Coastal initiatives benefit region’s business, staff

Regional organizations are benefiting from philanthropic gifts and grants issued through the Greater New Orleans Foundation. In the latest effort to assist displaced workers and businesses, the GNOF received a $5 million gift by way of the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors to help coastal parishes, including Lafourche and Terrebonne, still recovering from the BP oil spill of April 2010.

According to GNOF Regional Initiatives Director Marco Cocito-Monoc, recipients of this gift and the amounts they will receive include $240,447 for the Houma Regional Arts Council and $187,000 for the South Central Industrial Association’s Work It! project.

“With this money, we are getting materials and programs together for Work It!,” SCIA Executive Director Jane Arnette said. “This is more than what we had originally applied for.”

“We are celebrating the grants we were able to give out from an anonymous donation through the RPA,” Cocito-Monco said.

The GNOF regional representative explained that his organization acts as a middleman by connecting various charities and donors with qualified organizations in need of revenue. In this case, anonymous philanthropists took an interest in the impact natural and manmade disasters have had on coastal Louisiana, as well as areas of Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The GNOF distributes money to those that have submitted grant applications for assistance in rebuilding businesses or helping displaced families.

“The Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors directs donors on how to use their money most effectively,” Cocito-Monco said. “They are connects donors to community needs. In this case the community is the entire Gulf Coast.”

GNOF was one of several foundations contacted by the RPA to help distribute a total $25 million gift, of which it received the largest share.

The $5 million is being divided among a 10-parish region to meet ongoing needs related to the oil spill and also long lasting impact from the hurricanes of 2005 and 2008.

Houma-based Options for Independence has been a recipient of funds through a separate GNOF grant. Options health services Director Kevin Champaign said the $150,000 gift will be used to provide a full-time therapist to travel throughout this organization’s service area of multiple parishes including Lafourche, St. Mary and Terrebonne.

“Anyone found in the community that requires counseling or have behavior health issues would see that person in the home,” Champaign said. “We will be a referral agency. So if people need help finding a job or having utilities [connected], we can help them.”

Cocito-Monco also confirmed three grants totaling $396,000 were being distributed through the GNOF, as part of the foundation’s 5+1 Initiative, specifically designed to assist applicants in Lafourche, Terrebonne, Jefferson, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes along with metropolitan Orleans Parish.

Those benefiting from grants include $205,000 to The Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana; $100,000 for the environmental Defense Fund; and $91,000 to finance a documentary on Louisiana’s coastal wetlands being developed by “Category 5 Wetlands Watch” producer Bruno Steiner.

“We’re going to document the challenges people face and how they are adapting to the crisis,” Steiner said. “This grant will allow us to continue to raise awareness and educate others about critical steps we’ll have to take to preserve and restore our wetlands.”

“We’re committed to revitalizing a healthy and sustainable working coast,” Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana Executive Director Steven Peyronnin said.

“The CRCL funds will be used to finance its Next Gen initiative, which is an effort to foster better communications between coastal planners and citizens. [It will] create a better process to provide for healthy fisheries, resilient economies and culturally vibrant communities,” Peyronnin said.

“We gave out 21 grants over a six-month period,” Cocito-Monco said. “That is pretty extraordinary since we had to do a lot of due diligence meetings with organizations and proactively reaching out to them and inviting them to apply.”