Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home

Episode 47 Tommy Williams - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Tommy Williams, President and Founder of Williams Financial Advisors, LLC, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:31 1. Tommy, we will get to more of your accomplishments and background in future questions but let’s start here today. You were born and raised in Shreveport and have seen Shreveport go through many changes and many ups and downs.
 
How is Shreveport-Bossier doing in 2023 from your perspective?
 
2:06 2. You are an active community leader and have served on numerous boards including, to name but a few, President of the Financial Planning Association Ark-La-Tex Chapter, Chairman of the Allocations Committee for United Way of North Louisiana, Co-Chairman of the fundraising campaign for Community Renewal International, a board member of Live Oak Retirement Community, a board member and Chairman of the Membership Committee for the Committee of One Hundred, and for nine years you chaired the Junior Achievement of North Louisiana Business Hall of Fame.
 
Where does this intense interest and commitment to making our community better come from?
 
5:58 3. From your perspective, how do we get more people from my generation or even the generations coming behind me to take an active role, like you have, in pushing our community to reach its fullest potential?
 
12:25 4. You are a Wealth Advisor and Founder of Williams Financial Advisors. Every Sunday since 2009, you have authored a column on the front page of the business section of the Shreveport Times entitled “Financial Fundamentals”.
 
You are a great financial mind in this community and a wealth of knowledge. Would you mind sharing just a few of your financial fundamentals or financial words of wisdom?
 
19:49 5. What’s holding us back from becoming one of the next, great small cities in America?
 
32:35 6. What makes you optimistic about our community’s future?

Episode 46 Thomas Pressly - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Louisiana State Representative Thomas Pressly sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:33 1. Thomas, let’s start here today.
 
We have now done close to 50 interviews in this series. In our very first interview, Al Childs, in talking about the future of our community said, “I can’t tell you who the leaders are but I can tell you where they are. They’re in your generation, not mine.”
 
You actually represent the generation after me. And as I look around at you guys – whether it’s you, Mike Busada, Dinero’ Washington, Cassie Hammett, Madison Poche, Gabriel Balderas – to name but a very few, I see an unusually committed group of people, talented and willing to work to take responsibility for making our community better for the future.
 
Do you see what I see and do you feel part of a generation that is unusually committed to making our community better?
 
2:30 2. You are the first person we have interviewed who currently holds a political office. You are a Louisiana State Representative, 1 of 105 members in the state and 1 of 10 state representatives who represent either Caddo and/or Bossier Parish.
 
The regular legislative session in Baton Rouge this year runs from April 10-June 8.
 
What do you see other parts of the state doing better than our community? Or, in other words, from any perspective – economically, socially, legislatively, etc – what could this community learn from other areas in the state?
 
7:46 3. As you were preparing the campaign for your current seat, you wrote the following which I love:
 
“Ready or not, those of us in our 20s and 30s who grew up in Shreveport-Bossier and returned home are ready to take the reins of leadership. More importantly, because of the education we received – both inside and outside of Caddo and Bossier Parish classrooms – we are capable of leading this community. We understand there are systematic challenges in Shreveport-Bossier City that we must overcome in order for our community to reach its full potential. From an aging infrastructure and generational poverty to stagnate wage growth and a real estate market that could use a boost, the challenges that we as a community face are as real as they are vast.”
 
Talk to me about some of the things you see as our community’s greatest challenges.
 
11:34 4. In the same article as the previous quote I read, you also wrote the following:
 
“To build up our community, we must promote the positive opportunities and experiences that exist in northwest Louisiana. We can be a strong community, but we must be willing to work together – Shreveport, Bossier City and surrounding towns must be willing to put aside local differences and work together to make positive changes for us all. Additionally, we must change our attitude and perspective, particularly when we travel to or live in other communities. Instead of talking about the negatives, we must talk about the opportunities.”
 
