Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in EBR, The Walls Project has been hosting weekly video calls with leaders of nonprofits, foundations, city government, and local businesses from a
cross the parish. The intention of these weekly community check-ins is to share information and resources to help the Baton Rouge community respond and recover from the pandemic. Weekly topics range from access to basic needs such as food, medical care, and safety to thought-leaders' insights on equitable opportunities for youth enrichment, nonprofit financial solvency, surge in unemployment, and the disproportionate impact on impoverished neighborhoods in regards to accessing fresh food.
'Healthy Food Access For All'
Meeting Notes Prepared by Zoë Haddad (Walls Project)
Kelli Rogers (Geaux Get Healthy)
Now in the 3rd funded year (jointly funded by Humana Foundation/Louisiana Foundation/Blue Cross Blue Shield)
A project of HealthyBR using a collective impact model to provide backbone support and funding for 13 organizations working to improve food security through production distribution and education around growing and eating fresh food
Current partners: American Heart Association, Baton Roots Community Farm, Our Lady of the Lake North Clinic, Top Box Foods, Scotlandville CBC, A Kingdom Connection Changing Lives, Baton Rouge Garden Alliance, Southern Cofe, Front Yard Bikes, Perfectly Suited, Scotland Saturdays, Sweet Jones Farms, YMCA of the Capital Area ExxonMobil Branch
The work our partners are doing is really at the forefront of addressing food insecurity
We work to drive everyone towards a common agenda and measure the impact collectively vs individually
GGH is focused on 7 of the highest needs zip codes: 70802, 70805, 70806, 70807, 70811, 70812, 70815
Within those zip codes we’re measuring our impact within 16 specific neighborhoods and 23 census tracts
My job is to make sure I take the info I get from our partners and the work they’re doing and being sure we’re addressing those highest needs areas in our city
All those zip codes are low income, low access, and low transportation access as defined by the USDA
We think about the six A’s of food insecurity: access, affordability, availability, awareness, appeal, autonomy
Can I get to fresh food, can I afford it? Is it available? How does fresh food impact chronic health conditions? Is the food and the information we’re providing culturally relevant?
Collective impact - the broader work of the FIC to use that same model across the whole city/region.
Five important things in collective impact:
Common agenda: do all the people working in that space have a shared vision for changes? Are they working towards shared goals?
Shared measurements: how are we evaluating the programs and their impact?
Mutually reinforcing activities: GGH partners do events together, support each other in the work they do
Continuous communication: our five core partners meet once a week to discuss progress and impact, and the nine new partners meet once a month
Backbone support: that’s where I come in! It’s important to have structure in place to manage and coordinate the activities of those organizations. That’s one of the most important things we’ve learned in the last few years doing collective impact work: it has a tendency to get unwieldy if each individual organization continues to work in a silo
HealthyBR is a 501(c)(3) under the Mayor’s Office (also called the Healthy City Initiative)
Jared Hymowitz, Executive Director, is responsible for the vision and strategy of that organization and figuring out how that aligns with community health priorities
Lauren Hebert helps align GGH programming with HealthyBR
I do project management specifically related to wrangling partners, measuring outcomes, grant compliance, and partner relationships
Some statistics through the end of March (some of which have changed pretty significantly because spring is the time some of our partners are growing and distributing more)
Since starting this we have collectively grown over 15,000 lbs of food with over 25,000 lbs for this year
Distributed more than 150,000 lbs of fresh food
Asked about 4,000 community members about their lived experience with food insufficiency and insecurity and talk to stakeholders about what they think the important areas are to focus on
Delivered 200 educational experiences
Impacted the food security of 33,000 people in our community.
Katie Pritchett (CAUW)
The EBRFIC meets twice a month with a general membership meeting the 1st Thursday of the month and subcommittee working meetings the 3rd Thursday of the month
The last topic we explored was a presentation from Mike Manning with the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank to learn a little more about their partnership with the food pantries and also their senior feeding programs, backpack programs, etc. Exploring other topics for August such as food prescriptions
The working subcommittee working meetings have three subcommittees
Great conversation between the funders group and the providers/distributors to look at how we utilize tools from funders to create specific research and information needed for collaborative grant funding opportunities. Policy is continuing to dig deep on what that looks like, what we can advocate for and educate people around as it relates to food insecurity
Jan Ross (HAWF)
I represent the funders group also known as Group A of the subcommittee
The work we’ve been doing is building out the infrastructure that will be needed as Group B (producers/distributors) come up with ideas and solidify projects that we can take out to other funders, whether it be local or national, and solicit for some of those projects
Some of the things we’ve been working on is creating infrastructure and tools:
Basic Grant Applications Document - what are some of the documents you need to attach? Is it financials, policies, approvals, and what does that look like? Some organizations do their financials on Excel - we really want organizations to work towards having some formal accounting system. To be a part of a collaborative project we really need to work to getting each of the partners to a similar level - not the same, but similar
Application Scoring Tool - it allows an organization to see how their project fits into that opportunity. Do they have the capacity to do the work that the funding requires? Is it worth their time? Is it a really good fit or are you stretching it to fit the requirements of the funding source?
Quad Chart - the basic visionary information on the EBRFIC; can be used kind of as a Case for Support. Allows you to go in front of the public - funders, supporters, general public - to open the door, pique their interest, and then go forward with detail
List of Funders - local and national; whether we have a relationship with them or know they have interest in feeding insecurity
On a monthly basis, we schedule with other donors who aren’t directly connected with feeding insecurity but maybe fund a population where it’s one of the challenges they face. We’re interested in learning what they are seeing as the complexity of those barriers and how they are helping their grantees to address that.
Mary Bergeron (LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio/The Walls Project)
The one thing I would add is that the origin or purpose of developing these documents resides in the fact that people who do this good work do it because they want to do the work, not because they want to go chase down money. We’re trying to create tools that have a broad vision but are also available to individual organizations who may not have realized they needed to come up with a Disaster Preparedness Plan, a Diversity Plan, etc. In each checklist there are guides and “to-do’s”. It’s meant to be a dynamic document, never a finished document. Use these as resources in your own organizations! Jan and company, the CAUW, have been really good about sharing those resources.
Korey Patty (Feeding Louisiana)
Feeding Louisiana works at a state level largely around advocacy and policy work in the anti-hunger space
One of the things we've tried to communicate within our small group and across the FIC is that these programs that exist largely at a federal (or state) level are able to impact folks dealing with hunger and food insecurity at such a significant scale that the work on the ground being done by providers would be best maximized if we find ways to connect with our state partners. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about SNAP, P-EBT benefits
Got a good update yesterday from Monica Brown from Department of Children and Family Services
Updates to the SNAP application process - typically there’s an interview that’s required. The department would set that up under normal circumstances but there were some issues and barriers. Now, just as soon as somebody submits an electronic application, they’re able to then call into the department's help line, go through some prompts, speak immediately with somebody who can conduct that interview and move them through the process faster
Much of our conversation within the Policy Group (Group C) is trying to identify those barriers and communicate that across the rest of the coalition, find those champions and points of contact that we see as useful and able to impact change on those fronts
The question was posed to Monica yesterday of what can the organizations in this space do to assist DCFS in their work to get SNAP benefits out to communities that need them? She said all of these organizations hopefully having a better understanding of what the requirements are, having and allocating time to providing information on the program...she reported they are seeing a positive uptick in the reach of SNAP benefits. Some of that may be organic but some may be attributed to the local group as well.
