Renewal for at-risk neighborhoods

Some lucky ticket-holder will get a new home, and a local community organization will get needed funds to continue its work when a drawing is held June 28 for the House for Hope.

For the fifth year, Community Renewal International, the Homebuilders Association of Northwest Louisiana and KSLA are teaming up to raise money to build a new Friendship House.

Jimmy Graves is the director of development for Community Renewal International. “We work to restore safe and caring communities. One of the ways we do that is through the Friendship House Initiative in highcrime, low-income neighborhoods,” Graves said. “We locate a house and move a family in. Like you’d send a missionary overseas, we send them into Queensborough, Cedar Grove, Highland, Allendale and Barksdale Annex.”

Todd Lawhon, president of the Homebuilders Association, is in charge of building the home that will be raffled off June 28. “[The Friendship House] gives children a safe place to go in the afternoon to play, have someone watch them while their parents are at work and help them with their homework,” Lawhon said.

“This is the Home Builders Association’s charity project,” he said.

“All the proceeds that come from the raffle ticket sales go to Community Renewal International to fund construction of the Friendship House.”

Lawhon said plans for the House for Hope raffle have been underway since last November. “You start planning for it ahead of time and looking for donations as far as materials and labor and an actual lot,” he said.

The House for Hope, located at 2839 Caribbean Cove in the Island Park subdivision is about 2,800 square feet and located off Clyde Fant Parkway in Southeast Shreveport. It has three bedrooms and two-anda-half bathrooms. The kitchen has granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. The living room has a gas fireplace, built-in bookcases and French doors. The master suite has his and her walk-in closets and a twovanity bathroom with separate shower.

The upstairs consists of two bedrooms, a Hollywood bath and a finished bonus room.

This year, the new Friendship House will be constructed in the Highland neighborhood to replace one that’s been in service for 17 years.

Sandra Simpson has lived and worked in that house in Highland, and  the facility is in need of modernization, she said. “We have about 40 neighborhood kids who come to our after-school programs. We have about 50 families and adults who are involved in our family night programs.”

The drawing for the 2013 House for Hope will be June 28.

The home is located at 2839 Caribbean Cove in the Island Park subdivision, located off Clyde Fant Parkway in southeast Shreveport.

Those programs are designed to bring families together, Simpson said. They usually include a barbecue, and people come from all over the neighborhood to get acquainted with their neighbors, she said.

The current location is maxed out on space, Simpson said. Newer Friendship Houses have been designed to facilitate the programs Community Renewal International sponsors. Her location was not built as a community center, and the new house should correct that, Simpson said. “The community area will probably be two to three times the size of what we have now. We’re at ‘schooching’ size where, when we have our events, you’re schooching between the chairs.”

Graves said the thrust of the Friendship House project is to give hope to children and youth in at-risk neighborhoods.

In addition to the after-school programs, adults can learn to improve parenting skills, balance a checkbook or get literacy help. The literacy programs are held in the morning for people 17 and older to improve reading skills or work toward a GED.

“It’s to strengthen the connections in the neighborhood to help rebuild the fabric of these neighborhoods that have been torn with crime and drugs and poverty,” Graves said. “We are seeing major crime reduced on an average of over 40 percent in these target areas, a 20- to 30-block area around each friendship house, and we have 10 of them.”

Graves said, “The name, House for Hope, is very meaningful because we are building a new house, raffling it off, so that the proceeds may provide hope for another neighborhood in our community.”

– Joe Todaro

2013 House for Hope

The home will be open for visitors to inspect every afternoon in June until the grand prize drawing on June 28. Tickets are available online at www.houseforhope.us or at Community Renewal, 838 Margaret Place. Phone orders with a credit card can be made by calling 425-3222.