Your quote above addresses some of the challenges we face as a community, both in terms of what is often a negative image of self and also a division between political views, racial backgrounds and socioeconomic situations.
 
Let’s break my question into two parts:
 
a. First, from your perspective, how do we get people from different backgrounds and opinions to collaborate more in the future toward the betterment of our community?
 
16:53 b. Second, you always strike me as a very positive person with a strong sense of pride of who we are as a community and what we can become. What words of wisdom or advice do you have for people who struggle with their image as Shreveport-Bossier residents?
 
22:39 5. Lastly, what makes you hopeful about our future?

Episode 45 Dr. Timothy Jones - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Dr. Timothy Jones, Pastor of Peaceful Rest Missionary Baptist Church, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:32 1. Dr. Jones, let’s start here today. You were born and raised in Shreveport, the 11th of 13 children born to Ennis and Thelma Jones.
 
Since 1994, you have served as the Pastor of Peaceful Rest Missionary Baptist Church. During your tenure, your church has experienced a remarkable six-fold growth of membership.
 
Tell me about your church and its community development organization, its preschool and its learning center.
 
5:08 2. In speaking about our community, you once said:
 
"…I think there is apathy in this town. It's across the board. I mean socially, economically, spiritually.”
 
From your perspective, why is there so much apathy? And what do you see as some of the steps we can take to create more engagement from our people in the future?
 
10:16 3. I want to stick with a couple of other quotes from you. You once said the following about our local media:
 
“The media can do a better job of highlighting more of the positive coming out of Cedar Grove. I think all of the media outlets can do a much better job of portraying the community in a better light or positive things that go on in the community."
 
How do we get the media to focus more on telling positive stories that lift up our city and its people?
 
15:06 4. In speaking about the media, you also talked about how the stories they tell directly impact our economic development efforts. You said:
 
"If I am a prospective corporation looking to relocate, of course I am going to check out the news outlets. But if most of what is there is all negative and few things are positive, I think that is going to hurt my perspective of a community and may impact my decision to come or not come."
 
Some people say that we still have strained racial relations in this community. Do you agree with that and do you think the state of our race relations affects our ability to recruit prospective corporations?
 
20:42 5. What is holding us back as a community?
 
28:12 6. What makes you hopeful about the future of our community?

Episode 44 KaDavien Baylor - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

KaDavien Baylor, Public Artist, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:51 1. Pat Viser wrote a great piece on you for 64 Parishes and I’d like to begin today with her first paragraph:
 
“KaDavien Baylor is best known as a public artist—a painter of large, brightly colored murals on Shreveport’s Valencia Park and Recreation Center’s Origin Court basketball court, along the brick wall of Galilee’s Stewart-Belle Stadium in the Allendale community, inside Linwood Public Charter School, and on a fence outside of popular Uptown Bar and Lounge, to name a few. Baylor makes creativity work for him—to make change, to create hope, to heal communities, and to encourage investment and ownership. He has people talking about murals throughout northwest Louisiana and what they can do to generate dialogue around a subject or community issue. His works inspire communities to create vibrant neighborhoods people want to visit, live in, and take care of, neighborhoods that bring people together to celebrate heritage and history.” 
 
Now I want to move to a quote of yours. You once said,
 
“I want to speak to the positive identity of Shreveport. We have a welcoming identity for all kinds of people.”
 
Talk to me if you could about this above quote. And, from your perspective, what is our identity?
 
4:42 2. In speaking about some of the ways our community has been governed in the past, Councilwoman Levette Fuller recently wrote, “(It) puts distance between government and citizens and makes participation intimidating. It makes mediocrity satisfying. It has led to a malaise and apathy because we assert ‘this is just the way things are.’
 
In preparing for today I came across a quote of yours that almost offers a solution to this community apathy. You said:
 
“Public Art allows people to take ownership in their community. When they feel like they’ve added or contributed to their community in a certain way, it makes them more proud of it. That’s why we take this approach.”
 