A couple other things on the horizon: Department of Revenue is going to be rolling out a federal fund allocated through the American Relief Plan budgeted by the legislature $10 million statewide fund for not for profits working in the food education and employment space and small businesses that could use funding up to $25,000 per entity for workforce development
Secretary Lewis has an ambitious timeline to get that out August 1st, but it’s something to keep in mind for organizations on this call to expand into a new avenue as you’re understanding the needs of the people you’re serving
On the legislation front, another resolution passed by Senator Mills from the Lafayette area requires the Department of Health to host an anti-hunger summit bringing together all the state agencies that have responsibilities and programs around food insecurity and the response to hunger across our state, organizations doing the work on the ground, and other stakeholders to discuss the work, discuss the barriers, and put together some overarching goals and an approach to try to move the needle where the state has typically been 48th, 49th, 50th
Save the date: anti-hunger summit September 29th
Casey Phillips (The Walls Project)
In Work Group B we have narrowed down our collaborative grants to ten themes that we’re going to be working on over the next five years, but for now we’re focusing on the top three. The next step is to use all these great tools that the Funders Circle put together and collaborate with Group C Data, Evaluation & Policy around being a part of these multi-year grants. Goal is to start submitting more grants as we move to August and September. It’s been a lengthy process but we are moving forward together as a collective.
Coalition Discussion
Kelli Rogers: At the end of this month we’re rolling out a volunteer engagement platform to have a centralized place to connect. For right now, each of the partners is responsible for coordinating their own volunteers. I do know Top Box is looking for volunteer drivers. Lauren can talk to Family Fitness Rocks and We Grow Wednesdays. Lauren Hebert (HealthyBR): We have several programs coming up. One today at the YMCA ExxonMobil in Scotlandville is Family Fitness Rocks and Move with the Mayor combined in one. Come in and do a workout with Mayor Broome! We have awesome fitness instructors at all levels. There is an AHA Cooking Demo at 5:30 today as well. We are partnering with Baton Roots Community Farm for We Grow Wednesdays 5:30 PM at the farm the third Wednesday of every month. We’ll have a cooking demo with the AHA, a harvesting demo with Mitchell from Baton Roots, and a yoga class. Yoga and the mental health aspect is huge for me. We just like to take the time to recenter ourselves and what better way to do yoga than at the farm! Kelli Rogers: Also, ongoing we have a series of three cooking classes, one at Kingdom Connections Changing Lives, one at OLOL North Clinic, one at Scotlandville CDC and those are very labor intensive so they’re always looking for volunteers to help coordinate those. And again, at the end of the month we will have a more centralized calendar
Casey Phillips: Reverend Anderson asked, 'how can we ensure small grassroots organizations with limited capacity can still be involved in the work versus big organizations that don’t have boots on the ground?' I would say that I don’t think that’s an either/or situation - there are several grassroots organizations engaged in EBRFIC that do have the capacity to be a part of the collaborative grants and some big organizations that do have boots on the ground with great programs. Of course there are also groups that do not but we took that into account when building this coalition so slowly and so methodically. Hats off to Jan, Mary, Chloe from Blue Cross Blue Shield, Kelly from ExxonMobil, and others in the funders circle that created this phenomenal document that basically is an assessment tool for your organization - it’s a one and half page play book. It allows you to figure out what your capacity is to be part of a collaborative grant, how to best deliver services to the community you’re already entrenched in. We’re also giving rubrics, score cards, and other documents that allow people to engage here and now and long term.
Darlene Rowland (BREADA): Two announcements: we were very fortunate to receive a USDA Farm-to-School Grant so we can expand our program in three elementary schools, and we will be hiring a Farm-to-School Coordinator to assist with that. We’ll also be able to bring our mobile teaching kitchen to two additional schools. The other announcement, which was relevant to Korey’s discussion on the policy front, I wanted to share that we are a part of a coalition with Market Umbrella, our counterpart nonprofit in New Orleans, that operates Crescent City Farmers Market as well as the New Orleans Food Policy Action Council. We’re part of a grant we were awarded from AHA, Voices for Healthy Kids, where we’ll be advocating for statewide funding for SNAP match programs at farmers markets. We’re fortunate to have a SNAP match program funded by Louisiana healthcare connections, but there are so many school farmers markets in the state that don’t have the capacity to go out and seek that funding. We’re trying to advocate for statewide policies that will make that available to every farmers market. Super excited to advocate for that policy
Reverend Anderson (PREACH): One of my concerns has always been that there are groups doing work for special needs populations that oftentimes don’t don’t fit into the categories that are allowable on grants. There are lots of groups feeling very real needs but the populations they are attached to don’t necessarily fit into grant qualifiers. I know grants have a limited shelf life. One of the things I’m curious about is...food doesn’t have a limited shelf life. Once we get these programs started, which are limited by the life of whatever the grant is, the participants often go away as soon as the grant goes away. How do we build out that sustainability model, whether it is about getting general operating budgets, enough communal ownership...I’ve seen some really, really good programs have a wonderful start and because it was a grant funded program, so 3-5 years, there was no institutional support beyond that funding. How do we keep these really good ideas going once the grant funding is gone?
Katie Pritchett: To your first point, I think that’s the beauty of a collective grant process. Having a coalition manage a grant gives us the ability to invest in those nontraditional services and organizations that may not have been able to get those dollars on their own. It becomes less about the capacity of one individual organization and more about the ability of multiple organizations to achieve the same goal and vision. As long as it’s an organization working toward the same goal as the coalition, I see this as an opportunity to expand that funding outside of the typical circle of organizations. The challenge is knowing about those organizations. If we don’t know about those services and organizations, we can’t invite them to be a part of that funding opportunity. It’s really important to get them plugged in so that when we’re thinking about collective grants we’re incorporating that into the applications. Sustainability is real. Putting my funder hat on, United Way doesn't want to be the sole funder of anything for all time. We have to look at how we create structures and maybe even revenue generating that help supplement the beginnings of something that might be grant funded but could be a social enterprise moving forward. Those are conversations we will need to have as a coalition. We’re not quite there yet, but we are thinking about it. For many grants you have to think long term - if they step down their funding, how do you keep this going and keep it going in an impactful and meaningful way.
Alfreda Tillman Bester (DCFS): My heart is always with the vulnerable so I talk about the fragmented way we serve the underserved. Overarching challenge for marginalized communities is that we don’t have supermarkets in those communities...I’d love to see if there are opportunities to incentivize some of our larger supermarkets to locate within these communities. We have Walmart all around the periphery but they don’t locate within those entities. It’s not just about providing the food, which is essential, but there are two major things we look at when dealing with the issue of hunger: one is the lack of resources people have to feed their families and one is access to food. I think it’s imperative that we start to think about how we get those supermarkets incentivized to come into those communities, and I’m not above shaming some people to come into communities where the need is overwhelming.
