Common Ground Collective - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Common Ground Collective is a decentralized network of non-profit organizations offering support to the residents of New Orleans. It was formed in the Algiers

Algiers, Louisiana

Algiers is a neighborhood within the city of New Orleans. It is the portion of Orleans Parish on the West Bank of the Mississippi River.Algiers is also known as the 15th Ward, one of the 17 Wards of New Orleans.-History:...

neighborhood of the city in the days after Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

in 2005.

History

Common Ground started with delivery of basic aid (food, water, and supplies) and an emergency clinic

Clinic

A clinic is a health care facility that is primarily devoted to the care of outpatients...

in Algiers. The effort expanded to providing assistance to homeowners and residents trying to move back into other areas of the city and region—such as the Lower Ninth Ward

Lower Ninth Ward

Lower Ninth Ward is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans. As the name implies, it is part of the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. The Lower Ninth Ward is often thought of as the entire area within New Orleans downriver of the Industrial Canal; however, the City Planning Commission divides this...

, St. Bernard Parish

St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana

St. Bernard Parish is a parish located southeast of New Orleans in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Chalmette, the largest city in the parish. As of 2000, its population was 67,229. It has been ranked the fastest-growing county in the United States from 2007 to 2008 by the U.S....

,
and Houma

Houma, Louisiana

Houma is a city in and the parish seat of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, and the largest principal city of the Houma–Bayou Cane–Thibodaux Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's powers of government have been absorbed by the parish, which is now run by the Terrebonne Parish...

—where flood-protection infrastructure failed after the hurricane.

Common Ground Health Clinic

Common Ground Health Clinic

The Common Ground Health Clinic is a non-profit organization that provides free quality health care for the greater New Orleans community, and develops and provides programs to address community health care needs through collaborative partnerships...

had its beginnings when four young street medic

Street medic

Street medics, or action medics, are volunteers with varying degrees of medical training who attend protests and demonstrations to provide medical care such as first aid. Unlike regular emergency medical technicians, who serve with more established institutions, street medics usually operate in a...

s, arrived up in Algiers

Algiers, Louisiana

a few days after the hurricane. They began riding around on bicycles asking residents if they needed medical attention. Locals were surprised to be approached in this way, since no representatives of government agencies or of the Red Cross

American Red Cross

The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...

had appeared up to that point. The medics offered first aid

First aid

First aid is the provision of initial care for an illness or injury. It is usually performed by non-expert, but trained personnel to a sick or injured person until definitive medical treatment can be accessed. Certain self-limiting illnesses or minor injuries may not require further medical care...

, took blood pressure, tested for diabetes, and asked about symptoms of anxiety, depression, and other disease.

Common Ground Relief or Common Ground Collective was founded originally on the ideas of Malik Rahim

Malik Rahim

Malik Rahim is a former Black Panther, and a long-time housing and prison activist in the U.S. state of Louisiana. He gained publicity as a community organizer in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina....

, a local community organizer and former member of the Black Panther Party

Black Panther Party

The Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....

, Scott Crow

Scott Crow

Scott Crow is an anarchist community organizer and writer based in Austin, Texas. He is one of the founders of Common Ground Collective or Common Ground Relief with Malik Rahim, Sharon Johnson, Lisa Fithian, Kerul Dyer, Suncere Shakur, and Emily Posner, an organization formed in the aftermath of...

, and Sharon Johnson. on Sept. 5th, 2005, but began to coalesce to become a cohesive organization with an influx of activists and organizers two weeks later, which included Lisa Fithian

Lisa Fithian

Lisa Fithian is an American political activist. She began her work in the mid-1970s as a member of student government in her high school and at Skidmore College...

, Kerul Dyer, Suncere Shakur, Emily Posner, Jenka Soderberg, Jackie Sumell and Brandon Darby

Brandon Darby

Brandon Darby was an informant for the FBI and previously a co-founder of Common Ground Relief, a non-profit relief organization that provided supplies and assistance to New Orleanians in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina...

. Although there were many who contributed immensely behind the scenes, these people were responsible for many of the underpinnings, philosophy, and organizational directions Common Ground Collective took until 2007.

