Episode 8 Verni Howard - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Verni Howard, Executive Director of Providence House, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development with the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:

 

0:36 1. You once said, “People have looked at community as just their neighborhood. Community is so much bigger than that. To be a part of a community means you don’t just live in a space. It means you take part in the political process. It means you take part in the service process. It means you take part in the engagement process to make your community better and stronger.”

 

Talk to me a little about this quote above. I find it so inspiring and aligned with what we are trying to help foster with the discussions like we are having today.

 

7:32 2. With this next question I’m going to cheat a little bit and steal something you told me when we last talked on the phone.

 

My question is…who is Shreveport-Bossier?

 

10:15 3. You have an interesting perspective, in that you are a graduate of Caddo Magnet High and now have a daughter who is currently a student at Caddo Magnet High. As you watch your daughter experience Caddo Magnet in 2022, what makes you concerned compared to the experience you had when you were in high school there during the eighties?

 

16:48 4. What makes you hopeful as you compare your high school experience to what you see your daughter experiencing now?

 

27:28 5. You do extraordinary work as the Executive Director at Providence House. Talk to me a little about the homeless in our community. Are most of the families who are homeless in our community struggling with issues around poverty, mental health, drugs? What are the main causses of creating homeless in our community?

 

44:39 6. What changes do you feel we need to make in order to make this community a place your two very bright kids want to return to, to live, after they complete their schooling?