Blog
Reflections on a Year of Working at UNITY
December 8, 2010
Today's Post is by Cynthia Mitchell, Director of Referral and Shelter Outreach at UNITY Working at UNITY of Greater New Orleans shed a very specific light in my heart and mind on the human price of homelessness and of the need for assistance in being housed....
From the Backwoods of Mississippi
November 12, 2010
[caption id="attachment_1190" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Dr. Chan Crawford"][/caption] Today’s blog is by Dr. Chandra Crawford, UNITY’s director of public policy. “Go back home--we don’t want you here!” “Why would you associate yourself with such trash?” And my favorite, “You must have received your degrees from the backwoods of...
Ghosts from Before Katrina
October 13, 2010
“Hey UNITY, I’m waiting for you!!!” These are the words shouted from the front porch of a shotgun double in Central City as we drove past in the van this afternoon. The man shouting them yells them nearly verbatim whenever he sees us. We’ve met him...
Barefoot and Shipwrecked
September 20, 2010
I’m jogging Max, now 16 months old and 90 pounds of K-9 energy. It is Monday morning, around 9:20am. I’ve recently switched from traditional running shoes to some sort of 5-toed soft shoes that are intended to mimic the effects of barefoot running. I like...
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder
August 27, 2010
Phrases.org identifies the origin of the phrase “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” as "Always toward absent lovers love's tide stronger flows" from Sextus Aurelius Propertius – a Roman poet from 15BC. (The same site also conveys the bawdy wordplay that Shamus may appreciate -...
The Funk
August 24, 2010
Just like politics, all outreach is local. In fact, it’s hyper-local, street-based, boots on the concrete, sweating it out in the August sun, try to understand the neighborhood accent and know your neighborhoods like you know your mama. Because we do outreach in New Orleans...
When Insecurity Comes Home
August 16, 2010
“The door is open!” I didn’t understand what she was saying until I looked at the front door of the house and saw it resting two-feet wide. Did we walk out of the house and leave the front door open? That doesn’t sound right, not with...
About Signs of Life
August 15, 2010
Outreach workers are still combing abandoned buildings and the broken streets of New Orleans for the most vulnerable victims of Hurricane Katrina, five years after the levees broke. Almost every night, UNITY's street-outreach workers comb abandoned buildings and streets of New Orleans, rescuing the...