W&L’s Shepherd Poverty Program coordinated the Alternative Spring Break. The students spent the first two days painting a grocery store for the Fuller Center for Housing of Northwest Louisiana, a volunteer program that constructs homes as a response to the housing crisis created by an influx of Hurricane Katrina evacuees to the area.

Then it was on to Dress for Success. The organization promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a support network and career-development tools.

“We moved all these clothes from their basement to upstairs so they could set up a more client-friendly boutique,” said Zineb Benchekroun, a sophomore accounting and business administration major from Morocco, who experienced Alternative Spring Break for the first time. “It was a lot of work and very tiring.”

They spent their last two days at The Providence House, which helps homeless families move into permanent, independent housing. Students organized the warehouse, folded sheets, served meals and played with the children at the program.

Benchekroun said she was particularly impressed with their W&L alumni hosts, Witt Caruthers, of the Class of 1983, and other members of the Northern Louisiana Chapter. “I think W&L alums are awesome, and it wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for them. They coordinated everything and were very nice and hospitable. There was nothing we needed that they didn’t provide us with. We even had a crawfish party at their home,” she said.

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Jeff Hanna

The Build in Bossier City will be called the “Katy Build.”

“Katy Watkins was a student who was actively involved at Asbury United Methodist Church. In October of 2006, Katy passed away with two other Bossier City students in a vehicle accident. The Katy Build is a living legacy to be dedicated in love to honor a young lady whose mission was to make a difference.”

The property for the build in Bossier City is on land that was given to the Fuller Center by generous donors. “We have been looking for opportunities to improve the communities in Bossier City, as we have been doing in Shreveport.

The Lord has blessed up with this opportunity to bring our ministry to Bossier City and He has laid the foundation for us to build upon. The target date for “Katy Build” is June 1, 2012.” said Jeter.

Sponsors or persons who would like to donate or volunteer to help are asked to call The Fuller Center office at 318-221-7474 or send an email to info@fullercenternwla.org.

The Fuller Center for Housing, an ecumenical Christian non-profit organization, was started in 2005 by Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller as a way to continue his vision of a grassroots movement working to eliminate poverty housing worldwide.

Volunteers will come together with The Fuller Center for Housing on Saturday, May 5, 2012 to help the nonprofit agency begin construction on its 44th house in Shreveport.

The new house, at 327 E. 72nd St. in the Cedar Grove neighborhood, continues the mission of building homes for working individuals living at or below the poverty level.

“This will be the first Fuller Center home in Cedar Grove and the first home sponsored by the Catholic Diocese on land donated by the Diocese and St. Catherine Community Center. These are the types of partnerships that transform communities. Everyone working together to make communities better and to give our citizens a hand up,” said Lee A. Jeter, Sr., executive director, Fuller Center for Housing of NWLA Inc.

Sponsors or persons who would like to donate or volunteer to help are asked to call The Fuller Center office at 318-221-7474 or send an email to info@fullercenternwla.org.

The Fuller Center for Housing, an ecumenical Christian non-profit organization, was started in 2005 by Habitat for Humanity founder Millard Fuller as a way to continue his vision of a grassroots movement working to eliminate poverty housing worldwide.

This is the fifth year the team leader has had the opportunity to come to Louisiana but the very first time to come to Shreveport with The Fuller Center for Housing NWLA to provided service hours with our organization.

They will stay in the Volunteer Center, located at Our Lady of The Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church 1558 Buena Vista St. During the week of March 17-24, they will be working on our future neighborhood store “Millard Grocery” at 300 N Allen Ave., M-F from 9:00am until 3:00pm.

How can you help? We are requesting groups or individuals to provide:

• Dinner on Mon, Tues, Wed. or Thru Mar 19-22
• Brown bag lunch for M-F March 19-23

These students have paid their own way to come to Shreveport to help us during their Spring Break vacation and we are excited to host them. If you would be willing to provide a meal, please contact Renee’ Hooks, 221-7474 or renee@fullercenternwla.org.

Thank you for your support of The Fuller Center for Housing of Northwest Louisiana. Please know that donations large and small make our work possible. Please make checks payable to:

The Fuller Center for Housing NWLA
P.O. Box 3173
Shreveport, LA 71133

Executive Director Lee Jeter can discuss giving opportunities with you: (318) 221-7474

As 2011 winds down, now is the time to make those last-minute donations to include on your 2011 tax returns.