Talk to me about your above quote. And tell me a little about your process of creating public art and your beliefs around how public art can lead to greater community engagement.
 
8:38 3. I d like to stick with quotes of yours I came across because I found so many great ones. You once said:
 
“Our people need to see diversity, inclusion and how community can come together and make things stronger and better and have a more powerful impact.”
 
Talk to me more about what you meant with the above quote.
 
9:52 4. Let’s move to another quote of yours. You once said:
 
“Shreveport is a blank canvas with a lot of people who need help.”
 
Talk more about this if you could.
 
11:17 5. Butterflies factor heavily in your murals. I’ve read that they represent our community’s beauty and potential.
 
When you look at our community, what do you see as our great potential?
 
13:12 6. Lastly, I’d like to return to the wonderful article Pat Viser wrote about you. In the article, you said:
 
“Art in public spaces reflects and reveals our society, enhances meaning in our civic areas, and adds uniqueness to our communities. I have been honored to work on several projects that I believe have started transformation within our local communities. I hope to continue to work with public art that heals communities through the creation of landmarks.”
 
What does the transformation in our communities that has begun to take shape look and feel like? And, describe in an ideal world what our ultimate transformation looks and feels like?

Episode 43 Kelly Rouse - ”Shreveport-Bossier - My City, My Community, My Home”

Kelly Rouse, Director of Community School Services at Holy Angels, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:40 1. Kelly, let’s go ahead and jump in. This past August, you launched Community School in partnership with Holy Angels.
 
Tell me about Community School. I know it provides individuals with disabilities with therapeutic and educational offerings.
 
What age individuals are eligible to participate? What are some of the areas of development targeted by the school? And what makes Community School a unique offering for our special needs population?
 
7:42 2. You once said the following in speaking about Autism:
 
"Inside each kid is a typical boy or girl. As problems are chipped away and more are chipped away, we see more of their personality of who they're meant to be.”
 
Talk to me about this quote. And is it applicable to all the work you do, whether you’re working with someone with Autism, Downs, Tourette’s, Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy, Intellectual Disability, ADHD, Anxiety disorders, Angelman’s, etc?
 
11:11 3. I read that back in 2013, less than one third of all students with special needs went on to graduate from Louisiana public high schools.
 
Are the statistics today pretty similar? What tools are Louisiana public high schools most lacking to fully support our students with special needs?
 
27:58 4. You serve on the Rare Disease Advisory Council, if I’m not mistaken as the only representative from the Shreveport-Bossier area.
 
How is Shreveport-Bossier doing in terms of rising to take care of its special needs population, compared to the rest of the state? And how about, compared to the rest of the country?
 
34:28 5. You have been in the field, doing this incredible work for nearly 20 years now. What is more challenging today in the field than it was when you first began?
 
37:52 6. Lastly, talk about some areas that are better in your field of work today than they have been throughout your career?

Episode 42 Candace Higginbotham - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Candace Higginbotham, formerly with HUD and the Department of Community Development, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:27 1. Correct me if I’m mistaken. You worked for many years for the Department of Housing & Urban Development, or HUD as many people know it. Talk to me about some of the roles and responsibilities of HUD and the department’s connection and importance to this community.
 
11:59 2. I believe you were deeply involved in the Choice Neighborhoods project. Can you talk some about the process of securing the monies for the project, where Choice Neighborhoods is located and why it’s an important development for our community?
 
21:39 3. You spent a career in public service. For those listening to you who want to do more for the community and/or who are considering pursuing a career in public service, what words of wisdom can you share with them?
 
44:42 4. Can you talk to me about some of the people in the community who inspire you?
 
1:12:13 5. What makes you optimistic about the future of our community?

Episode 41 Mike Busada - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Mike Busada, Attorney and Community Activist, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:25 1. Mike, let’s start here today.
 
You are extremely active in our community, serving on numerous boards including the LSU Health Science Center Shreveport Foundation, Shreveport-Bossier Military Affairs Council, Bossier Chamber of Commerce, and the Red River Valley Association.
 
