A poor neighborhood in Baton Rouge, La., has a volunteer initiative that’s making a difference for the children there.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
The Gardere neighborhood of East Baton Rouge Parish in Louisiana has a long history of violence and poverty. People there have had to create their own solutions. As part of our ongoing series Here to Help, Alex Cox with member station WRKF has more about one woman, Murelle Harrison, who’s working to help young people as a way to improve the entire community.
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ALEX COX, BYLINE: It’s a school night, and a bunch of rowdy kids run around the table where Murelle Harrison and a group of grade-schoolers play with magnetic blocks. They’re building houses, cars and a racetrack.
MURELLE HARRISON: I don’t know where’s your sister today.
COX: Harrison is 77 and the executive director of the Gardere Initiative. It’s an organization that puts on this free after-school program – a place for kids in the neighborhood of East Baton Rouge. Here, they get help with their homework and an after-school snack.
HARRISON: So many of these families are here, and they don’t have grandmas and, you know, they just don’t have the support system. We are the support system.
COX: The initiative started in 2006, with a Christmas and a back-to-school event for kids. Harrison had been coming to pick people up for a Sunday school in this neighborhood, and when she retired from Southern University in 2013, she took over the Gardere Initiative, which was a lot smaller at the time. She had big plans.
BARTHOLOMEW RIGGINS: Dr. Harrison had a vision that we could make it more intentional besides the two events in the year.
COX: That’s Bartholomew Riggins. He’s the senior pastor at Faith Chapel Church of God, one of the supporters of the initiative. He says that even though Harrison is the executive director, she doesn’t take a salary. But that doesn’t mean she’s hands-off. When asked how many hours she works, she just laughs.
HARRISON: (Laughter).
COX: The initiative doesn’t just help kids. They offer rent assistance and work to build a relationship with the local law enforcement. Baton Rouge has a lot of neighborhoods with concentrated poverty. Of all these neighborhoods in the parish, crime data shows Gardere has had the lowest homicide rate in recent years, and none this year. The initiative is not shy about taking credit for the crime drop because they say they’re giving kids here something meaningful to do after school.
HARRISON: We believe that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop. So whenever they’re not in school, we need to provide activities for them.
COX: One of those kids she tries to keep busy is Antwon Garner. She’s also his godmother.
ANTWON GARNER: She take me to church. Like, she help me. Like, she help me when I need. Like, when I need help, she help me.
COX: Harrison was Garner’s mother’s Sunday school teacher many years ago.
HARRISON: And then I just have always been a part of her life. She had seven children. I remember when each one of them was born. And so, like, she died four years ago, and I still pick her children up for Sunday school.
COX: The children now live with an aunt. There’s a lot of kids like Garner in this community – kids who know struggle. And Harrison knows most of them. Many have her phone number. The kids head home each evening around 5:30, but they’ll be back. As will Harrison, who says she’s going to do this work as long as she’s able.
HARRISON: I have a brother who said I’m going to have my wake and retirement service at the same time.
COX: Helping kids keeps her busy, she says, and adds that God made her for this kind of work. For NPR News, I’m Alex Cox in Baton Rouge.
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