Shreveport-Bossier Community Renewal
Dates of Program: January 2004 to September 2007
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 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.