Shreveport-Bossier Community Renewal
An RWJF National Program
Field of Work: Reducing social isolation in distressed areas of Shreveport, La., and adjacent Bossier City and disseminating the model of renewal to other cities.
Problem Synopsis: In the 1990s, crime, substance abuse, unemployment and other problems common to urban America plagued low-income neighborhoods of Shreveport, La. and neighboring Bossier City. Some 60 percent of the adults were unemployed or otherwise outside the workforce, and a majority of households, had less than $15,000 in annual income.
Synopsis of the Work: Shreveport-Bossier Community Renewal (January 2004 to September 2007) placed paid outreach workers in low-income, high-crime neighborhoods as permanent, round-the-clock residents of special houses—called Friendship Houses—that doubled as community centers and trained local volunteers to be resources to their neighbors.
Key Results:
- Shreveport-Bossier Community Renewal expanded as an organization and increased its programmatic reach in the local area.
- The organization developed relationships across the economic spectrum of the Shreveport area.
- The effort to replicate the organization's model of community renewal remained ongoing despite a setback.
- However, the organization did not achieve an evaluation capability by the end of the RWJF grant period.