Katrina Response: The TMO Survivors Leadership Group

As soon as survivors of the Katrina catastrophe began arriving in the Houston Astrodome, IAF executive team member Sr. Christine Stephens and organizers working with the IAF affiliate in Houston, The Metropolitan Organization, began meeting with individuals and families.

Our TMO staff and leaders remembered and applied the universals of organizing. They did individual, relational meetings with people. They sought out leaders. They didn't do for others what they could do for themselves. They honored the service work done by other agencies and institutions, but remained focused on the need to build self-sufficiency and power among those who had fled an event more destructive than either the San Francisco earthquake or the great Chicago fire.

This newsletter is the first publication of the newest IAF organizing effort — the Survivors Leadership Group.

It is short, direct, simple. It is a testament to the power of the human spirit.