Building Relationships in Shreveport

Since 1992, Mack McCarter has been building relationships with residents and leaders in the community, businesses, social and church groups to do something about the racial tensions, crime, and social problems. The compelling spirit that unites the volunteers from all walks of life is each one’s conscious commitment to rebuild the community into a more loving, nurturing, and caring place to live and work.

This conscious and practical commitment has led Shreveport/Bossier Community Renewal (SBCR) to develop an effective plan to transform neighborhoods into communities capable of producing caring, supportive, contributing citizens by:

Establishing an inner and inter-family support network that promotes caring and accountable relationships within the neighborhood
Instilling a common value system that promotes moral and ethical behavior
Creating and/or reaffirming positive traditions that are anchors of stability and catalysts for hope
Instilling among residents a transcendent value that results in the willingness to place the needs of the neighborhood above the desires of self

SBCR’s methodology is comprised of 3 parts:

The Renewal Team that consists of individuals who register project volunteers;
The Haven House Plan, which is a strategy for increasing the social cohesion on a neighborhood block;
Internal Care Units, or Friendship Houses that are located within low-income neighborhoods. SBCR staff and their families live in these houses and develop relationships with other neighborhood residents through the offering of services out of their homes ranging from structured after-school programs to health care services.

As a result of dedicated commitment to their mission, SBCR has accomplished several positive results, including mutually supportive relationships between citizens and the faith community, businesses, health care providers, community-based organizations and police, and improved interracial relations within Shreveport.

A recent summary (2016) from the Shreveport Police Department’s report on crime changes shows that from the years of 1996 to 2015, the Community Renewal Friendship House target areas saw an average reduction in the following categories: total crime reduced 45%, major crime down 51% and quality of life crime down 54%.

Challenges

The Shreveport region of Louisiana has been for decades a low-income area with high crime rates. One of the leading causes is a breakdown of strong family and neighborhood relationships that can prevent crime.

Spiritual Practices

Volunteers from all walks of life bring a conscious commitment to rebuild the community into a more loving, nurturing, and caring place to live and work. Over time, this has transformed Shreveport neighborhoods into communities capable of producing caring, supportive, contributing citizens. Here are a couple of practical steps that have been effective:

Instill a common value system that promotes moral and ethical behavior
Instill the willingness to place the needs of the neighborhood above the desires of self

Effects of Spiritual Practice

It is evident to the entire community that there is significant improvement in mutually supportive relationships between citizens; specifically, neighborhoods have seen improved interracial relations within Shreveport community groups.

Organization Needs

Community Renewal values our volunteers and welcome individuals to contribute in areas that are within the training, talents and gifts they hold. Volunteers serve in every program. We also have volunteers that perform minor home repair projects, make skirts for a dance team, assist with newsletter mail-outs, conduct presentations on specific topics and teach classes/seminars. The only requirement to volunteer is to have a caring heart.