{{no footnotes, date=October 2008 The Community Center of St Bernard (CCSTB) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in Arabi, Louisiana, in

St Bernard Parish St. Bernard Parish (french: Paroisse de Saint-Bernard; es, Parroquia de San Bernardo) is a parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat and largest community is Chalmette. The parish was formed in 1807. St. Bernard Parish is part of ...

near

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

. The Community Center was founded in 2006 to serve local residents after the overwhelming devastation caused by

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

and

Hurricane Rita Hurricane Rita was the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Gulf of Mexico and the fourth-most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. Part of the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, which included three of the top ten L ...

. The center was closed briefly during Hurricane Gustav, but was able to reopen almost immediately after the storm. The purpose of the Community Center is to assist local residents in their return to their homes, and to help normalize life.

History

The Community Center was founded in 2006 to serve local residents of St. Bernard Parish after the devastation caused by

and

. In

, the epicenter of devastation, fully 93% of homes were rated as "severely damaged" or "destroyed". This is the only Parish (county) in the history of our country to have been completely inundated by flood waters. In many cases homes and businesses were covered up to the rooftops. One hundred and eighty people in the Parish drowned. It is also the home to the largest residential domestic oil spill in US history, when the Murphy Oil Spill (Chalmette, Louisiana) released more than 1,000,000 gallons of crude oil.

Activities

The center is dedicated to providing a wide range of necessary community services, including free food, clothes, hot meals, internet access, free long distance and local phones, computer classes, and community events such as after school programs and workshops. The Community Center also partners with local agencies and gives them space to provide their services at the center. This program is called the Community Connections Model and effectively turns the Community Center into a one stop shop for recovery resources in Greater New Orleans Area. Some partner agencies include Staff from the Louisiana Department of Social Services, Office of Family Support,

Road Home Road Home is a program funded by the U.S. government which has provided federal grant money to help Louisiana residents rebuild or sell houses severely damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This federally funded program is administered by th ...

Senior Community Service Employment Program The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) is a program of the United States Department of Labor, its Employment and Training Administration The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is part of the U.S. Department of Labor. Its ...

, Families Helping Families,

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

, St Anna’s Medical Mission, Mom & Baby Mobile Health Center, Daughters of Charity, and Swan River Yoga. The center also hosts a variety of workshops, dances and holiday celebrations that are free to the public. St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana Non-profit organizations based in Louisiana