Kennedy School Launches Forum Series in New Orleans

Press Release

October 29, 2007

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Broadmoor Project: New Orleans

New Orleans, LA – Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government is launching a series of Neighborhood Leadership Forums this week in New Orleans to support leaders in recovering neighborhoods.

The first forum in the series, titled "Data Collection and Recovery Management Information Systems for Neighborhood Leaders ," will be held November 3 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St., New Orleans. The event will be jointly conducted by Harvard's Kennedy School and Bard College. 

The forum series is the latest innovation of "The Broadmoor Project," a collaboration begun in 2006 when Kennedy School students traveled to the New Orleans neighborhood of Broadmoor in the wake of Hurricane Katrina to assist residents in designing a strategy for neighborhood recovery. Since then, dozens of Harvard students, staff and faculty have worked alongside residents who have personified the vitality of their neighborhood by continuing to define its future. 

The Broadmoor Project was initiated by Doug Ahlers, a New Orleans resident and a senior fellow at the Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. "These forums aren't meant to be dialogues or discussion," said Ahlers. "These will be hands-on sessions where people who need the information will leave with ideas, skills, and resources they can use to implement real initiatives in their neighborhoods." 

Forums in December and February will include "Best Practices in Neighborhood Revitalization " and "Establishing Public Private Partnership." Generous financial support for the Neighborhood Leadership Forum series is being provided by Shell Oil Company and Walter Shorenstein. Other sponsors include the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative, and the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, all at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government; Bard College; the Broadmoor Improvement Association; and the Broadmoor Development Corporation. 

While Kennedy School volunteers and interns will continue work in Broadmoor, the School's multi-year commitment to the Broadmoor Project also includes executive education and training for New Orleans residents at Harvard's Kennedy School in Cambridge, MA; the continued sponsoring of community forums in New Orleans; and the funding of research grants for Kennedy School faculty working on issues relevant to post-Katrina recovery. 

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