Who taught you the importance of service? And why do you care so much about this community?
 
7:00 2. You are Senior Counsel for Butler Snow Law Firm. I believe your areas of expertise are bond finance and economic development financing law.
 
For us lay people, talk to me about who some of your clients are and the type of law work you typically focus on.
 
9:43 3. You are a member of the Louisiana Committee of 100 for Economic Development. There are less than 20 people from Shreveport-Bossier who sit on this important committee.
 
Talk to me about some of the work of the Louisiana Committee of 100 for Economic Development. How often do you meet, where do the meetings take place, and what type of work does the committee do?
 
15:59 4. In a historic partnership, the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau together with the City of Shreveport, the City of Bossier City, the Greater Shreveport Chamber of Commerce, the Bossier Chamber of Commerce, the Shreveport-Bossier African American Chamber of Commerce, and other local community organizations are working together to develop a Destination Master Plan and Community Brand.
 
While the Convention and Tourist Bureau has led the project and is funding the initiative, a steering committee with representatives from around the area has been organized to offer guidance and assistance.
 
You are one of 16 people who sit on the steering committee. Talk to me about the importance of this project and where we are so far in the process.
 
37:03 5. In your opinion, what is holding us back from being one of the next, great small cities in America?
 
44:50 6. What makes you optimistic about our community’s future?

Episode 40 Drayden Dunn - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Drayden Dunn, Entrepreneur and Community Leader, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:41 1. Drayden, you are an entrepreneur and community leader. I don’t want to spend too much time introducing your background and bio as I’m confident we’ll cover a good bit as we go through today.
 
As I prepared for today’s discussion, I came across some excellent quotes by you and I’d like to use those as jumping off points for the majority of my questions.
 
Let’s start here:
 
“If you do aspire to be an entrepreneur, own a business, first thing period is you just got to eliminate fear. The thing I can guarantee is that you’re going to fail. My Ls I can write a whole list of Ls. I’ve done lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, lost, period. But every time I took an L, you learn something from it.”
 
Talk to me about your philosophy around entrepreneurship and the way you view starting a business.
 
10:53 2. You are a leader in this community and heavily involved. The next quote of yours I’d like you to talk about is the following. You said,
 
“It is hard to change the mentality of a community….It doesn’t happen overnight. And it may not even happen for us to see. I don’t know. I just know we need to move it forward.”
 
What do you see as your role and/or responsibility to our community?
 
17:46 3. My next question is just leaning on you for a second for some guidance.
 
Every resident of this area has been in this situation at one time and will inevitably encounter it again. You are at a dinner party or around friends and someone starts putting down or bad mouthing Shreveport-Bossier.
 
What's the right way to react if we hope to correct that type of behavior moving forward?
 
28:00 4. You are the owner of Envision Media and Marketing, a local concierge media and marketing company. Tell me about your company. When it started? How it came to be? Where you’re located and some of the services you offer?
 
36:52 5. Let’s now go back to a couple of quotes of yours. When you bought 709 Texas Street to house Envision Media and Marketing, you said:
 
“I want people to be inspired by this. I want people to invest in downtown, invest in the city. Those who do should be celebrated.”
 
You have been a longtime advocate and supporter of downtown Shreveport. Why is downtown Shreveport so important to you?
 
46:24 6. Lastly, let’s talk race for a second in our community. Your wife Brittney, who was recently our guest, serves as the Chairwoman of the Shreveport African American Chamber of Commerce and you have both been deeply involved in working to mentor, lift up and advocate for other African Americans in our community.
 
You once said,
 
“Shreveport is a predominantly black city. It wasn’t always like that.”
 
As Shreveport evolves from African-Americans being the minority to being the majority population, talk to me about steps you see we can take to improve our race relations. In other words, what do you see as the white population’s responsibility in dealing with the race issue? And what do you see as the black population’s responsibility in dealing with the issue of race in our community?

