Acorn Housing

Helping low-to-moderate-income homeowners, Acorn Housing provides free mortgage-loan counseling and runs first-time-homebuyer classes.

ARTinACTION

A grassroots public-art project endeavoring to affect social change by highlighting the “post-disaster landscape” left in the wake of Katrina.

City-Works

Staffed by urban planners and architects, City-Works researches sustainable strategies for building design and economic development. It encourages discussion between the city and neighborhoods, as well as grassroots efforts and urban-planning projects.

Common Ground Relief

Common Ground offers short-term relief for hurricane victims while developing long-term solutions for rebuilding communities in New Orleans through its free legal clinic, an advocacy center, and a technical collective, which keeps Internet and phone lines continuously available in the Lower Ninth Ward.

Cornerstones

Through written narratives, interviews, and photographs, Cornerstones documents overlooked and threatened city landmarks. Its registry includes local favorites like the House of Dance and Feathers, Joytown Square, and Mimi’s in the Marigny. Residents are encouraged to send suggestions.

The Green Project

The Green Project salvages building materials and then makes them available to the public and nonprofits for a low cost. The group’s warehouse is stocked with recycled paint, cardboard, newspaper, cans, and household e-waste.

Global Green New Orleans

A nonprofit dedicated to creating and enacting a comprehensive, sustainable model for the rebuilding and future development of New Orleans.

Go Green NOLA

How do you build an energy-efficient home in swampy and humid conditions? Where should you start a community garden? Go Green NOLA explores what being green means in New Orleans while promoting local restoration and recycling efforts.

Greater New Orleans Community Data Center

The best source for data on the city’s population, the GNOCDC aims to support nonprofits by providing indicators of recovery progress and identifying the needs of local communities.

The Iron Rail Book Collective

A welcoming noninstitutional reading room and bookshop, the Iron Rail Book Collective boasts over five thousand titles in its library. While there, you can also pick up a record, browse through a local zine, or borrow a video from its lending library.

Market Umbrella

Market Umbrella educates local food vendors and fishermen about management practices and marketing strategies. It supports local markets, cultivating community and commerce in cooperation with universities, green activists, business leaders, developers, public-health advocates, and food producers.

Neighborhoods Partnership Network

The Neighborhoods Partnership Network has created a citywide network of neighborhoods to facilitate collaboration among communities and thereby increase access to government.

The Neighborhood Story Project

The NSP constructs portraits of New Orleans neighborhoods in book form, in collaboration with residents.

Open Sound New Orleans

A website that invites residents to record elements of their daily lives and provides them with the equipment to do so, in order to create a sound map of the city.

Parkway Partners

Parkway Partners supports preservation and maintenance of green spaces, playgrounds, parks, community gardens, and the urban forest in New Orleans. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the city’s tree canopy, the group launched a reforestation campaign called ReLeaf New Orleans.

Prospect.1 New Orleans

Opening in November, Prospect.1 New Orleans will be the largest biennial of international contemporary art ever organized in the United States. Exhibitions will be held in museums, warehouses, and public spaces across the city.

Sculpture for New Orleans

A two-year exhibition of public sculpture throughout the city, with the aim of bringing attention and support to the arts and artists of New Orleans.

Tipitina’s Foundation

Born out of the iconic Tipitina’s music venue, the Tipitina’s Foundation protects the future of Louisiana music. While the Instruments a Comin’ program donates musical instruments to local school bands, the Music Co-op offers access to technical equipment and instruction for local musicians, filmmakers, and other media professionals.

Transforma Projects

Supporting creative initiatives that address key issues facing the city, Transforma Projects helps local artists and communities with funding and other resources.

The Urban Conservancy

The Urban Conservancy is dedicated to preserving the city’s built environment and historic architecture.