Brees Dream Foundation

Bastion Housing:

Bastion is America's first intentional living community for disabled veterans and their families, located right here in New Orleans. It's a place where returning warriors can access the resources, programs, and community support they need as they build healthy, thriving lives after military service.

Bastion offers resources like clinical specialists, a food pantry, and a brain injury rehab program. But, the core source of support veterans receive is from each other. Bastion's veterans live by the motto, Community as the Intervention. This motto is embodied every day in the relationships built between neighbors at Bastion. To learn more please visit the Bastion website

BuildStrong Academy:

Creating career opportunities through skills training and job placement. Students are able to get trained and go on to good paying jobs in the residential construction industry. Local support and investment are crucial pillars for the success and sustainability of HBI. If you are a student interested in joining the program, an employer looking to hire our students, or would like to make a financial contribution to the program, visit HBI. At the end of 2024, 554 students were enrolled at our BuildStrong Academy in New Orleans with a 92% certified rating. Of those students who completed the program 100% were certified. The certificates earned were in Residential Construction Introductory Series, Pact Core and Carpentry. 1243 certificates were earned through HBI in 2024 at our New Orleans location!

Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge:

Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge is an opportunity for high school students across the region to come up with their own startup idea and pitch it for up to $15,000 in scholarship money and free Chick fil A for a year. Since 2014, nearly 20,000 students from Shreveport, Monroe, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Greater New Orleans, the North Shore, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast have answered the challenge. From language learning apps to emergency power stations, our young entrepreneurs are solving the issues of today with the innovations of tomorrow. We have provided over 410,000 in scholarships and over $130,000 in funds to schools to support entrepreneurial education. Alumni students have gone on to attend the most prestigious universities in the country, launched their startups, and have even given their own TED Talks. To learn more about the Trust Your Crazy Ideas Challenge please visit

Ochsner Community Health Centers:

Health care access is an issue in Louisiana that is very important to us. The lack of access to services such as prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of diseases, illness, disorders, and other health-impacting conditions has kept Louisiana in the bottom of health care rankings in the US for years. In 2020, the Brees Dream Foundation joined with Ochsner Health to change that with the lofty goal of moving the national rankings needle – a bold partnership with other healthcare organizations, businesses, churches, schools, community groups and state and local governments – with the common goal of a healthier Louisiana with greater access to healthcare for all residents. We have invested in 3 community health centers across the state – in New Orleans East, Baton Rouge and now Gretna. Since 2023, these centers have cared for nearly 60,000 patients – providing accessible and convenient healthcare services to residents right in the communities in which they live. Our centers provide a wide range of primary and pediatric care, as well as screenings and healthcare education. Because these centers are centrally located, families don’t have to travel far to get the care they need. They are able to have access to healthcare whenever they need it and they are able to get to know their medical care teams as if they were part of the family. We are so honored to be a part of this initiative – one that is building healthier communities one patient at a time. To learn more please visit

Second Harvest