St. Charles Parish - Community Involvement

Executive Summary

Community involvement began in earnest after the December, 2005, Governmental Workshop, which introduced the Long-Term Community Recovery (LTCR) team to some of the key people in the community and their most evident issues. Some of those issues were quite clear (such as levee protection), while others required more in-depth consideration of both the issue and who would be the key contacts.

Community involvement is at the core of the LTCR work. The initial Governmental Workshop was a valuable tool for introducing the team to some of the issues the parish is facing as well as the attitudes and culture that serve as the framework for planning in the community. Since that workshop, the team has reached out to governmental departments, community organizations and individuals with special expertise or knowledge of the parish history, culture and ways of living. The Louisiana Recovery Planning Day rounded out the details in conversations with the general public.  Overall, it is the public outreach effort that has determined the priorities for recovery and helped the team identify the capacity and needs to carry out the recovery plans that may evolve from this process.

Stakeholders

The following list contains most of the organizations and agencies the LTCR team has contacted throughout the planning process:

Local government elected officials

• Parish chief administrative officer, parish president, parish council, sheriff and State Rep. Gary Smith

Local government staff

• Departments of Planning and Zoning, Coastal Zone Management, Public Works, Water Works, Waste Water and Community Services; Emergency Operations Center, St. Charles Parish Housing Authority, St. Charles Department of Parks and Recreation, Sunset Drainage District, Pontchartrain Levee District, Lafourche Basin Levee Board, Barrataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, River Parish Transit Authority, and Orleans School District

Regional Planning Agencies

• South Central Planning and Development Commission

Local planning groups and recovery groups

• St Charles Economic Development Council, St Charles Parish Hospital Board, River Region Arts and Humanities Center

Non-profits and community groups

• Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Leadership 18 Gulf Coast Initiative, Humane Society, St. Charles Historical Foundation, Mississippi River Road Commission, Partnership of Care, American Red Cross, United Way of America, YMCA, Child Advocacy Services, VIA LINK, Cancer Association, Epilepsy Foundation, Catholic Charities, River Parishes Mental Health and the Norco Community Economic Development Foundation

Civic associations

• Norco Civic Association, Killona Civic Association, St. Charles Rotary

Business Associations

• River Parishes Chamber of Commerce, St. Charles Business Association, St. Charles Chamber of Commerce

Leaders of local businesses that help drive the economy

• Dow, Valero, Port of South Louisiana, Cytec, Shell/Motiva, First American Bank

Lead providers of education, and health and human services

• St. Charles School Board, St. Charles Parish Hospital, Community Health Clinic, St. Charles United Way and member agencies, Metropolitan Battered Woman’s Program, St. Charles Parish Public Schools (adult learning center), ARC of St. Charles, Family Resources of New Orleans (located in St. Charles), Norco Adult Day Care). Kidz Academy (early learning center), The Center for Family & Youth Services Inc.
• several small local businesses and the general public.

Local Committee / Task Force

The St. Charles team’s community outreach strategy did not actively seek to form any local task force. Instead, the LTCR staff made contacts by attending already established focus groups, forums and committees.  LTCR staff then began meeting key individuals, building relationships and setting up regular meetings when appropriate. In many cases, through the efforts of the LTCR staff, agencies already involved in some sort of recovery project became better connected with each other in order to widen the resources and information available to them. This was especially true of recovery projects and programs that involve various layers of government.

For example, as a result of LTCR outreach efforts in the areas of health, housing and human services, a local committee formed in order to continue building a local strategy for recovery.  This committee was formed following a focus group facilitated by the LTCR team and St. Charles United Way. This committee’s task is to complete a strategic planning process focused on building capacity to respond to disasters and direct public policy within the parish and regionally. The group, representing about 10 agencies, meets monthly or as needed.

Input Events

Three events were held to identify issues of priority to St. Charles Parish’s recovery. These events were as follows:

• Governmental Workshop (December 2006) Twelve attendees from parish departments and elected officials identified priority recovery issues from the perspective of local government: levee protection, wetland mitigation, water storage, distribution and treatment capacity, and maintaining quality of life.
• Louisiana Recovery Planning Day (January 2006) Fifty attendees from the general public and local officials provided input that broadened the issues requiring investigation. They also identified cultural treasures and the desire to maintain rural character as recovery issues.
• Human Services Focus Group (January 2006) Forty-five attendees from health, education, housing and other human service agencies identified their priority issues as mental health care, public transit, and housing.

Day-to-day interaction with local decision-makers, general public
The parish team made a determined effort to discover what recovery plans already exist in the community. Each team member was assigned a recovery issue area and meetings were delegated according to issue; team members also attended community-wide meetings such as parish council meetings. As the team became more familiar with community stakeholders, they were regularly invited to participate in smaller group meetings, including weekly meetings with the parish chief administrative officer and the director of the regional planning commission.

Since the most local FEMA Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) closed in Boutte, several visitors from the public were seeking individual assistance. Team members were able to refer them to other DRCs and were fortunate to have return visits offering thanks for the assistance.

Many residents who were unable to attend Louisiana Recovery Planning Day visited the storefront office or contacted the team by phone or email to share their ideas.

Local leadership of implementation
The following individuals and/or entities have been identified as principal points of contact for implementation:

• United Way executive director
• Lafourche District levees boards and districts
• parish president and parish council members
• planning and zoning director
• director of public works
• wastewater director
• transportation director
• Coastal Zone Management administrator

Grant Writing, Project Development and Public Transit

• Office of Economic and Community Development and Tourism
• parish hospital executive director
• public schools assistant superintendent
• Port of South Louisiana executive director/CEO
• St. Charles Parish Parks and Recreation director

When the storefront closes, offices and stakeholders have been identified to receive LTCR documentation depending on their area of interest. Overall, it is the team’s plan to forward a complete set of documentation to the parish president, council and regional planning commission.

View the Parish Summary Page from Louisiana Planning Day (PDF)