Episode 39 Bonnie Moore - ”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Bonnie Moore, Director of the Department of Community Development for the City of Shreveport, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
0:26  1.  Bonnie, let’s start here today if we could. If I am not mistaken, you have served as the Director of the Department of Community Development for the City of Shreveport since 1995. 
 
For the lay person who has no idea what the Department of Community Development is, can you define its role for the city?  We will get into the specifics of some of your major projects and initiatives next.
 
4:35  2.  I would like to spend the rest of our time talking about a number of your major projects and initiatives.  Let’s begin with Choice Neighborhoods.  What is Choice Neighborhoods, where is it located and why is it an important development for our community?
 
12:50  3.  Next I would like you to speak about MS KICK (Kitchen Incubator). Like Choice Neighborhoods, can you tell me what MS KICK is, where it’s located and why it’s important for our community?
 
18:02  4.  I have three other projects and initiatives I would like to cover with you. For each of these, can you tell me what they are, where they are located and why they are important for our community.
 
Let’s begin with the Financial Empowerment Center.
 
26:34  5.  Next can you tell me about the War Room Initiative?
 
36:50  6.  Lastly, can you provide some information about the Early Start Initiative?
 
43:35  7.  Bonnie, as you look at our community, what makes you optimistic about our future?

Episode 38 Keith Burton -”Shreveport-Bossier: My City, My Community, My Home”

Keith Burton, Chief Academic Officer for Caddo Parish Public Schools, sits down with Jeffrey Goodman, Director of Marketing and Development for the YMCA of Northwest Louisiana, to answer the following questions:
 
1:00 1. Keith, you are the Chief Academic Officer for Caddo Parish Public Schools. I believe you are a 31 year veteran of Caddo schools. Prior to serving as Chief Academic Officer, among other things, you served as the principal of Fairfield Elementary School, South Highlands and Caddo Middle Magnet.
 
I want to cover a number of different programs with you today.  Let’s start here.
 
You serve on the Advisory Council of Volunteers of America’s Community in Schools. Or CIS as many people know it.
 
I pulled this from VOA’s website:
 
“In Caddo Parish, approximately 70 percent of students live in poverty. A licensed partnership between Volunteers of America North Louisiana and Communities In Schools, the largest and most effective dropout prevention organization, is aimed at surrounding these students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life.”
 
Talk to me if you could about CIS, some of the programs it offers and why it is so important that we have organizations like it in our schools.
 
9:22 2. For the moneyed community of Caddo Parish that may not understand what life looks like at some of our schools or in some of the homes or neighborhoods of some of our students, can you describe it for us?
 
12:27 3. You are part of Community Foundation’s Early Childhood Education Caddo Fund Initiative Steering Committee. In short, this initiative seeks to create more equity among our Caddo Parish students by providing access for all our students to quality childcare and early education.
 
I recently had Clay Walker on as a guest who said that when 14 year olds come to him it’s too late.
 
In your opinion, programmatically, what are some things we can do for our 6-13 year olds that level the playing field in ways similar to the incredible work you have done for 0-5 year olds with Community Foundation’s Early Start Initiative?
 
21:10 4. Like some of our community’s other more complex issues, I fully realize that there is no one magic bullet that will quickly propel Caddo Parish to be one of the highest-ranked public school systems in the country.
 
But if money were no issue, programmatically what would be other major gamechangers to our system and students, like CIS and Community Foundation’s Early Start Initiative?
 
25:17 5. What are some areas that are more challenging today in Caddo Parish Public Schools than they have been at other times during your 31 year career?
 
28:22 6. What are some areas that are better today than they have been at other times during your 31 year career?
 
34:01 7. As I look around, one of our biggest challenges as a community is that we lose a lot of our best and brightest. From your perspective, what can we do as a community to do a better job of holding on more in the future to some of our best and brightest?