John Lewis (Futures Fund): When it comes to the issue of food deserts I also prefer the term “retail redlining” because food deserts are something that occur naturally whereas redlining is caused by human actions and decisions. The key thing about it is that when we’re dealing with these different markets, you need some kind of incentive for local grocers and larger grocers to come into these areas but also need something that would deal with the overpopulation of Family Dollars, Dollar Generals in these areas. I shared a report that highlighted New Orleans, highlighted Baton Rouge….Louisiana has the highest per capita. These are some of the other factors that push against us being able to have local grocers in these areas, which also impacts local farmers because typically your smaller grocers are the ones that would be buying things from local farmers.
Alfreda Tillman Bester: I want to focus back, though, on how we can incentivize these supermarkets into locating inn communities where people don’t have access. Transportation is still a huge issue especially in the Greater Baton Rouge Area. If you shop like I do, it would be impossible for me to get on a city bus and carry home my groceries. We need these supermarkets to locate in these communities that need them. If it’s a policy issue of saying, we see you want to locate at Burbank and Highland, that’s great. But we’re saturated here. How about considering this other area? People have to eat. They may not have a lot of money, but they have access to SNAP benefits. I’d like for us to really start thinking about that...and locating in those communities, you have to hire in those communities as well.
Casey Phillips: Thank you Dr. Bester, and we will pull together stakeholders to address the lack of Grocery Stores in North BR on a future call.
Flitcher Bell: As part of our research and studies with the VCPI program and national legislation and news, a report I was reading this morning said in the United States there are only seven counties in the whole United States where there is affordable decent living for people. To have an affordable home, it would take a minimum wage of $20.30 and we are fighting for $15. We are still at $7.25. We have to reach out to the legislature and let them know we as a state, as a community, have to do better.
Christian Engle (YMCA): The Y is one of those entities that I think people forget is a 501(c)(3) no profit because we are successful...it highlights the importance of everybody coming together vs. everybody trying to do their own thing. We are advocating for that every day as we’re constantly looking for people that want to partner with us. On the grocery store...we’re in the middle of that conversation. We’re actually offering several entities square footage within our buildings in some of these communities. I can’t say we’re getting any traction for all the same reasons everyone else is having trouble getting traction, but we’ve had some very direct conversations. In a sense of food distribution, with our farmers market at our ExxonMobile site in Scotlandville, it is very successful. Every Wednesday, one of the largest SNAP match markets in the state. We’re trying to expand and grow that and get that into other locations as well. We’ve hired a registered dietitian to come onto our staff...as we start working with families, we’ll be able to build Medicare and Medicaid as we start doing nutritional education with lower income families as well. We do a cooking demonstration and food distribution program the second Wednesday of every month in North BR partnering with the AHA and BREADA. We teach people how to prepare and cook those foods combined with the wellness program which has gone from 15 people to almost 50. Even the programs at that Y the membership has gone from 300 to up to 700 people participating every day. We’re always looking for people who want to partner. We have seven locations in seven different communities and plenty of opportunities.
Manny Patole (Co-City): I think between the groups here and the research and everything else, I think there's an opportunity being overlooked of setting up your own market rather than trying to bring someone else in. The examples from South Dallas and their food co-op that saw huge success during the pandemic to other major areas that have that...if you have a person like Christian who’s saying hey we have space, we have connections to the farmers...don’t go to the same problem and answer, be a little more innovative! Yesterday Casey, Katie and I were invited to speak at Healthy Jupiter's first food and health kick off. Very similar to our food insecurity coalition. Started off the same way we did. All these things are coming together with everyone that’s talking...I think there is something to be said here that if you have the space, you have growers, people who need jobs...someone take that step and leverage those documents that Jan and Mary have made….look at that quad chart. See how that can be used to develop that business plan.
Pat LeDuff (CADAV): Thank you so much for the grant tool because our organizations are the ones that can take the most advantage of that, to see where we fit in and how what we’re doing can help with the revenue. In that, we need to be self-sustaining, but what about the families? How can we help them be self-sustaining? The families don’t want to be begging either. Maybe we could have a tool that says here’s how you work with that $7 until you can get to that $20. My dad, a father of four, got $40 a week and saved $5 every Monday to get our first house. Just think if we had self-sustaining family tools of “what do I do with what I’m working with”. I think all of this is awesome and has got me thinking again!
Alfreda Tillman Bester: I just want to remind everybody that on July 31st thousands of people in Louisiana are going to lose their additional unemployment compensation benefits and the eviction moratorium expires. We’re going have a whole lot more vulnerable people in Louisiana. Be mindful. We’re going to have more work as a result. We have to be in the various rooms as policies are being made. Even if they don’t listen, we keep talking, right?
08:30:08 From Allison Tohme, BREADA to Everyone: Good morning, all! I’m in a coffee shop this morning, so I’ll be on mute.
08:31:51 From Alfreda Tillman Bester to Everyone: GRATEFUL for Rev. Anderson and for all that you do!!!
08:47:14 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Awesome guys!
Is there a group discussing menus option ?
08:57:20 From Geno Brown to Everyone: Will the links to the tools mentioned by Mary and Jan be shared? They sound very useful.
08:57:36 From Patrick Tuck to Everyone: I have to hop off. Great work yesterday and today and prepping for both!
08:59:22 From Casey Phillips to Everyone: Geno, yes sir they will be!
08:59:27 From Casey Phillips to Everyone: Thank you Dr. Tuck
09:00:49 From Casey Phillips to Everyone: Overarching Goal of Work Group B is ‘Equitable food ACCESS in food deserts’
09:00:54 From Casey Phillips to Everyone: Three Top Collaborative Grant Themes:
1. Healthy eating and nutrition programs
2. Food Education & Literacy
3. Technology solutions to remediate food insecurity and improve health outcomes
09:01:01 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Awesome work!!! Kory
09:04:09 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: One of my concerns has been how to address low literacy and technology by grassroots organizations that are doing the work? How is their work amplified without being dismissed by organizations with larger capacity but no connection to the local community?
09:06:28 From 4th Flr Team to Everyone: Hi everyone !
09:07:20 From Manny Patole (he|his, Co-City Baton Rouge) to Everyone: Don’t know your history, bound to repeat it.
09:08:04 From Flitcher R. Bell to Everyone: A National report this morning revealed with today's minimum wage requirements that there are only seven (7) counties in the entire United States were a person on minimum wage can afford rent/housing. Report stated that to live in decent resident the minimum wage should be $20.36 per hour. We have a long way to go...…...We MUST reach out to those decisions maker we can influence...…..
09:08:36 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: As schools are being reopened there are going to be hundreds of back to school drives. Is the food insecurity coalition going to work with the folks who host these events to in?
09:09:36 From Alfreda Tillman Bester to Everyone: A huge concern is the lack of access to healthy, fresh food. Are there any efforts afoot to incentivize supermarkets to locate in marginalized communities?
09:10:35 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Is there a group discussing menu options for food share?
09:11:16 From Lauren Hebert to Everyone: My email is Lhebert@brla.gov.
09:11:26 From Lauren Hebert to Everyone: Please email if you would like to join!