Looking for some last minute tax-deductible giving opportunities that don’t just help you out on your taxes but also benefit families?

The Fuller Center of Northwest Louisiana Inc, has completed 43 new homes, 53 Greater Blessing (Rehab) projects.

We are excited about completing Fuller Grocery at 300 North Allen and the opening of Fuller Surplus Store in 2012.

We celebrated the this holiday by blessing our homeowners and neighbors with toys from the Toys for Tots program to our families that had children 11 years of age or younger, in addition we received some special donations from some dear friends and supports for three of our families that experience extreme hardship this year.

Thanks to the Kiwanis Club of Shreveport & Brookshire’s Spirit of Christmas Food Drive some of our most distressed families and community residences also received food baskets this holiday season.

We would like to thank each and every one of you for showing the spirit of Christ this Holiday season.

Sincerely,

Lee A. Jeter, Sr.
Executive Director
Fuller Center for Housing NWLA

Be part of the Fuller Legacy and purchase a memorial brick at the Gazebo in Millard Fuller Park.

In honor of Millard Fuller, The Fuller Center for Housing of Northwest Louisiana will be building a gazebo surrounded by memorial bricks. We are honoring Millard and the work he accomplished.

This gazebo will be located in the future community park at on Alston Street in Allendale in Shreveport. The gazebo will be build in early 2012.

We are selling 1200 bricks for this project. Each brick costs only $50.00. There are 4 lines of engraving each 18 characters long. Please, help our ministry by ordering your brick today.

These engraved pavers will make a lasting, personal contribution from you in this community park. Beautifully finished these pavers are 8″ x 4″ in size and are made from natural shale and hard-fired for years of enduring beauty.

What can you put on your brick?

• You can dedicate this in honor or memorial of a family member or loved one
• Your family can have their own brick
• Your business can sponsor a brick
• Or maybe a favorite quote or bible passage

Order Your Brick Today

Click on the “Buy Now” button below. You will be taken to PayPal were you can purchase your brick. After you have purchased your brick you will be taken to a order form. On the form you will be able to specify the 4 lines of text that you want to appear on your memorial brick.

Only $50.00 for this lasting gift to the Fuller Center

Saturday, former and current MBA students took to the freshly power-washed exterior of the future grocery site to spruce it up with a fresh coat of paint, a major sign of progress, said Lee Jeter, executive director of The Fuller Center.

“This is our way of showing this community that the grocery store we have been talking about for so long is coming to fruition,” he said. “It allows them to still believe and show them that we still believe in this community.”

Chris Martin, dean of Centenary’s Business School, said students from the MBA program often analyze nonprofit and for-profit companies as part of their studies, but The Fuller Center’s project is one that they continue to revisit.

“We’re so excited to be able to be a part of the progress of this store,” he said. “This goes beyond the classroom or the computer screen. We’re able to see the project from the beginning to now, and it’s so great to help with that.”

Cindy Gleason Johnson was among the students in Centenary’s MBA program who helped The Fuller Center develop its plans. She said she is eager to see the grocery store come to life.

“It’s a great step toward getting a quality grocery store for this community,” she said. “So many in this neighborhood are without transportation or may have another reason they cannot travel very far. This puts a quality food business in an area that really needs it.”

Jeter said there is still a long way to go before the grocery store is completed. The Fuller Center is awaiting word on two grants to fund the project. Jeter said any local businesses from electricians to plumbers who would be willing to donate their services would be invaluable at this juncture.

“We are one of the few organizations where 100 percent of donations go directly to the communities we serve,” he said. “There is not one dime that goes to administrative costs or anything like that. Our goal is to put as much into these communities as possible.”

Written by Mary Nash-Wood – The Shreveport Times

Dianne Fuller, left, and others tour the revitalized Allendale community.

SHREVEPORT, La. – While volunteers hammered away at the Millard Fuller Legacy Build in Minden 30 miles away, a group gathered Wednesday in the Allendale community to view how The Fuller Center for Housing with its Northwest Louisiana covenant partner has transformed a once drug-fueled, crime-ridden community into a flourishing oasis for families.

The most recent of the 43 Fuller Center houses built in Allendale.

In 2005, Allendale became a springboard for The Fuller Center’s ever-growing mission to help other communities enjoy similar transformations and help lift more families out of poverty housing. The Fuller Center did not start out as an organization intent on transforming entire communities. What happened in Allendale shaped the entire mission of The Fuller Center.

