Episode 17 Cassie Hammett - ”Shreveport: Bossier - My City, My Community, My Home”

Cassie Hammett, Founder and Director of The Hub: urban ministry, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development with the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:

 

0:37 1. Let’s start with a quote of yours I came across:

 

“I believe I need to leave my city better than I found it. Community is essential for a whole, full life.”

 

We will get more into the details of your work as we talk today but your career is dedicated to making our city better.

 

Where do you think this sense of obligation to your city came from? I find it rare for people to possess such a feeling of duty and responsibility to serve our city.

 

6:48 2. For those out there who are unaware of you, let me provide some quick information:

 

In 2007, at the age of 22, you founded The Hub: urban ministries in Shreveport after getting to know homeless people in Shreveport. 15 years later, The Hub serves the poor and those in homelessness through the Lovewell Center and helps women and children trapped in the sex industry and victims of human trafficking through Purchased: Not for Sale.

 

Let’s start by talking about your work with the Lovewell Center. Talk to me about this quote of yours below and how it informs your approach at Lovewell:

 

“…(people) should be pulled in and given a seat at the table. When I meet someone in homelessness or poverty, my end goal is to eventually be able to look at them as a friend.”

 

17:19 3. I was really interested in this statement of yours, “The Lovewell Center program is not a hand-out. When accepted, a homeless or poverty-stricken person is given the opportunity to become ‘a member.’

 

Can you talk a little about how the membership program works and the guiding principles behind it?

 

17:50 4. In your opinion, are we breaking cycles? If not, what are we going to have to do differently to begin putting an end to some of the areas where our community struggles the most?

 

32:38 5. In 2011, The Hub branched out into additional ministry by forming Purchased: Not For Sale to tackle the issue of human trafficking in our community. Talk to me about some of the programs of Purchased and the different types of human trafficking that exist in our community.

 

46:40 6. Models of The Hub have expanded or are being expanded into other cities like Las Vegas, Fort Worth, Ruston and Lafayette. Compare and contrast how the communities in these other cities engage with you and your work versus how our community engages with you here. Or in other words, what is different about the level of community engagement in these other cities? What is the same?