by Brion Hurley After Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in 2005, Washington, D.C., teacher Liz McCartney and lawyer Zack Rosenberg wanted to help. Their efforts took them to New Orleans where they founded the nonprofit St. Bernard’s Project to rebuild homes and help victims recover from natural disasters. As the nonprofit and the […]
Getting Home by Lynn McCartney and Zack Rosenburg is a wonderful book that tells the story of a very special lean journey. After Hurricane Katrina had left thousands homeless, the authors put their careers on hold to spend a year in New Orleans helping as many as they could. Five years later, they were still […]
Written by Brion
by Brion Hurley In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Mark Novak quickly joined a disaster relief trip to help rebuild communities in Mississippi. He soon found out there were many frustrating aspects of the process that needed to be addressed; supplies were scarce or late to arrive, communication of problems were accomplished too late in the […]
Written by Brion
By 2009, four years after Hurricane Katrina hit on Aug. 29, 2005, there were 8,000-plus displaced homeowners in the New Orleans area still struggling to move back home, but who didn’t have money or insurance for repairs. Worse, they were being joined by an increasing number of homeowners who had suffered contractor fraud. “We had […]
Written by Brion
The lean principles of the Toyota Production System are changing how New Orleans and the U.S. recovers from disasters. With help from the Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC), they’d become unstuck, slashing lead time to just 60 days and dramatically increasing the number of quality homes rebuilt monthly. Read more at LEI: https://www.lean.org/common/display/?o=3016
Written by Brion
Zack Rosenburg and Liz McCartney, co-founders of the nonprofit St. Bernard Project, have been rebuilding homes damaged by Katrina since 2006 when they gave up their Washington, D.C. jobs as an attorney and teacher, respectively, and moved to work full-time rebuilding homes in the New Orleans area. With help from the Toyota Production System Support […]
Written by Brion
Six years after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, thousands of people still had not been able to return to their homes. One nonprofit home rebuilding group that had been attacking this dire situation was the St. Bernard Project (SBP), and increased their impact with the help of Toyota. A shorter video… Read more at: https://www.tssc.com/projects/nfp-sbp-vid.php
Written by Brion
On May 22, 2011, a catastrophic tornado cut a 13-mile path of destruction through Joplin, Mo., killing 161 people and destroying thousands of homes. In an effort to maximize its impact, Rebuild Joplin became the “first” affiliate of the St. Bernard Project (SBP), a nonprofit organization initially supported by Toyota, which was started to help […]
Written by Brion
At the Clinton Global Initiative Meeting, Toyota announced that they will be working with up to 20 community organizations across the United States in the first year to help improve performance. They will begin with the St. Bernard Project, a New Orleans recovery organization that employs returning war veterans, AmeriCorps members and volunteers to rebuild […]
Written by Brion