Brief Description

In 2011 the Brookings Institution Press published Resilience and Opportunity: Lessons from the U.S. Gulf Coast after Katrina and Rita. The volume was edited by IRCT Executive Director Roland Anglin along with fellow editors Amy Liu, Richard Mizelle, and Allison Plyer. The book is a comprehensive volume detailing the progress of redevelopment in the Gulf Coast since the storms of 2005. The authors are scholars and practitioners in fields such as policy, planning, and health care, and each has contributed a chapter that focuses on his or her particular area of interest or expertise. This project was made possible through the support of the Ford Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, and Kaiser Permanente.

Project History

Five years ago, after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Ford Foundation asked the IRCT to participate in efforts to help the Gulf Coast through the process of building relationships with local philanthropy and emerging groups in civil society. IRCT produced a management document for the Ford Foundation and was then asked to help execute some of the proposed strategies. Later, other national and local foundations asked IRCT to play a similar role in their efforts, and IRCT developed a targeted, behind-the-scenes niche helping philanthropy collaborate in grant-making efforts in the region. This role eventually became less necessary, however, as local organizations began to gain capacity.

The IRCT revisited its role in the Gulf and decided to rely on its strength in research to produce a summary volume documenting efforts, changes, and outcomes in the Gulf Coast for the five-year anniversary of the storms. In the early stages of planning this volume, Roland Anglin and Richard Mizelle, a historian specializing in environmental disasters, met with Allison Plyer (from the Greater New Orleans Data Center) and Amy Liu (from the Brookings Institution), who were working on a similar project. For the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the Brookings Institution and its local partner coordinated The New Orleans Index, a compendium of policy papers documenting New Orleans’s progress since the storms. Brookings intended for the Index to empower New Orleanians with good data and scholarly documentation. IRCT decided to partner with Amy Liu and Allison Plyer and combine editorial efforts toward a comprehensive volume with a broader focus on the entire region. The resulting volume, Resilience and Opportunity, provides a multifaceted analysis of the challenges and progress being made in the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and, to a lesser extent, Alabama.

More Information on Resilience and Opportunity

Included below is a sample of chapter titles included in the volume.

1. “Defining Resilience,” by Kathryn A. Foster
2. “Delivering High-Quality, Accessible Health Care: The Rise of Community Centers,” by Karen DeSalvo
3. “The Role of Philanthropy in Reducing Vulnerability and Promoting Opportunity in the Gulf South,” by Ivye Allen, Linetta Gilbert, and Alandra Washington