09:12:04 From Kelli Rogers to Everyone: krrogers@brla.gov
09:13:46 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: We are hosting cooking classes the next two weeks - Wednesday Thursday
1920 Goudchaux Street
Scotlandville Homes and CDC headquarters
6-7:30. - volunteers needed and still recruiting families from 70807
09:15:37 From Rinaldi Jacobs Sr to Everyone: is the farm to school working with the SU OR LSU AG Centers?
09:16:38 From John Lewis to Everyone: In relation to Alfreda I'd also note how retail redlining (often called food deserts) and dollar stores / dollar generals choke local grocers out alongside them having an impact on the end point for local and rural farmers. Louisiana and Baton Rouge has some of the highest rates per capita (this report focuses on tulsa but we are not that different) https://ilsr.org/dollar-stores-target-cities-towns-one-fights-back/
09:17:46 From Darlene Rowland to Everyone: Hi Rinaldi, Both SU and LSU Ag Center provided letters of support for the grant and we will be collaborating with them.
09:23:29 From Chelsea to Everyone: @Pat, I would love to talk with you about menu options for food shares. This is a priority for AHA to make sure they are heart healthy - whether it is fresh or self stable foods. Top Box and the GBR Food Bank’s boxes are doing a great job but an official system of recommendations could be helpful for all community organizations.
09:24:49 From Manny Patole (he|his, Co-City Baton Rouge) to Everyone: I would also suggest the shift away from food deserts and more toward Food Maldistribution as the overarching issue.
09:25:47 From Manny Patole (he|his, Co-City Baton Rouge) to Everyone: Yeah John!!!
09:26:08 From Donald Andrews to Everyone: How do we make the underserved individuals able to serve themselves is the ultimate challenge in a capitalist driven market society.
09:26:11 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Congrats John!!!
09:26:15 From Manny Patole (he|his, Co-City Baton Rouge) to Everyone: We can debate the naturally occurring food deserts
09:26:23 From Aishala Burgess to Everyone: Great conversation...I have to jump off shortly. I just want to say THANKS so much to everyone that may have participated in our weekly Neighborhood Meet and Greet. Our next walk is Monday in the Gus Young Area. If you are interested in participating in future events or walks, please send an email to trucebr@gmail.com
09:27:04 From Manny Patole (he|his, Co-City Baton Rouge) to Everyone: https://www.nrdc.org/experts/nina-sevilla/food-apartheid-racialized-access-healthy-affordable-food
09:28:11 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: That’s Right!
09:28:12 From John Lewis to Everyone: +++ the food would be spoiled by the time you got home in many cases
09:28:38 From Manny Patole (he|his, Co-City Baton Rouge) to Everyone: Karen Washington (https://www.riseandrootfarm.com/karen-washington) and food apartheid as another food maldistribution (https://nutritionstudies.org/food-apartheid-what-does-food-access-mean-in-america/)
09:29:09 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Yes
Usually 2 hours is the max
On a hot day 1 hour max
09:29:10 From SK Groll to Everyone: Really appreciating the resource you shared, John. And really appreciating the structural focus of food maldistribution, Manny.
09:29:49 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Exactly! We also need to rethink what CATS should be doing regarding supporting people being able to bring food home. Actually creating stops in front of stores, etc.
09:29:59 From Katie Pritchett, United Way to Everyone: I think we can definitely take on that issue in Group C. Policy as well as in Group B. Providers to see how we fill in the gap until a more permanent solution can be identified.
09:30:54 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Amen!!!
09:30:56 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: LSU Tiger Trails sets up routes that go into the Walmart lot so that students can shop.
09:31:00 From John Lewis to Everyone: That's another issue with dollar general and family dollar stores they rotate employees very quickly, do not offer benefits, decent hours and good working environments compared to other grocers even large chain stores
09:32:34 From Christopher Spalatin to Everyone: AMEN
09:32:36 From Manny Patole (he|his, Co-City Baton Rouge) to Everyone: I agree there is a huge issue with Family Dollar/Dollar general in disinvested communities across the country and the access/affordability. I will dig something up ;-)
09:33:04 From Edy Addison-CAUW to Everyone: A few years ago CATS was trying to create direct to grocery story routes in North BR. Anyone know what happened to that project? I believe it was in response to Together BR work.
09:35:16 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Market at the ‘Y’. One stop shop! I like it a lot!
Awesome job !
09:36:18 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: I don't understand planning in this parish. Part of what can attract entities is mixed use areas. We can put governmental entities, education facilities which would guarantee a population stream. the idea that Exxon Mobil employees working in North Baton Rouge would use a grocery store is foolish.
09:36:32 From John Lewis to Everyone: Yes Manny! I'd also note how competitors trying to come into a place where dollar stores are hyper-saturated block after block directly hurts the sustainability and fiscal viability of competing businesses that want to enter that space. Especially with how lean they, intentionally, operate. Great points also Christian!
09:37:40 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Employee Owned markets
09:37:44 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Absolutely! Some of the most interesting areas in the country are community based.
09:38:17 From SK Groll to Everyone: love the idea of an employee-owned space that could model financial equity as well as filling a clear need
09:38:27 From Casey Phillips to Everyone: FYI - it is in Jupiter, FL
09:40:33 From Manny Patole (he|his, Co-City Baton Rouge) to Everyone: Yes Jupiter Florida. Casey wasn’t interested when it wasn’t ACTUALLY the planet (joke on our space race dreams)
09:40:49 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Cool! I have cared about those firehouses for ever!
09:41:12 From Christian Engle to Everyone: I have to head to another meeting....Great work everyone!!
09:41:43 From Edy Addison-CAUW to Everyone: CAUW has an open project grant cycle. RFP and Info Session recording available at www.cauw.org/funding-opportunities
09:41:45 From Lindi Rubin Spalatin to Everyone: Thank you everyone! I have to run to a meeting as well. See you next week.
09:42:22 From Manny Patole (he|his, Co-City Baton Rouge) to Everyone: I think a EBR Food Co-op chain. It and be limited equity partnership, leverage properties that are VAD or donated space in partnerships with other properties, connect directly with farmers to give them a better price, and employ locals across the supply chain.
09:42:33 From Edy Addison-CAUW to Everyone: Also 225GIVES registration opened yesterday. The giving day will be November 30th this year with a 2 week early giving period. 225gives.org
09:42:37 From Manny Patole (he|his, Co-City Baton Rouge) to Everyone: It can even have small-scale markets at schools as well
09:43:04 From Zoë - Walls Project (she/her) to Everyone: Please email me zoe@thewallsproject.org
09:43:17 From Katie Pritchett, United Way to Everyone: Need to hop off. Have a great weekend everyone!
09:43:19 From Manny Patole (he|his, Co-City Baton Rouge) to Everyone: I wouldn’t mind brainstorming this with some beautiful minds on the call
09:43:32 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Thank you Zoe
09:44:43 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Yes you are the only one!
09:45:09 From Zoë - Walls Project (she/her) to Everyone: Thank you Rodneyna for all that you do!!
09:45:22 From Alfreda Tillman Bester to Everyone: Thanks to all of our presenters for excellent information on this morning! I look forward to all that you will do to make BR a more accessible city!
