Week of Compassion Board of Stewards Meets in New Orleans

strengthened work with partner, increased global sustainable development support

The Week of Compassion Board of Stewards held its annual Fall meeting in New Orleans, LA November 14-16. The Board received the Executive Director’s report and overview of the strategic direction of the ministry in light of current global challenges. In addition, the Board passed the 2025 Budget and approved over $600,000 in sustainable development grants to global partners and multiple projects worldwide. The projects range from girls’ education to food security and disaster risk reduction, serving with partners in Vietnam, Japan, Honduras, Pakistan, and more.

While the agenda included important business sessions, the primary focus was a visit with the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe, an indigenous community in the Terrebonne Basin deeply impacted by Hurricane Ida (2021) and receiving program and long-term recovery support from Week of Compassion. 

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Week of Compassion’s work is rooted in core values of connection, integrity, and accompaniment; meeting in New Orleans brought into focus the racial disparity in disaster response. Nearly 20 years ago, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina made an indelible mark on the Crescent City and her people.

The storm shed light on the overwhelming vulnerabilities within structural systems that disproportionately affect marginalized persons, particularly Black and Brown communities, as well as indigenous tribes and their lands. With considerable issues exposed within federal systems, the response – and lack of response – in the wake of this hurricane fundamentally changed the landscape of disaster recovery. Many response groups formed after the 2005 hurricane season, and many others (like the Disciples) expanded their existing reach further into these impacted communities.

In the decades since the catastrophic 2005 hurricane season, multiple communities across southeast Louisiana remain disconnected from organizations and structures that could and should provide assistance and resources.

Like much of the bayou region in Louisiana, Pointe-au-Chien is a ‘repeat impact community,’ not only aligned in the path of multiple massive storms, but also repeatedly overlooked and disconnected through ongoing disenfranchisement, the effects of climate change, and industrial impact and disinvestment. But unlike many in Louisiana, the Pointe-au-Chien Indian Tribe is not in a tourist-popular area, does not receive significant media attention, and is not easily accessed. It was at the end of a 90-minute drive, through the marshes and lowland areas, that the Board of Stewards found the Pointe-au- Chien Indian Tribal Center, and spent the day with wisdom-keeper, living library, and tribal elder, Theresa Dardar. 

“We were trappers, when there were animals on the land,” Theresa explained. “When the plantations came and the animals left, we harvested sugar cane. When the land receded and the water came closer, we used our traps to catch crabs and our boats to bring in shrimp and oysters. Most of the tribe are fishermen, or work on tugboats.
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Our ancestors didn't know where their next meal was coming from unless they went to catch it. And they didn't have a way to keep it, so they had to share it. You always plan for tomorrow but you have to live today, one day at a time.” 

The adaptability and resilience of the ancestors has held fast through the generations, and infuses the Pointe-au-Chien community to this day, giving them persistence and resolve as they continue to emerge from the devastation of Hurricane Ida.


The majority of the 70+ homes in Pointe-au-Chien were either entirely destroyed or deemed unlivable in the wake of Hurricane Ida’s massive impact. “It was the culmination of all the wrong things with this storm,” said Kristina Peterson of the Lowlander Center. The eye wall of the storm pounded the bayou region for nearly eight hours. The relentless wind, as much as the water, was wildly destructive. Low-lying homes took on water; the few elevated homes were taken down by wind.


Into this reality – of a strong and hard-working people, daily fighting for access to resources and systems too long denied – Week of Compassion has been invited and is honored to be welcomed as a trusted partner, supporting two primary efforts.


Pointe-au-Chien, which is not a federally recognized tribe, receives little to no federal or state assistance, even in emergency, and the traditional case management assigned to the region had no local ties or indigenous relationships, and no connection to their Indian French language and culture. The Lowlander Center and the First Peoples Conservation Council proposed a creative solution, which Week of Compassion eagerly supports: training tribal elders, those already trusted in the community, and employing them as case managers, resulting in greater access to available resources for long-term recovery. 

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And so two years after the storm, home rebuilds were finally underway, with a number of ecumenical partners in a collaborative recovery. Week of Compassion supported the upgrades and repairs to the volunteer housing facility, enabling partners to commit build teams for several months and complete multiple new home builds. Homes are being elevated (most ten to fifteen feet), and built to Fortified standards international building code, following strict requirements for design, construction, installation, and inspection.

Asked the very common question of ‘How do you keep doing this? Why do you stay?’, Theresa offered the wisdom that only an elder can: “We aren’t just rebuilding houses, we’re building a strong community. The tribe has led in recovering the cultural integrity, the ecosystem, and the canal structure. We are the stewards of the land, water, and air. I pray every day that no one is impacted by hurricanes, especially during hurricane season.” It seemed she was speaking of more than wind and rain, but about the struggles and challenges of exploitation and oppression. This elder prays for her people and those
like them, that they would be spared greater impact.

Week of Compassion – our staff, Board of Stewards, and ecumenical partners, on behalf of the whole church – is committed to exploring ways to honor the lived experience of disaster-impacted communities, accompanying our neighbors and serving together with passion, resilience, and hope. 

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