Welcome to the LOUISIANA SPEAKS Parish Recovery Planning Tool (Parish RPT)

The Parish Recovery Planning Tool (RPT), created by the Louisiana Long-Term Community Recovery (LTCR) planning team, is an exciting and unique Tool for long-term community planning. A resource for Louisiana communities affected by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, the Parish Recovery Planning Tool allows LTCR parish teams, federal and state agencies, local parish governments, the general public and displaced Louisianians access to the planning process.

The Tool is a powerful addition to the planning effort. Dynamic and interactive, the Tool encourages a transparent, ongoing recovery planning process by providing a way to view parish-specific plans and project lists that can be updated as communities identify new needs or as projects move forward to completion. Facilitating participation and partnership among state, local and federal government entities, the Tool can aid and support Louisiana recovery efforts. It also provides opportunities for the development of public and private partnerships that benefit the recovery effort.

The Tool is organized around five sections: Planning Process, Planning by Parishes, Recovery Projects, Planning by Sectors and Resources.

Each parish plan outlines an overall vision for recovery, recovery goals, and well-defined projects for meeting those goals.

Recovery projects are assigned a recovery value using a standardized methodology found in The Long-Term Community Recovery Planning Process: A Guide to Determining Project Recovery Values. Higher recovery value projects are consistent with community recovery visioning and goals, focus on overall community recovery and can achieve multiple recovery benefits. Recovery projects that are “catalytic” to recovery in that they “jump start” community recovery efforts or are necessary for other recovery projects to progress, are included. Instead of a listing of capital improvement projects or those that only address pre-disaster conditions, recovery projects included in the Parish RPT provide an opportunity for a community to improve upon pre-disaster conditions and leverage recovery resources in a sustainable manner.

Additionally, the Parish RPT plays an important role in creating a Regional Recovery Plan for southern Louisiana parishes. To see more about how this Long-Term Recovery Planning process fits into the overall recovery process, visit the LOUISIANA SPEAKS website at LOUISIANASPEAKS.org.

Anyone with an Internet hookup can access the Parish RPT. Paper copies of parish plans can be printed directly from the site.

We invite you to navigate through the Parish RPT. Share your ideas for Long-Term Community Recovery for your parish with your local planning organizations or local governments. Every Louisiana voice needs to be heard. Together, we can build and rebuild better, safer and stronger Louisiana communities.