A Safe City is a Strong City
Puentes New Orleans, a non-profit community development organization focused on the needs of the Latino community, has agreed to provide 10 volunteers per shift of an evacuation to evacuteer.org work. In addition to evacuteers at the UPT, Puentes will be providing a Spanish-speaking volunteer at the 311 Call Center as well as at two neighborhood pick-up points around Mid-City.
During the Gustav evacuation last year, Puentes volunteers were present to provide translation services and general assistance throughout both exit and re-entry.
“This commitment is very exciting for us,” said Guillermo Olivos, evacuteer.org MBA intern. “The purpose of our efforts is to foresee all potential issues that might arise during evacuations and prepare for them before the fact, so obviously language barriers fall under that umbrella. Puentes was present in a big way last year communicating key information to the Spanish-speaking community. They have the organizational capacity and ability to take the lead on that for years to come
Puentes estimates that of those that utilized the CAEP in 2008, about 800 of 18,000 (or 4.5%) were Spanish-speaking.