Danielle James came to the clubhouse at Summercrest Apartments in search of information about social services. As a young mother of a newborn, she wanted to know how to navigate Houston's public health system.

She left with something she didn't expect - her name on a list for an absentee ballot for next month's municipal elections in New Orleans....

Full Article, Houston Chronicle

In the two months since Hurricane Katrina hit, the Metropolitan Organization, a group of professional organizers affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation, a grass-roots network founded by the Chicago radical Saul D. Alinsky, has been busy sowing nonpartisan political activism and mobilizing survivors to champion their own interests in resettlement and rebuilding decisions.

Early on, with at least a quarter-million people finding refuge in the Houston area alone, it helped organize evacuees in the Astrodome, winning a playground for children and secure areas for the elderly. It persuaded the Federal Communications Commission to maintain evacuees' cellphone service even if they fell behind in their bills...

[Photo Credit: Josh Merwin, The New York Times]

Full Article, New York Times

With thousands of signatures already collected, a new organization of residents in the Reliant Park shelter complex continued to circulate a petition for improved services.

The Survivor Leadership Group, an organization of New Orleans community leaders who have been living in the Reliant Astrodome, began circulating the petition Tuesday evening. The leaders came together last week with the assistance of a Houston advocacy group known as The Metropolitan Organization, or TMO.

Full Article, Houston Chronicle