09:45:33 From John Lewis to Everyone: Thank you all :) More information on Community owned Food Co-Operatives as Manny mentioned (Union Co-Ops they're most equitable): https://www.welcometothetable.coop/food-coops/what-is-a-co-op
09:45:35 From Rodneyna Hart to Everyone: rhat@crt.la.gov
09:45:37 From Flitcher R. Bell to Everyone: Great Zoe!!
09:45:47 From Rodneyna Hart to Everyone: louisianastatemuseum.org
09:45:48 From Mary Bergeron to Everyone: So true! Rodneyna is a welcoming future partner!
09:45:50 From Luke St. John to Everyone: Great talk thank you all.
09:46:45 From SK Groll to Everyone: Caravan for Justice is a great opportunity to connect and like Rev Anderson said, make good noise for good purpose. I’ll be out there again this month if anyone wants to connect in person!
09:48:20 From Zoë - Walls Project (she/her) to Everyone: A fantastic idea
09:48:26 From Kelli Rogers to Everyone: Thanks, everyone!! krrogers@brla.gov
09:48:35 From Rodneyna Hart to Everyone: Thanks everyon!
09:48:38 From Darlene Rowland to Everyone: Thank you all!
09:48:42 From John Lewis to Everyone: Thank you all!
09:48:45 From Jan Ross - Huey and Angelina Wilson Foundation to Everyone: Thank you Zoe. Have a great weekend
Special Topic: 'Data & Evaluation'
Meeting Notes Prepared by Zoë Haddad (Walls Project)
Edy Addison (Director of Community Impact & Initiatives, Capital Area United Way)
I look at data and think how it tells a story
At United Way we have access to a lot of data - that’s always the challenge, figuring out how to use the data to tell the story of our partners and have it resonate with donors
The two data sets I want to talk about today are 211 and our community conversation data
We just recently wrapped the analysis of the community conversation data. Every few years United Way goes out into each of our 10 parishes and attempts to have in person conversations with the people our partners are serving (as well as donors and board members)
This year was a challenge with having to do those conversations virtually - the data is a little different, but it’s more straightforward. People come forward with what they need now, what they’re struggling with now.
When asked what people thought was working well in their communities, more than 50% of people said safe recreation spaces. Shoutout to BREC!
Following that was access to healthcare, K-12 ed, and access to healthy foods and transportation. Which was kind of shocking because those are things that always come forward as the biggest struggles. But what we’re learning is that the way it’s working for people who have access to money and these resources, it is working well. But it’s not working well for those we intend to serve.
When we think about what families need to reach their full potential, the biggest thing that came across was jobs, job training, and specifically higher minimum wage followed by transportation. After that was affordable housing, education, and healthcare.
Top three struggles families/households face: affordable housing, access to jobs and job training, and transportation
The top solutions: Job training, higher wages, and job placement followed by housing and transportation
We also talk a lot about the ALICE Report - that’s something we want potential grantees to use when applying for funding from us. We ask families what monthly costs are difficult for your family to afford and we listed those out according to the Household Survival Budget with ALICE. Coming in at #1 was housing followed by healthcare, childcare and food, technology, and transportation
First time seeing technology in this report - people have to have access to technology in order to do their jobs, continue education, virtual trainings that lead to higher paying salary
Monthly costs families struggle to meet: utilities, education, child cost
Who do you trust to take action on these issues: 63% said community led groups following by United Way and faith based groups
We’ve been working to do more outreach to organizations and faith based groups who already have trust in their communities
We want to plant the programs and projects that work into faith based communities
All that to say, we have access to a lot of data and I encourage you to reach out to us if you want copies of this report or analyze our 211 data in a way that’s meaningful to your organization
When organizations apply to us for funding, the ALICE report, 211 data, and community conversation data is what we use to drive our funding priorities. If you can tie into that, you’ve set the stage for yourself.
Jason Hughes (Community Engagement Manager, Unite Us)
In social services, there are a lot of great resources but the key challenge is getting clients connected to resources and organizations successfully
Unite Us is a virtual network composed of community based organizations, healthcare providers, 501-c's, non profits, human service providers, non profit service providers and all of these organizations are connected and able to interact with each by making and receiving referrals to each other while documenting the client's progress until they get connected to that service they're looking for
We’ve created that closed loop referral system. If a client is in need of a service an organization doesn’t provide we don’t want to just give them some information and send them on their way and hope for the best. That’s proven to be ineffective. We tend to lose sight of clients once they leave our door and unless we do a follow up, we don’t know if that client has gotten connected, gotten additional resources if needed, we don’t know what happened
Through Unite Us you can track your clients journey from start to finish through case notes and documentation. We ultimately want achieve two things: get clients connected to services easier with fewer barriers and strengthen the relationships organizations have with each other
Our backstory: founded in 2013 by our two founders, two veterans transitioning out of the armed forces in need of resources. They quickly found out how difficult it was to get connected to the resources they needed. So they turned to technology. Unite Us is the technology behind powering those organizations that need to work together. Today Unite Us is live in 45 states or so, with the goal of being in all 50 states next year. The Louisiana network is called Unite Louisiana with roughly 325 providers throughout the state.
One of the features I like is that we try to keep clients from falling through the cracks. We have quite a few different methods.
Let’s say an organization receives a referral but doesn’t act on it in a certain amount of time. Someone from our organization is monitoring that and will reach out to an organization that has the referral to see if it’s someone they can assist with, will monitor client journeys, a few of the techniques we take on our end to keep things going smoothly
Automatically tracks data which shines a light on which areas in our community have the most needs, what the most sought after resources are, which areas may need improvement all broken down by demographics and such
Talking about grant writing, what some of our providers have done is exporting data for clients which they attach to grant proposals to justify funding increases
It is free, all you have to do is fill out a partner form with some information about your organization, what you do, eligibility criteria, etc.
Coalition Questions and Discussion
Casey Phillips (The Walls Project): What organizations are using the platform well, and what are some steps grassroots organizations are doing to be good partners in this network? Jason Hughes: United Way is one of our big users as well as Louisiana 211. They serve as our coordination center. If there’s any organizations in need of additional training, we have several materials on our site including webinars covering the ins and outs of the platform done every Tuesday at 1 PM as well as feature-specific webinars on Thursdays. Juliette Frazier (Unite Us): What we find with the grassroots is that when they are sending referrals out and meeting with these residents they find they only have capacity to serve what they have the funding for. When they utilize us, what they get back in return is realizing they can help their community further without expending more of their energy. Organizations have the ability to do more of the work but on the back end can see the data piece, what is actually happening in our community. If we can’t connect residents to the services they want, why is that? As a whole of Baton Rouge, as a whole of New Orleans, do we lack say housing funds? We know we do but now we have the data for the whole beyond one organization.
Tyler Litt (NSBR): Ann Zanders mentioned something about BRCC and the resources that have been made available through their partnership with Unite Us. I would love to hear what other initiatives within education - K-12, Early Childhood - are in the works Jason Hughes: We actually onboarded Vermillion Parishes Early Childhood network as well as the Early Childhood network in Lafayette. They’re using that to connect clients with daycares, to connect parents with resources. We don’t limit it to just higher education. We are still building out Baton Rouge and I’d love to connect with anyone who has more insight on that so we can get that process rolling.
