This 2006 publication contains over ninety photos and forty essays by students, faculty and community leaders who traveled for eight days in the Gulf Coast in January 2006, just five months after Hurricane Katrina exposed the deep and pervasive poverty in the United States. Students from Union Theological Seminary and the Columbia University School of Social Work, along with leaders from the Poverty Scholars Program, spent time with community leaders and hurricane survivors in Atlanta, Pensacola, Biloxi, Ocean Springs, and New Orleans.
Inspired by journals and blogs kept during the 2006 January Immersion Course, The Poverty Initiative published this 200+ page book with 90 photographs of the impact of Hurricane Katrina and personal and theological reflections on the issues of poverty, racism, and government responsibility raised by the Hurricane. Now in its second printing, this first full-length book published by the Poverty Initiative has been distributed to hundreds of people across the country and has been used in courses at Ithaca College, Columbia School of Social Work and other universities.