“The Fuller Center went to Shreveport as a result of Hurricane Katrina to help with some of the refugees who’d fled the storm,” Fuller Center for Housing President David Snell said. “What came out of Allendale was one of the greatest examples of community renewal.”

The trip to Shreveport had a second purpose. FCH of Northwest Louisiana and homeowners in the neighborhood have planted a live oak tree in honor of Glen Barton, the former vice president of U.S. field operations who died in August.

THE TRANSFORMATION

Few are more passionate in talking about the transformation than Lee Jeter, an ex-Marine who leads the Fuller Center of Northwest Louisiana. He’s seen the change in the hearts of the community, in the lives of families and in statistics.

New Allendale Homes

“We want you to look around at the change in this community,” Jeter told the crowd assembled at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament church on the edge of the neighborhood. “The crime rate has dropped 80 percent since The Fuller Center began building homes in the Allendale community. People in this community who didn’t trust anybody are now beginning to trust us.”

The group walked the streets of dozens of homes. Lee pointed out where a liquor store once stood and was the hub of undesirable community activity, as well as “The Hill,” where drug use and crime was rampant. “The Hill” is no more, only a beautiful slope of homes with the sights and sounds of children playing.

“We’ve got do what Jesus said, to go there and spread the gospel, and change this world one community and one house at a time,”. That is our mission. That is our calling. That’s why we’re here. That’s what we’re supposed to do.”

GLEN BARTON

Tree planted for Glen Barton

When Fuller Center co-founder Millard Fuller was encouraged to step in and see if he could help lift up the impoverished Allendale community, he said yes. And he immediately turned to Glen Barton to become his “boots on the ground” in Shreveport. Barton, who had worked with Fuller at Habitat for Humanity, accepted the challenge.

And Allendale was forever changed.

“Glen Barton went to Shreveport on a short-term basis to help get the project started, but he wound up staying almost two years there,” Snell said. “And in doing so, he became a friend to countless people there. He put folks into houses, and they are truly grateful.”

A testament to his service to the community now grows in the heart of the neighborhood, a live oak tree planted in his memory. At a service around the tree Wednesday, letters and poems were read, songs were sung, and thankful homeowners wiped away tears and hugged Glen’s widow, Brenda Barton.

“It was a really positive experience to go back and see all the things that had changed and the growth,” Brenda said of the visit. “Seeing the homeowners that we’d worked with was really heartwarming. It was really good to see how everything’s continuing to grow.

“Glen would definitely be very proud of the way it’s continuing,” she added. “Not only he and Millard, but there were so many who came in and gave so much. And many are here at the Legacy Build. It took a lot of people to do it.”

Brenda Barton gets a hug from a homeowner as Lee Jeter looks on.

Of course, Brenda wasn’t the only one wiping away a few tears when the tour arrived at the live oak tree planted in his honor. Felicia Sewell was one of those. And her young daughters Makaila and Miracle were especially fond of Glen Barton.

“He always was working,” Sewell said. “He had the tenacity to make things happen. He did whatever it took for the homeowners here to get into our homes. And I will forever remember his smile, and he and Brenda coming in on Saturdays and Sundays working late into the evening. They were a blessing to my family. If it wasn’t for Glen Barton, I wouldn’t be here today.”

“Glen had worked for Habitat for Humanity, leading one of its regional offices in this part of the world,” Snell added. “Then they restructured and that job went away. … Glen was looking for something to do, so he came over to Shreveport. We met there and he looked over the project and said, ‘Yeah, I’d like to give some time to it.’ Well, he ended up giving more than two years of his life to it.”

A ‘phenomenal’ achievement launches a network of support

Through the building of dozens of new homes and rehabilitation projects, the Allendale section of Shreveport went from an area where police advised The Fuller Center not to work to one where major crime has dropped by upwards of 80 percent since 2005.

“Glen really put the Allendale project on the map,” Snell said. “As a single achievement that was phenomenal. The neighborhood has changed. Glen was right there. He was the responsible party. He pulled the project together and got it off the ground. He got things started and got the first houses built.”

Thanks to Glen, what the Allendale rehabilitation ultimately did was serve as the springboard for The Fuller Center’s covenant partner network across the United States.

He will be sorely missed by friends, family and everyone that knew him.