Diego and UUSC's volunteer regional coordinator for Pacific Southwest

I recently returned from New Orleans, La., where I participated in a service project to rebuild housing and office space for the Welfare Rights Organization (WRO), one of UUSC's partners in the Gulf Coast. Director Viola Washington and her small staff work to link disrupted and displaced survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita with services and resources to help them return home and/or improve their living situations. WRO’s membership seeks to monitor policy and advocate policy changes on issues that affect members’ lives relating to welfare.

I, along with five other volunteers, hung drywall, repaired exterior holes with siding to protect the structure from further weather damage, did carpentry, painted – anything required to reopen the office and transitional housing space so that Viola could return to her office. Her husband James, a radiology tech, took time away from his job at the VA Hospital to instruct us. He, through necessity because of Katrina, had become a self-taught carpenter.

Working together as a team in the heat and humidity and sharing peanut butter sandwiches on the porch were a spiritual practice for me. “Chop wood, carry water,” as the Zen Buddhists say. There is a connectedness amongst peoples of all backgrounds, and I felt knitted into that connectedness.

This five-day project was supported by the UUA-UUSC Gulf Coast Volunteer Program. For five nights, 11 volunteers were housed on the second floor of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of New Orleans. We cooked together, slept in dorms together, traveled together, made decisions together, worked together, played cards together, and met in the evenings to discuss our experiences together. My life has been enriched by being with those other people, many of whom I had never met before. I look forward to other opportunities to contribute what I have to offer and share with others in service.

Two years after Katrina, I am alarmed and saddened to see that city, state, and federal governments have neglected rebuilding efforts in neighborhoods that were severely damaged by the storms. One late afternoon, while walking through the city, I approached a mother and her son – they were sitting on a dirty sidewalk, asking for money. After giving her what little I was carrying in my pocket, I had to remind myself that this is America, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world. She and her son are citizens. I am a citizen. I have a son. I could be her – dependent on the generosity of others to feed my boy.

Our government systems have failed. Nearly 125,000 New Orleanean families remain without permanent housing – some living in toxic trailers, some sleeping under bridges, some camping on the streets and in gutted-out buildings. Other residents simply cannot be located. Half of the schools have not reopened, as they succumb to a rapid state of decline, are eaten by mold, and blanketed by tenacious ivies. The financial district is a ghost town. New Orleans, home to generations of families, has been all but forgotten by the government. This is a travesty.

The Senate is now considering S.B. 1668, The Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act, co-sponsored by Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Mary Landriue (D-LA). This bill helps low-income families by providing permanent affordable housing. It will also help people get back into public housing. We can encourage our senators to support this bill. It is time that we demand that our national government step to the plate.

Written by Sarah Karstaedt, UUSC volunteer National Co-chair for Eastern Territory

My recent visit to New Orleans, as part of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee's volunteer network leadership conference, has opened my eyes to the devastation that still persists there.

There is an urgent need for affordable housing for the city’s residents. The people who have returned to their damaged homes struggle against incredible odds. While their dedication and persistence are an inspiration to witness, they face rental costs that amount to as much as 86 percent of their salaries (for hotel workers and others in similar income brackets) to 37-49 percent of salaries for people in other professions. These hardworking residents deserve an affordable home for themselves and their families.

The good news is there is a way to help with this problem. My own senator, Chris Dodd (D-CT), is co-sponsoring the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery Act of 2007, which offers a way to address the housing problems in the Gulf Coast region.

This bill supports low-income families, by moving them out of FEMA assistance and into permanent, affordable homes, through the use of project-based housing vouchers. It provides help for families living in public housing by replacing housing units that were occupied before the storm and offering mobility counseling to assist residents in returning home. The bill also authorizes 5,500 permanent, supportive housing units for elderly, disabled, and homeless residents. It includes funding for fair housing and protects taxpayers and Gulf Coast residents through increased oversight and monitoring of federal recovery funds.

If you’ve been wondering how you can assist the beleaguered residents of the Gulf Coast region, contacting your senators and voicing your support for the Gulf Coast Recovery Act of 2007, is a great place to start.

Today's Times-Picayune story, "Road Home has money to pay grants expected to be issued this year," provides us with a mixed message fitting for its topic.

The title heralds good news, stability. Read down a bit and you'll find this nugget, "Counting on a bailout ... the Road Home is short anywhere from $5.6 billion to $6.6 billion..." Apparently the program has the money to pay as long as Congress bails out the program with somewhere between $3.5 and $4.5 billion in additional federal aid. I wonder how I could apply that sort of logic to my own finances.

As you'll see in the comments left for today's story, Louisiana residents are nothing short of outraged over the program many call No Road Home.

The Road Home program is meant to help mostly homeowners, leaving renters to fend for themselves. This is particularly unhelpful for a city like New Orleans, where more than half of residents rented before the storm.

The program's administration was outsourced to ICF, a private company in Virginia. They seem to have done their best to ensure that homeowners not be helped by the program they run, at least not in this decade.

And today's story tells of the challenges homeowners face in navigating ICF's processes, saying that "...applicants often complain about some part of the grant calculation and are never put into ICF's resolution process, and, if they are, the company may decide their dispute is resolved without ever informing them." The article also notes that "clients have been consistently denied access to their own files, making it impossible for them to figure out where the dispute lies."