Dean Andrews (SU): My question was in terms of the data set, some of these results you’re finding. In a lot of cases, low income individuals and others may not be fully represented in the data sets. Do you oversample in those areas to make sure you have a representative sample? Edy Addison: For our 211 data set, that’s only composed of those who call, text, or chat the call center. We’re not reaching out for that data, it’s coming to us. For our community conversation data, yes, that is something we attempt to get more of those low income individuals or underrepresented communities. This year was even more of a struggle because of the technology. We offered to do smaller in person conversations that were COVID-safe but no one took us up on it understandably. This year, the percentage representing low income individuals was less than in years past so for that reason we’re overlaying it with 211 and census data that’s recently come out so that it’s not a smaller sample size of higher income individuals. We recognize that it is definitely a fault in our data. Dean Andrews: I’m sort of surprised at some of these because, everyone wants higher minimum wage but you have to have job training to justify higher minimum wage in terms of your productivity. Looks like we may have to do more job training. A lot of opportunities are available in the Baton Rouge area in terms of job training but maybe individuals aren’t aware of it
Casey Phillips: It sounds like housing is at the top of the list as far as the 211 and UniteUs data. The coalition has several members who work in that space. How do we connect the need of the people to the resources out there and close that opportunity gap? Edy Addison: I notice that the calls we get...of course there are people in a homeless situation looking for a safe place to stay that night or longer term and I would say there’s actually more access to resources that can take care of them in that situation, but where we have nowhere to refer to is a family that has income, that can afford a place to live, but can’t afford to live in Baton Rouge, in their community in which their children go to school. It’s because there’s not enough middle affordable housing. That ALICE population...they’re not homeless, they have income, they’re working, but there’s no affordable housing. They’ll call 211 and ask us to refer them to a low income apartment complex. We don’t typically refer to for profit places of business or organizations unless it’s a specialized care like a hospital system or there’s no other resource available for that service. We can’t just say go down to this apartment complex because we can’t vet that. Having a group that can vet those resources would be awesome, if we could securely refer people to safe housing that is affordable and may not be nonprofit is where I personally see the biggest gap. Alfredo Cruz (Foundation for Louisiana): The issue really is about the availability of housing for that population reflected in the ALICE population. We know from a report published by the NLIHC that in Louisiana we have less that 50% of housing available for that population. What’s happened during COVID is that the housing developed for people 50% AMI or below was taken up by those who lost income who were probably at 80% AMI. So if you were doing well before COVID and lost a job or income...many families have to see lower priced housing, and that contributed to a depletion of the number of units available for people really struggling the most. It’s hard to refer families when there isn’t any affordable housing available. That’s where I think we as a collective need to work together in advocating for more production of housing. That’s where the Housing First Alliance is working, using the data we also got from 211 and other data to make the case for more production of affordable housing. David Summers (Partners Southeast): I wish I had an easy answer I could lay down. What we’re working on in partnership with the HA is just that. We’re working hard to solve the problem of that 50-80% AMI income and mixed income community, the best way to get those units delivered to Baton Rouge. Both at the state level and the various programs EBRPHA has, we’re submitting applications with deadlines right now for new projects that will fit some of that. Right now I’d say the work we’re doing as a developer isn’t going to respond to those immediate needs. On the EBRPHA side, the challenge is that the wait lists are extremely long and as soon as we have openings, stuff is filled pretty much immediately. It’s a well known problem. There is another side to this which is being able to have the infrastructure in Baton Rouge to get money out the door that is already there, even if that means rehabbing substandard housing that with relatively low investment could be improved and meet some of these needs.
Pat LeDuff (CADAV): This rental assistance is not going well and I want to know...I saw in the chat about calling in to 211 but the link...you say folk can’t read, you say we don’t have computers but then we come up with $5 million that’s a process that’s online only through a link that requires attachments that have to be scanned in to start the process. We’re working with folk having issues with that. Have you considered that? Are you dealing with people trying to get rental assistance? Alfredo Cruz: I know the city has subcontracted different community based organizations (Mid City Redevelopment Alliance, UREC, Habitat for Humanity, YWCA-BR, and Project 70805) to do case management. The intention is that folks struggling with their application can have somebody on the phone, guide them, even submit the applications in person if necessary. It’s not perfect yet. They're still working through a lot of kinks because they implemented this very quickly but the intention is to solve for what Pat has described as the technology barrier, particularly trying to scan documents. Edy Addison: If someone calls 211 and doesn’t have access to the technology they need for a resource we can refer them to a local library system but the 211 specialist can’t sit there and help them upload the documents. There’s specific circumstances where a state agency may contract with 211 to help people complete forms like after the winter storm and the floods in May. It’s something we have to be contracted to provide that service.
Allison Tohme (BREADA): This is all new to me, but it’s very intriguing. With our food access and incentive programs we offer through Red Stick Farmers Market like SNAP Match and our Little Sprouts program where kids can come get a couple dollars to spend at the market, these food access programs are tremendous resources but they’re not well known and utilized to their full extent. One thing we’ve been talking about internally is doing a better job reaching the right population and increasing usage. I am very excited to hear about the 211 network to help get the word out. Darlene Rowland (BREADA): The good news is, although the SNAP programs are relatively unknown, they are increasing. We had our highest month ever in June. We’re excited to see more people utilizing it. Word of mouth is growing which also means a need for securing more funding for the match. They also have the dual benefit for us of increasing that access for fresh, healthy food and the core of our mission which is putting money in the pockets of small family farmers. Reverend Anderson (PREACH): I'm going to start with some good news. One of the benefits of this call is finding new networks I can use. I got a call this weekend from someone who needed something very simple - his bike got stolen and it's how he gets to work. My wonderful neighbor Dustin accepted my ridiculously early phone call in the morning and made that happen. I give that story as a point of...one of the things these capacity building opportunities like 211, like Unite Us, provide is a place for people who don't necessarily don't know where to go with other things. I'm also struggling with the fact that the world I work in, just like Pat...these systems that are top down are not working. There are local faith based organizations on every corner not being utilized, there are groups like the Baton Rouge Immigrants Organization, VOTE, the Capital Area Reentry Coalition, Southeast Legal, that are not being utilized that specialize in some of these most at risk communities. They are not being brought in at the base level of either planning, implementation, or utilization. In a low technology community, our libraries are really one of our more fundamental resources. They have open space for people to come and learn, whether it is small organizations or recipients themselves. One of the things I and a number of people on the call are struggling with, we have people whose house was on fire way before the pandemic. The schools knew even before they were out what families needed certain services. Our libraries are one of our baseline resources for homelessness, for our low literacy community. I've been excited about what I've been able to do this last year with Unite Way. Kudos to Dolores Hearst and work we've done moving the tax program into communities it previously did not serve. The take away is not just having great ideals and giving them to people who can write grants. The purpose is inclusion and always asking who is not at the table and recognizing this is Baton Rouge - we have low literacy. We have a disproportionate amount of people impacted by mass incarceration. Which means by statute they are actually eliminated from a lot of programming and resources that would otherwise come to them because of income, etc. We have hidden in plain sight an immigrant population where language is a challenge. Oftentimes because the conversation doesn't include as Edy pointed out...when you have to depend on technology you're going to get a certain response. I want to see more pushback purposely going to those entities who are not normally first of mind for people. Rinaldi Jacobs (Scotlandville CDC): The Louisiana Housing Corporation is setting aside 10% of their funding for people who were previously incarcerated so I'm going to dig into that a little bit more. That could be a boost in terms of the housing necessary for folks. Got a lot of programs, but sometimes don't have a lot of results. Jan Ross (HAWF): To bring us back to the importance of data, the Wilson Foundation is about to begin implementation of a strategic plan. It's taken us quite a while to put that together but it's most definitely based off all of not only what we have heard in the community but also data just as what is being discussed here that drives the services and grant writing, the decisions we make every day. We are in search of data, just as you all are, and are very reliant on it. It's very important to be able to use data to help show the need for whatever services you are requesting funding for. As we have heard all throughout these conversations, data drives decisions. On a different note, we are just beginning the announcements for 225 Gives which will be November 30th this year. The Wilson Foundation is a supporter financially and with staff and we encourage all non profits that are active on these calls to participate. Edy Addison: We have training next week - registration opens on the 15th. If you did not participate in 225 Gives last year I encourage you to do so. It's $75 for early bird registration and then goes up to $100. There's a lot of value in trainings not just how to participate in 225 Gives but fundraising and marketing for your organization as a whole. Additionally we are fundraising for the Challenge Fund, and there's a huge prize pool available. We have some organizations we'll present and share who were really successful last year. David Beach (HAWF): Our goal is having over 250 501-c3's participate this year. We raised about $2.8 million collectively last year and we want to exceed that this year. We have a hard road ahead of us between now and November 30. There will be a two week giving window before so you can strategize with your groups. We will be working to build that Challenge Fund as large as possible to incentivize nonprofits in our area.