Common Ground Relief began community organizing in the Algiers neighborhood and surrounding areas in the first few weeks. After forming a more cohesive organization, Common Ground began recruiting volunteers to help gut homes and provide other free services in the Upper & Lower Ninth Wards. Common Ground housed up to approximately 500 volunteers at a time in the St. Mary of the Angels school in the Upper 9th Ward of New Orleans. As of March 1, 2009, over 23,000 people had volunteered with Common Ground Relief for various lengths of time, creating an unusual social situation in the predominantly black neighborhoods, since most of the volunteers were young white people from throughout the United States and Europe. An ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...

Nightline report described the volunteers as "mostly young people filled with energy and idealism, and untainted by cynicism and despair, and mostly white, [who] have come from across America and from countries as far away as Indonesia." The health clinic was especially helpful to remaining residents of New Orleans immediately after the hurricane since Charity Hospital

Charity Hospital

Charity Hospital was one of two teaching hospitals which were part of the Medical Center of Louisiana at New Orleans . Three weeks after the events of Hurricane Katrina, then Governor Kathleen Blanco said that Charity Hospital would not reopen, even though the military had scrubbed the building to...

and other emergency care providers were not available.

Common Ground Relief initiated a number of programs and projects following its inception in September 2005. Its organizing philosophy is dubbed "Solidarity Not Charity," reflecting the anarchist philosophies of many of its members. Some of the facilities provided free to residents included debris removal, aid distribution centers, roving medical clinics, bioremediation

Bioremediation

Bioremediation is the use of microorganism metabolism to remove pollutants. Technologies can be generally classified as in situ or ex situ. In situ bioremediation involves treating the contaminated material at the site, while ex situ involves the removal of the contaminated material to be treated...

for toxic areas, house-gutting, roof-tarping, building neighborhood computer centers, free tech support for non-profits, stopping home demolitions in the Lower 9th Ward, supporting community and backyard gardens, anti-racist training for volunteers, a tree planting service, and legal counseling services.
In early 2006, Common Ground Relief volunteers effected an unsanctioned clean-up of Martin Luther King Charter School in the Lower 9th Ward, which was subsequently reopened. In the winter of 2007 Common Ground opened a family homeless shelter

Homeless shelter

Homeless shelters are temporary residences for homeless people which seek to protect vulnerable populations from the often devastating effects of homelessness while simultaneously reducing the environmental impact on the community...

in the 7th ward of New Orleans

7th Ward of New Orleans

The 7th Ward is a section of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is geographically the second largest of the 17 Wards of New Orleans, after the 9th Ward.-Boundaries and geography:...

which was closed a few months later.

Civil Rights Work

Common Ground

Common Ground may refer to:* Common ground * Grounding in communication * The commons, publicly owned areas, especially those for meeting* Common land, ground where the public have traditional rights, such as grazing...

contributed to the civil rights work that took place in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

. The organization provided man power, civil rights workers to take depositions from internally displaced refugees of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Partnership between Tulane University

Tulane University

Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...

, the Advancement Project

Advancement Project

The Advancement Project is group with the stated goal of promoting civil rights. It was founded in 1999 by civil rights lawyers in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.. Board members include Constance L. Rice, who is also a co-director, former United States Assistant Attorney General Bill Lann Lee,...

and Common Ground Collective provided an opportunity to protect the civil rights of Americans still struggling to recover from the storm.

Anderson v. Jackson

Anderson v. Jackson

Anderson vs. Jackson was a class action lawsuit seeking injunctive relief to prevent the demolition of four New Orleans public housing developments that were damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The suit alleged that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and state and city housing agencies...

was the lawsuit suing the Bush Administration for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1968

Civil Rights Act of 1968

On April 11, 1968 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968. Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 is commonly known as the Fair Housing Act, or as CRA '68, and was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964...

(the Fair Housing Act), the U.S. Housing Act of 1937, the 5th and 14th Amendment & International Law

International law

Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...

. Housing and Urban Development Secretary

United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

The United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is the head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the President's Cabinet, and thirteenth in the Presidential line of succession. The post was created with the formation of the Department of Housing...

