2000 Best Practice Awards

2000-150 Community Support Programs
Shreveport, Louisiana
Contact: Margaret Shemwell (318) 221-7978

Community Support Programs, Inc. (CSP), a private non-profit organization, was founded in 1990 to serve persons diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness by providing them transitional shelter. CSP's core belief is to provide individualized services and foster independence, which has resulted in programs designed to fit the individual. CSP's nine-member Board of Directors is voluntary and visionary. CSP employs sixty-six effective and highly motivated staff members, forty of whom are part-time. The agency's mission is "...to serve the client/family and to enhance each person's opportunity to live successfully in the community". Through the provision of advocacy, direct and indirect service, housing, and coordination with other social service providers, CSP today offers thirteen unique and innovative programs. The four CSP programs nominated for a Best Practice Award are successful, model programs that utilize residential properties the organization purchased from HUD's Real Estate Owned inventory.

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Click here for Community Support Programs Fact Sheet.

2000-226 RENEWAL, Inc.
Monroe, Louisiana
Contact: Alvin B. Walker (318) 387-0686

RENEWAL, Inc., is a non-profit small business support group dedicated to serving socially disadvantaged youth and residents of economically depressed communities. It's mission is to foster economic and social development by teaching entrepreneurial skills, personal finance, personal responsibility, social etiquette, and job skills. RENEWAL, Inc. also provides assistance with small business startups and financial counseling.

2000-227 Assisted & Safe Homes (ASH)
Natchitoches, Louisiana
Contact: Teresa F. Gibson (318) 354-0553

Assisted & Safe Homes (ASH) is a non-profit corporation which was created by the Natchitoches Parish Housing Authority for the purpose of securing funding through the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency in order to develop affordable housing.

2000-1414 Homebuyers Assistance Program Participation Initiative (Happi)
Shreveport, Louisiana
Contact: Larry Ferdinand (318) 673-5901

The "HAPPI" Program was designed to increase homeownership opportunities for low to moderate income 1st Time Home buyers by leveraging private funds with down payment, closing cost and interest buy down assistance through the city’s HOME entitlement funds and promote homeownership opportunities within the 16 targeted neighborhoods. The HAPPI Program offers a tiered level of assistance, based on a percentage of the appraised value or sales price (which ever is lower) with maximum benefit given to very, very low income households, and families or individuals purchasing homes within the sixteen (16) targeted neighborhoods.

2000-2306 One Hundred Men of Shreveport
Shreveport, Louisiana
Contact: Rickey Carthon (318) 525-1100

One Hundred Men of Shreveport (OHMOS) began when a group of four local young men came together in 1993 for the purpose of being a catalyst to promote positive change in the Inner-city of their community, the Shreveport-Bossier City area. Recognizing the need for strong, effective role models for disadvantaged youths age, 8-17 they devoted time to them doing things that were both fun and educational.

Out of this nucleus grew an initiative that would involve local young male professionals, skilled craftsmen and others, who developed a Comprehensive Youth Enhancement Educational Component to serve the youth targeted for service. One Hundred Men of Shreveport is non-profit community service organization established in 1993, to engage in charitable and educational purposes within the meaning of Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. They have joined together to create an extensive pool of knowledge, experience and leadership to demonstrate for young "at risk" African American males that there is a better way of life apart from drugs and gang membership.

2000-2341 Youthbuild Delta Program
Tallulah, Louisiana
Contact: Patrick Murphy

Louisiana Technical College-Tallulah, received Youthbuild Implementation Grants in 1996-1998. These grants built a strong foundation for a youth employment and affordable housing development strategy. Exceeding their recruitment and enrollment goals, all Youthbuild classes also exceeded attendance and placement goals, with the most recent class achieving a 96% job placement rate.

2000-2077 Monroe City Court Mentor Program
Monroe, Louisiana
Contact: Carol Powell-Lexi (318) 329-2580

The program is designed to pair "at risk" youths between the ages of 10-16 with adult mentors for a minimum of at least two hours per week, who serve as Big Brothers/Big Sisters. In addition, the Mentoring Program establishes a consistent relationship among "at risk" youths and caring adults, which serves as an effective mechanism toward a role model. The program helps to provide adult role models, which are necessary for the youths to have a productive adulthood.

2000-2264 Tab-N-Action/Save Our Youth (SOY)
Monroe, Louisiana
Contact: (318) 388-1310

This project is designed to give "at risk" youths a positive life experience while reducing crime, juvenile delinquency and truancy among youths from low and moderate income neighborhoods. SOY helps to build self-esteem by exposing youths between the ages of 10-18 to various structured programs, which have positively directed them from delinquent tendencies and improved their value systems.

2000-712 Claiborne Creek I and II
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Contact: V. Jean Butler (225) 342-1320

The construction of 132 units of rental housing for the elderly and handicapped. The project was completed in two phases. This is the first project to be financed in conjunction with a public housing authority using HOME funds and low income housing tax credits. The Housing Authority is acting as the management agent. Phase I resembles a residential single family development with phase II being a three level elevator type construction project. Rents range from $273.25 for a 1 bedroom unit to $379 for a 2 bedroom unit in Phase I. Rents range from $287 for a 1 bedroom to $390 for a 2 bedroom unit in Phase II.

2000-2983 Minden PHA Resident Empowerment Partnership
Minden, Louisiana
Contact: Sandra C. Sandlin (318) 377-1077

The Housing Authority of the City of Minden developed unique partnerships while using HUD funds innovatively to address: (1) security issues through environmental design,(2) cultural awareness issues during Black History Month,(3) victims of domestic violence who are given Section 8 preferences if they graduate from counseling Programs,(4) partnerships with Prime Time Family Reading Time(National Endowment of the Arts) and Green Thumb, Inc.(U.S. Department of Labor), (5.) the need for residents to share information and be better informed about regulations through a quarterly "News You Can Use" video taping and expanded deconcentration and decorating option policies for PHA residents.

Content Archived: April 20, 2011