Zoom Chat
08:31:09 From Rodneyna Hart to Everyone: Good morning
08:31:25 From Chris Spalatin to Everyone: Morning!
08:31:51 From Kim Mosby (IWES) to Everyone: Good morning all! Thank you for your wisdom Ann!
08:34:56 From Casey Phillips to Everyone: Our featured speakers today are:
08:34:56 From Casey Phillips to Everyone:
* Edy Addison (Director of Community Impact & Initiatives, Capital Area United Way)
* Jason Hughes (Community Engagement Manager, Unite Us)
* Earl Benjamin Robinson (Tobacco Free Louisiana Director, LPHI)
08:36:06 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Rev. Alexis Anderson, Executive Director, PREACH, Member, East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Reform Coalition
08:36:59 From jennifer carwile to Everyone: Grants 201 would be helpful
08:37:02 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Good morning
08:41:51 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Separate but not equal
08:43:29 From jennifer carwile to Everyone: Link to Alice report?
08:45:19 From HAWF Team to Everyone: https://unitedforalice.org/
08:46:10 From Ann Zanders to Everyone: Great great info!!!!
08:46:17 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Yes really cute
08:46:25 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: https://www.cauw.org/alice
08:46:29 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: How many were survey
08:47:25 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: I believe the weekly $600 helped with your initial responses
08:47:40 From Edy Addison- CAUW to Everyone: https://www.cauw.org/alice
08:47:56 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Surveyed
08:48:46 From Edy Addison- CAUW to Everyone: We had about 325 responses that were collected via our partners/grantees. Lower this year than years past where we would have talked to approx. 700 in person. We will be overlaying this data with our past year of 211 reports and census.
08:50:41 From Edy Addison- CAUW to Everyone: As always, please update your organization's 211 profile and search the database at www.cauw.org/211 . If you have a 211 data request please reach out to John Hutson at johnh@cauw.org .
08:51:21 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: How are you guys connecting residents to the rental assistance program
08:52:52 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Sweet!
08:53:05 From Ann Zanders to Everyone: Unite Louisiana is getting into education too! Many of BRCC students and their families can access resources that we cannot provide as a college!
08:53:27 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Yes. Please enter your contact in the chat
08:53:38 From Juliette Frazier to Everyone: We are working with some organizations that are part of the rental assistance programs
08:53:44 From Jen Tewell (she/her) to Everyone: Do y'all connect with 211?
08:54:12 From Donald Andrews to Everyone: On the 211 data set could you give some information about the survey design with respect to date collected, such as sample size and how do you insure that it is representative of the population with respect to income levels, geographic location in the area, etc.
08:54:13 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Congrats to you guys !!!
We have talked about this early on
08:54:28 From Edy Addison- CAUW to Everyone: Pat, we are pushing rental programs out through 211. We get many calls from people in all 10 parishes looking for rent $$, tons before covid and even more now.
08:54:40 From Ann Zanders to Everyone: They are connected to 211
08:56:16 From Edy Addison- CAUW to Everyone: We have multiple 211 reps on the Unite US Implementation team for the state as well. There are some other projects in the works that will better integrate the platform with 211 directly.
08:57:47 From Tyler Litt to Everyone: Someone mentioned Unite Us partnering in education—have formal partnerships only been established with higher Ed (re Ann Zanders earlier comment)? How are y’all pulling in K-12/Early Childhood?
08:59:09 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: This is a critical integration in areas such as serving currently and former incarcerated citizens as well as those needing behavioral health supports.
08:59:58 From Edy Addison- CAUW to Everyone: Donald, just saw your question, the 211 data set is comprised only of those help-seekers that reach out to our information and referral or crisis call centers.
09:00:36 From Ann Zanders to Everyone: Jason I can assist with several entities in BR
09:00:37 From Juliette Frazier to Everyone: Yes we would love to work with you, Tyler!
09:00:38 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Pushing the program is not the issue. It’s getting the application completed through the link then having the required attachments over to the case worker - this is not working to the fullest potential
09:01:24 From Tyler Litt to Everyone: Say less, Juliette! Drop your contact and I’ll definitely connect.
09:01:31 From Jason Hughes to Everyone: Jason Hughes, jason.hughes@uniteus.com, 337-967-6250
09:04:14 From Juliette Frazier to Everyone: @Rev Anderson yes! This is a critical community that needs multiple areas of assistance to get back on their feet.
09:04:25 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Organizations like VOTE, Capital Area Reentry, Southeast Legal are being bombarded with special need populations. Work is being done to link with these organizations?
09:05:12 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: As it relates to housing challenges. For instance, those on the sex registry list are perpetually homeless.
09:05:39 From jennifer carwile to Everyone: Affordable housing is such a problem. In the 1990s, I made $30k a year as a teacher. I had an apartment for $375 a month. That same apartment is$800 a month now.
09:05:44 From Juliette Frazier to Everyone: Juliette Frazier
504-508-4136
09:07:19 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: In Baton Rouge we don't just have housing affordability challenges, we have segregation by race, family size, special need populations, etc. We tend to segregate low income into dangerous neighborhoods by zoning and access.
09:07:45 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Let’s do it! Section 8 program used to provide a number you could dial into to put your unit on the availability list We should start that process for
Families needing affordable housing
09:07:47 From Edy Addison- CAUW to Everyone: In the rural parishes surrounding EBR there is even less affordable housing. And those families are reaching out to come into EBR and find it- assuming there is more availability.
