Recent Save the Children Achievements for Gulf Coast Communities Children playing in destroyed community center at Diamond Park, a FEMA trailer park in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Psychosocial Programs Providing emotional support and resiliency-building for children following the hurricane continues to be one of Save the Children's priority programs in classrooms and summer camps. Achievements and initiatives include the following: A new program, Project Joy, has been initiated by Save the Children, focused on helping children ages 6 to 14 build resiliency through cooperative games. Staff have offered Project Joy in four summer camps in New Orleans and one in Baton Rouge, serving over 500 children, and are expanding a version of the program for 3- to 6-year-olds. Save the Children is implementing one-hour Hurricane Preparedness Workshops for children. Last hurricane season, this program reached over 6,600 children.  To help Gulf Coast residents continue to cope with the long recovery process, Save the Children has revised our care-for-the-caregiver program, Journey of Hope, to include more activities to help teachers, social workers, and parents relieve stress. More than 1,200 caregivers have completed the program, and Save the Children is developing a version specifically for teens. Save the Children is offering psychosocial programs to children and adults in the temporary housing sites served by the Safe and Protective Communities Project.The largest program, Classroom/Community-Based Intervention (CBI), has served over 18,000 children to date. Safe and Protective Communities Project/FEMA Partnership In cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Save the Children is working in ten temporary housing sites to help bring residents together, establish community spaces, and create safer environments for children. Here are a few highlights of our work: Regular community meetings in all ten sites have been initiated. We are holding community events, such as an ice cream social with Louisiana Spirit, a community organization, for 200 displaced adults in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. Five community spaces have been established at sites where Save the Children is working, and plans are underway to establish them at four more sites. Thanks to a resolution passed by the Lake Charles City Council, a trailer donated by Save the Children has been placed next to Crying Eagle Village (in the Lake Charles area), for use as a community space. Save the Children worked with local organizations to offer structured summer activities in two sites in St. Tammany Parish, one in Tangipahoa Parish and one in Plaquemines Parish. Save the Children is collaborating with parish level offices, the American Red Cross and other organizations on emergency preparedness, ensuring that temporary housing site resident families and children are prepared for the current hurricane season.  Save the Children is working with site residents, parish-level long-term recovery organizations and the American Red Cross to connect residents with resources, information and services as some sites prepare to close, in an effort to lessen the negative impacts on children. Summer Programs, Playgrounds and Child Care Children living with the aftermath of disasters are particularly in need of safe, secure environments during out-of-school time. Save the Children supports summer camps and child care centers, and has helped rebuild playgrounds. The following are a few key initiatives and achievements: Save the Children funded 11 summer programs serving approximately 8,000 children, mostly in the 6-parish greater New Orleans area. A playground at the Diamond Temporary Housing Site south of New Orleans opened to children on May 18, 2007. The playground was built by Save the Children and KaBOOM!, and was the fourth playground that Save the Children has rebuilt in the Gulf Coast. 37 Mississippi child care centers have been repaired or rebuilt and resupplied through a child care recovery coalition that Save the Children helped lead. With support from Save the Children and furniture donated by Community Playthings, the New Orleans-based child care center, Tommye's Tiny Tots 2, had its grand opening. Tommye's is one of five centers that will reopen thanks to our partnership with Community Playthings. For More Information on Our Response to Hurricane Katrina Donate to support Save the Children's work in the United States