New Orleans Neighborhoods Partnership Network

Location:
New Orleans, LA

The Neighborhoods Partnership Network (NPN) is a nonprofit, 501c3 organization consisting of a citywide network of neighborhoods that was established after the Hurricane Katrina disaster to facilitate neighborhood collaboration, increase access to government and information, and strengthen the voices of individuals and communities across New Orleans.

The disasters revealed significant weakness in many structures Americans took for granted – physical structures such levees & hospitals, but also governing and social structures from FEMA to state and local entities. Citizens have had to become their own “first responders” – from rescuing their neighbors to rescuing their neighborhoods. NPN is one such organization born from both the failures and opportunities the catastrophe has provided.

NPN realized that a need existed for a citywide framework to assist communities in maximizing the use of limited resources and information while providing connections to other communities that have similar obstacles so that communities can avoid duplicating efforts and work toward shared goals. The infrastructure of this organization answers New Orleanians’ desires to be involved in the formal decision-making processes that impact quality of life issues for citizens and neighborhoods.

NPN’s mission is to improve the quality of life by engaging New Orleanians in neighborhood revitalization and civic processes. NPN consists of a board of community leaders reflective of neighborhoods throughout the city and a diverse staff immersed in coalition building, public and government relations. NPN envisions a New Orleans where all neighborhoods are great places to live.

Supported Projects



Community Technology Coordinator

Meghan Daniels
7/20087/2009

Community Technology Coordinator Capacity Development and Training responsibilities:

• Collaborate with neighborhood groups to develop a web presence on our site, focusing on groups that currently have no web presence.

• Manage and update resource content to ensure that neighborhoods have access to up-to-date neighborhood information

• Prepare workshops that enable neighborhoods to use web tools.

• Develop guidebook for website new profile users and train staff and community users to update their own content.

• Provide technical assistance to staff, volunteers, and NPN Members regarding website. Digital Media and Outreach

• Establish relationships with non-profit content writers.

• Improve and expand content partnerships between NPN and partner organizations.

• Edit and publish video vignettes of neighborhood groups for the Adopt-A-Neighborhood program.

• Outreach to university service departments to create profiles.

• Develop unique content in collaboration with Staff and Members * Recruiting volunteers that assist in creating content or new features.

• Serve as technology liaison to the community through public speaking and presentations.

• Develop and implement “The Trumpet magazine online” features.

• Design and Write Community E-Newsletters

• Write Press Releases Technology Improvement * Creating new program or content pages. * Improving or adjusting Website layout/functionality.

Meghan Daniels accomplished the initial goals of creating a policy and system for training our members on the NPNnola.com website, a posting policy for the E-Newsletter, as well as guides for our internal Salesforce.com database.

What we were not able to accomplish was to increase the rate of postings by members who were trained to upload information on their profiles. While there was a general trend upward in the number of postings by members that received a web workshop, the frequency was not as high as we desired. Other challenges we were faced with involved programming issues with our developer, who had created the website on a proprietary system, thus making basic but essential adjustments a hassle.

Our organization has been able to leverage the success of Meghan Daniels’s work to secure funding for a part time assistant. Meghan’s guides, systems and policies have streamlined our communications platforms.

At the time of our proposed project, we were not aware that our office systems would make a transition to a Salesforce (CRM) database. Meghan Daniels helped vet the system and create user-friendly guides for incoming staff and volunteers. This has proven to be invaluable as it provides a quick and easy-to-use tutorial of the Salesforce.com database.




Transmission Project