09:08:37 From Rinaldi Jacobs Sr to Everyone: I was told that Louisiana Housing Corporation has set aside 10% of their funding for formerly incardinated persons. I am trying to get hard proof on this.
09:08:41 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: When you add the challenge of non-exist public transit resources even within the parish housing and employment opportunities become almost impossible.
09:09:37 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: I would contact VOTE. They were at the meeting where that commitment was made, Rinaldi.
09:10:42 From Alfredo Cruz to Everyone: Here's the link to the GAP report I mentioned from NLIHC. https://reports.nlihc.org/gap
09:10:49 From Rev Anderson to Everyone:I love that idea of moving formerly unusable housing stock to usable value added housing.
09:12:14 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: No it isn't all all!
09:13:28 From jennifer carwile to Everyone: There is A LOT of unusable housing stock! If we could get properties that are unlivable back into circulation,thst would help
09:14:47 From Tyler Litt to Everyone: I know there is a spreadsheet with different orgs on it; however, does OneRouge or MetroMorphosis have a codified list of the various resources (documents, surveys, etc)? The chat is always full of gems I try to capture.
09:15:07 From Rev Anderson to Everyone:But what is so foolish is we have a library system that could be used for this purpose!
09:15:55 From Ann Zanders to Everyone: The library system computer usage is maxed out though
09:17:22 From Tyler Litt to Everyone: Love that! Please let me know if I can help ️
09:17:41 From Chris Spalatin to Everyone: I can help with that!
09:18:54 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: I love what Pat pointed out! With the housing system, there needed to be a grassroots connection instead of a top down approach.
09:19:10 From Ann Zanders to Everyone: Allison please send your contact info
09:19:55 From Allison Tohme, BREADA to Everyone: allison@breada.org
09:20:46 From Connor Deloach to Everyone: Top Box can add free home delivery from Market and use CAUW ALICE grant to provide 50% match!
09:21:13 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Exactly! No wrong door policy!
09:21:57 From Alfredo Cruz to Everyone: Emergency Rental Assistance Program partners include Mic City Redevelopment Alliance, UREC, Habitat for Humanity , YWCA-BR, and Project 70805.
09:22:44 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Awesome!!!!
09:23:45 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Amen!!!
09:24:28 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Yes!!!
09:24:55 From Darlene Rowland to Everyone: We have a 9:30 meeting, so have to leave. Thank you for the call today!
09:25:39 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Amen!!!
09:27:17 From SK Groll to Everyone: As always, thank you Rev Anderson!!!!
09:27:17 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Uber $28 dollars to get to Gardere
09:27:28 From Ann Zanders to Everyone: I agree with Rev. Anderson and the other question is why they are not included?
09:27:56 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Thank you Rev Anderson !!
09:28:42 From Juliette Frazier to Everyone: Thank you Rev Anderson. Yes, small grassroots/ orgs are extremely important in the community.
09:28:56 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Thanks Rinsldi
09:29:17 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Yes Great presentation- thank you guys
09:29:23 From John Lewis to Everyone: Thank you!
09:29:30 From Kim Mosby (IWES) to Everyone: Thanks all! Great discussion!
09:30:13 From Rodneyna Hart to Everyone: https://fb.me/e/1jZy5qSTr
09:30:52 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Baker Chamber of Commerce July Webinar: Improving Broadband Access for Baker! With Speakers Mayor Darnell Waites and Veneeth Iyengar!
09:31:36 From Rodneyna Hart to Everyone: Programs every Thursday and most Saturdays of Green Book. August 21- Nov 14
09:32:04 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/all-programs/single-family-housing-programs
09:32:38 From HAWF Team to Everyone: 225GIVES nonprofit registration starts on July 15th
09:32:46 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Companion Animal Alliance has a crisis in animals that are being abandoned. If you want to be a pet parent please reach out to them.
09:32:48 From Rodneyna Hart to Everyone: First programs of Green Book start on July 15 with the Traveling While Black: https://fb.me/e/1jZy5qSTr
09:33:05 From HAWF Team to Everyone: Join us July 13 at 11 a.m. for an informational session about the 2021 225GIVES event! Zoom Meeting ID: 964 4049 8886 Password: 570910
09:33:53 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Reform Coalition has its general meeting on Thursday, July 15th @ 6:00 p.m. on our Facebook page EBRPPRC
09:34:54 From Casey Phillips to Everyone: Got you tyler
09:35:28 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: East Rouge Parish Prison Reform Coalition hosts its monthly Caravan for Justice on Saturday, July 17th @ 10:00 a.m. Come out spend an hour making good noise and uplifting spirits.
09:36:32 From Ann Zanders to Everyone: I will help to Casey:-)
09:36:56 From Edy Addison- CAUW to Everyone: Please join the live information session via Zoom on Tuesday, July 13th at 11:00 a.m.
Topic: 225GIVES Info Session
Time: Jul 13, 2021 11:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 964 4049 8886
Passcode: 570910
Primary Contact: Robin Mangum 225gives@cauw.org
09:37:26 From Zoë - Walls Project (she/her) to Everyone: Thank YOU Rev Anderson
09:37:39 From David Beach l Wilson Foundation to Everyone: Stepping away to prep for my next meeting. Have a great weekend, everyone. Thank you for your impactful work.
09:38:16 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Thank you Casey!
09:38:36 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Love that horn! I love Green Book project!
09:39:23 From Perry Sholes to Everyone: is there an link to Reverend Anderson event?
09:40:04 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Just go to our Facebook page EBRPPRC @ 6 p.m.
09:40:24 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: https://shotatamillion.com/
Last day to register
09:41:13 From Edy Addison- CAUW to Everyone: CAUW announced a project grant process this week. Applications will open on July 12th and close on August 12th. We are hosting an info session next week on 7/15th. Details and the RFP can be found on https://www.cauw.org/funding-opportunities.
09:41:29 From Ann Zanders to Everyone: This group has been so beneficial for me and those I serve uncovering gems that will benefit them! I am so grateful for you Casey and all the work you and others do!
09:42:11 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Yes there is!
09:42:38 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: http://Brla.gov/DocumentCenter/View/11561/Scotlandville-Comprehensice-Community-Development-Plan-2011-PDF
Our Scotlandville Plan
09:42:44 From Tyler Litt to Everyone: I wholeheartedly echo Mrs. Zanders comments
09:42:56 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Amen
09:44:20 From Perry Sholes to Everyone: contact information for Grant project advice or guidance?
09:44:30 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Congrats, Pat. No better choice!
09:44:52 From Ann Zanders to Everyone: Perry I can assist in some way zandersa@mybrcc.edu
09:44:57 From Tyler Litt to Everyone: Happy Friday, y’all! Gotta hop for another Zoom
09:45:04 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: Louisiana has the National Spelling Champion!!!!
09:45:35 From Perry Sholes to Everyone: yes!!! great speller and beautiful smile!!
09:47:08 From Ann Zanders to Everyone: From New orleans!!!!
09:47:16 From John Lewis to Everyone: +++
09:47:42 From Pat LeDuff to Everyone: Awesome!!!
09:48:02 From Rev Anderson to Everyone: She is so amazing!!!!