40 Ways in 40 Days: WAYS 39 & 40! It's the END OF DAYS!!

Plaid Adder

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Thu Apr-13-06 06:22 PM
Original message

40 Ways in 40 Days: WAYS 39 & 40! It's the END OF DAYS!!

Edited on Thu Apr-13-06 06:24 PM by Plaid Adder

Well, the end of 40 Ways, anyway:

Still Maundy Thursday, Ways 39 & 40

Continuing with the education theme, we have a two-ways-in-one deal for you. First of all,

Loyola University New Orleans

Compared to Xavier and Dillard, it would seem at first that Loyola got off easy; their campus was not severely damaged and the early "Katrina updates" on their website are quite optimistic. The problem for Loyola is that no campus is an island. Faculty and staff have to live somewhere; a campus cannot operate without water and electricity; and "up to 60 percent of {their} faculty and staff are returning to homes that are destroyed or severely damaged." In December, the downsizing began. Loyola's president has rolled out a major restructuring plan which will eliminate a number of majors and minors and consolidate various administrative entities.

The university will only make it if the city makes it, and soon. Understanding this--and understanding, unlike some folks we could mention, that the ministering-to-the-poor end of the Catholic mission is more important than the bashing-the-gays end of it, they have made an effort to involve the university in the recovery of New Orleans. One of the ways they've done this is to establish

The NOAH Project

It stands for "New Orleans Alliance for Hope." But, you know, the flood, the ark, the new covenant, and whatnot. The basic idea is to involve Loyola actively in the rebuilding and renewal of New Orleans. As someone who graduated from a university whose approach to town-gown relations could be summed up in the word "fortress," I think this ought to be encouraged.

The Loyola University Community Action Program is a student-run volunteer network which involves students in a range of activities--my favorite is "House Gutting with the Jesuit Center", it sounds like it should be a reality TV show--and connects them with other locally operating organizations such as ACORN: The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which is working to get New Orleans residents back to NOLA so they can vote in the upcoming elections. Loyola has also established the Magis Fellowship Fund, which provides direct assistance to Loyola staff, faculty, and students who have suffered "overwhelming losses." They've also incorporated Katrina rebuilding and service learning into their curriculum, and their counseling center is making an effort to raise awareness about the emotional aftermath.

If you want to give to Loyola, here's how to do it. That's way 39.

The Lindy Boggs National Center for Community Literacy is apparently part of Loyola (the exact administration link is unclear) and is dedicated to promoting adult literacy locally and nationally. They are part of the

Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans

which is Way 40. Founded in 2001, LAGNO's mission is to coordinate adult literacy efforts into one big area-wide push for empowerment. They support ALIVE (Adult Learners Initiating Voices for Education), through which people who became literate as adults can teach and advocate for other adult learners. Literacy is declining in this country, and this kind of work is absolutely important if the major social inequities created by our outrageously lopsided system of public education are ever to be redressed. And if you want to support the LAGNO...there is apparently no way to do it! At least, their website doesn't tell you anything about whether they take donations or where to send them. However, they do provide you with a handy list of literacy organizations working in the New Orleans area, so you can pick one, contact them, and say, "I would like to know more about what you do and who you are so that I may send you money," and then time it with a stopwatch to see when you get a response.

That's it! 40 ways! 40 days! I made it! w00t!

And remember, all 40 ways are now collected at my DU Journal! Go! Read! Donate! It's your maundy, I tell you!

Yee ha,

The Plaid Adder