I sit at my desk today trying to imagine how many people are sitting at their desks at ICF just not helping people. Not filing claims. Not communicating with clients. Refusing requests. Have they forgotten that these are real people? Real families, with real homes? That megacorporation is made up of individual workers, each with the power to do something.

So here's my challenge to each of them. Do something. Do something now. Ask yourself what's more important: your company's profit margin or the estimated six thousand homeowners depending on you to help them rebuild?

Today, I was privileged to attend the workshop, "How to Build Spirituality into Social Justice Work," given by Rev. Marilyn Sewell and Kate Lore of First Unitarian Church in Portland, Ore.

Attendees learned a clear headed, positive, and powerful approach to doing social justice within Unitarian Universalism. I will try to summarize it here. Visit the church's website to learn more.

• Mission. Have a mission larger than ourselves, our own needs.
• Resources. Commit larger resources of the church.
• Questions. Deepen our questioning: study, read, debate.
• Spirit.Build spiritual components into every meeting.
• Support. Offer support, especially through small groups.
• Joy. Be joyous in our work.

It is a seemingly simple recipe that can be challenging to put into practice. Kate, First Unitarian's full-time social justice director, shared with us the social justice council structure that makes this model work for them.

I found their focus on conflict resolution within the social justice program especially interesting. Members of the social justice council participated in a workshop on nonviolent conflict resolution. And the Public Conversations Project has been a great resource to them. The lesson is that our programs are stronger when we as a community are stronger. By being comfortable with conflict and being able to transform or resolve conflict successfully, we strengthen our communities, become stronger leaders, and are able to do so much more.

As example of the success of the First Unitarian method, they discussed the congregation's involvement in the Drumbeat for Darfur campaign. The short story is that after UUSC President Charlie Clements delivered a sermon posing spiritual questions and providing real actions to take on Darfur, Kate held a follow-up meeting for those moved to action. Eighty people attended! This social justice issue's fit within the congregation was clear.

Subgroups were formed, each leading a wide range of activities, including researching the genocide, inviting a Darfuri refugee to speak, and participating in UUSC's full day Drumbeat for Darfur activists' training here at GA.

The congregation continues to be highly active in the global struggle to end the genocide of our times. Within such an empowered social justice structure, their efforts are fulfilling, their actions are effective, and the whole congregation is involved.

I hope today's workshop helps spur a movement toward more empowered social justice programs throughout the UU community.

Last year, middle school students in Illinois were so shocked to learn of the genocide in Darfur that they felt compelled to take action. In order to "make something that would touch people," they set out to create 400,000 paper dolls: one for each person who had died in the genocide in the last three years (according to some estimates).

Drumbeat for Darfur is now inspiring UU youth throughout Illinois to take action and to follow the example of Mrs. Levi's social studies class. UUSC volunteers Michael and Deidre Schwartz have visited youth groups and religious education classes throughout their community to talk about the genocide in Darfur, and help guide children and youth to take action.

To them, their efforts are not only about impacting a child’s commitment to take action for justice, but also about parents learning from their children. They hope that each child goes home after their visit and says, “Mom, Dad, do you know what we learned about today?” And thus a family learns and takes action together.

Director of Religious Education Bob Fox and the sixth grade class at Unity Temple UU Church in Oak Park, Ill., have done just that. The Schwartzes recently visited Oak Park to share how the students could be true global citizens and put their UU values into action by raising the Drumbeat for Darfur.

Pointing out Darfur and their own location on a world map helped illustrate that we are all citizens of one world. And information from UUSC about what is happening in Darfur helped inspire this special class to take action. The class has involved all of the children in their congregation in raising awareness by decorating "paper people," representing the victims of this genocide, during religious education classes.

The youth and religious educators in this congregation are an inspiration!

Last year, middle school students in Illinois were so shocked to learn of the genocide in Darfur that they felt compelled to take action. In order to "make something that would touch people," they set out to create 400,000 paper dolls: one for each person who had died in the genocide in the last three years (according to some estimates).

Drumbeat for Darfur is now inspiring UU youth throughout Illinois to take action and to follow the example of Mrs. Levi's social studies class. UUSC volunteers Michael and Deidre Schwartz have visited youth groups and religious education classes throughout their community to talk about the genocide in Darfur, and help guide children and youth to take action.

To them, their efforts are not only about impacting a child’s commitment to take action for justice, but also about parents learning from their children. They hope that each child goes home after their visit and says, “Mom, Dad, do you know what we learned about today?” And thus a family learns and takes action together.

Director of Religious Education Bob Fox and the sixth grade class at Unity Temple UU Church in Oak Park, Ill., have done just that. The Schwartzes recently visited Oak Park to share how the students could be true global citizens and put their UU values into action by raising the Drumbeat for Darfur.

Pointing out Darfur and their own location on a world map helped illustrate that we are all citizens of one world. And information from UUSC about what is happening in Darfur helped inspire this special class to take action. The class has involved all of the children in their congregation in raising awareness by decorating "paper people," representing the victims of this genocide, during religious education classes.

The youth and religious educators in this congregation are an inspiration!