My Life. My neighborhood. My world. Mike Richards.

This morning Lynette and I left Cedar Rapids for the Big Easy! New Orleans and Cedar Rapids now have a connection that transcends so many other experiences. The Katrina Disaster and our Great Flood of 2008 have wrecked natural disaster on both our beloved cities. Now, like the good folks who founded and operate the Beacon of Hope Resource Centers, we have to be vigilant and engaged to make sure that we don't follow a natural disaster with a man-made one. It is far too easy to compound a natural disaster with the disasters of sloth, incompetence, or indifference.... even well-meaning support can have unintended consequences. Doing our part to help ensure that Cedar Rapids fast tracks our recovery is why we are here in New Orleans and why the folks at Beacon of Hope have invited us here. We'll have a one-week intensive hands-on training and mentoring experience that will help kick-start Rebuild And Grow and our community grassroots self-help programs. Lynette and I will do our best to blog about our experience as we live it, but the folks here have laid out an exciting and intensive experience that will undoubtedly consume our time and energy. These excellent activities will be incredibly valuable. And they are unavailable anywhere else that has not gone through the trauma and rebirth that the neighbors and neighborhoods of New Orleans have and continue to go through. More as it happens... for now, it's back to the School of Grassroots Organizing, New Orleans style!