Alphonso Jackson

Alphonso Jackson served as the 13th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development . He was nominated by President George W. Bush on January 28, 2004 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate on March 31, 2004. On March 31, 2008, Jackson announced his resignation, effective April 18,...

sought to demolish housing units and to replace the existing units with fewer mixed units. Common Ground, the Advancement Project and Tulane advanced the argument that race based discrimination was taking place aimed at the working class African American community populating the lower 9th ward of New Orleans. In addition, the United States violated the 5th and 14th Amendment by depriving community members of due process. The United States violated treaty violations to which it is a signatory by depriving Americans of the right of return to their homes.

Woodlands Apartment Complex

In May 2006, Common Ground Relief assumed management of the Woodlands Apartment Complex, a 350 unit complex of buildings initially to be purchased by Common Ground Relief. Common Ground Relief management froze the rents at the Woodlands to pre-Katrina levels, helped create a tenants union and ran a workers' cooperative with paid skills training. However, after 150 apartments were rehabilitated the owner, Anthony Reginelli reneged on the verbal agreement and sold the building to Johnson Properties Group LLC. More than 100 families were evicted from the property.
Common Ground Relief lost approximately $750,000 in payroll, landscaping, electrical, plumbing and carpentry expenditures.

Current

Common Ground Collective eventually split off into multiple independent organizations—Common Ground Relief, Common Ground Tech Collective, New Orleans Women's Shelter, Rubarb Bike Collective and the Common Ground Health Clinic

Common Ground Health Clinic

. Thomas Pepper is the current operations director of Common Ground Relief. In September, 2007, Common Ground Relief shifted its focus from direct relief to rebuilding. In January 2008, Common Ground Relief bought property in the Lower Ninth Ward for its headquarters and long-term volunteer housing. Common Ground Relief's primary mission is the short term hosting of skilled volunteer groups (around 50 volunteers), who participate in projects which include wetlands restoration

Floodplain restoration

Floodplain restoration is the process of fully or partially restoring a river's floodplain to its original conditions before having been affected by the construction of levees and the draining of wetlands and marshes....

, bioremediation

Bioremediation

and community garden construction, a free legal clinic, an advocacy center

Advocacy group

Advocacy groups use various forms of advocacy to influence public opinion and/or policy; they have played and continue to play an important part in the development of political and social systems...

, a job-training program for local residents, a lawn maintenance service, a media collective, drywalling and other rebuilding work. Common Ground Relief has established a tree farm to grow trees to be planted in storm-ravaged bayous east of New Orleans and to grow ornamental trees, ground covers, and shrubs to be planted in the Lower Ninth Ward.

Antor Ndep Ola is currently the Executive Director of Common Ground Health Clinic.

Former Director of Operations' tie to the FBI

Brandon Darby

, one of the founding members and former Director of Operations

Director of Operations

Director of Operations can refer to any of the below.* Chief operating officer in business* Director of Operations The Director of Operations can also be referred to as the "Operations Director". The role can have a wide range of responsibilities within an organization...

of Common Ground Relief from January to April 2007, has admitted to serving as an FBI informant

Informant

An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...

in the months leading up to the 2008 Republican National Convention

2008 Republican National Convention

The United States 2008 Republican National Convention took place at the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, from September 1, through September 4, 2008...

. According to Democracy Now, "Darby has admitted to wearing recording devices at planning meetings and wearing a transmitter embedded in his belt during the convention. Darby testified on behalf of the prosecution at the trial of David McKay

David McKay (activist)

David McKay is an activist and artist known for his attempted protest of the 2008 Republican National Convention and subsequent betrayal by noted FBI informant Brandon Darby.David McKay was born in Midland, Texas in 1986...

of Midland, Texas

Midland, Texas

Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States, on the Southern Plains of the state's western area. A small portion of the city extends into Martin County. As of 2010, the population of Midland was 111,147. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas...

who was arrested at the RNC on charges of making and possessing Molotov cocktails." During the trial McKay's attorney alleged Darby was acting as an Agent provocateur

Agent provocateur

Traditionally, an agent provocateur is a person employed by the police or other entity to act undercover to entice or provoke another person to commit an illegal act...

. The case ended in a mistrial because McKay changed his story about being entrapped by Darby. When (questionable) evidence was going to be presented that McKay wasn't entrapped, he accepted a plea bargain in exchange for a reduced sentence.

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