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OneRouge Community Check-In: Week 261

Reframing the Boot Part II – Building Action for Baton Rouge Families


Last Friday’s OneRouge call continued the “Reframing the Boot” series with a powerful community think tank focused on building action for Baton Rouge families. Participants explored everyday challenges in parenting, education, and access—from mental health and transportation gaps to missing youth and caregiver voices in decision-making. The conversation highlighted the need for smaller class sizes, better resource distribution, policy shifts, and a stronger support network for families. With gumbo analogies and real talk about transparency across generations, the session laid the foundation for an in-person strategy session set to move these ideas into action.



OneRouge Weekly Call – June 27, 2025Topic: Reframing the Boot Part II – Building Action for Baton Rouge Families

Facilitator: Jordan Howard

Overview

This week's call continued the community-driven conversation on parenting, education, and systems support in Baton Rouge. After recent sessions with teens and parents, this conversation focused on collective insight, solution-building, and identifying what success could look like for families in the future. The call served as a think tank to gather feedback and begin mapping a strategy for in-person follow-up and action.

Icebreaker

Participants were asked: “If Baton Rouge was a potluck dinner for families, what dish would you bring to represent what you offer to the community?” Responses included sweet potatoes, pound cake, gumbo, pierogi, and even tequila—each symbolizing care, complexity, consistency, and healing.

Key Themes & Discussion Points

1. Challenges for Families in Baton Rouge:

  • Inaccessible or inequitable education systems

  • Lack of reliable transportation for working families

  • Mental health strain on caregivers and children, often amplified by systemic instability

  • Lack of transparency and communication between generations, especially around trauma

  • Limited emotional development support for youth

  • Workforce barriers tied to outdated policies (e.g., drug testing and stigma around cannabis use)

2. Missing Voices in the Conversation:

  • Subsets of youth: high-achieving, struggling, out-of-school, teen parents, youth with disabilities

  • Caregivers beyond parents: aunts, grandparents, and family networks

  • Fathers and male caregivers, especially those actively engaged

  • Middle-class or working families who fall through the cracks of both wealth and poverty-based support systems

  • Marginalized communities who may not be aware there’s a "table" to speak at

3. Defining Success (2-Year Vision):

  • Access to affordable, equitable, and distributed resources across all zip codes

  • Increased investment in early childhood, after-school, and SEL programs

  • Smaller class sizes to support individualized student needs

  • Extended school hours to support working parents

  • Community wellness integrated into school systems

  • Policy shifts that prioritize family and child support holistically

  • Resource accessibility without stigma, with centralized communication

4. Existing Resources and Partnerships:

  • The Walls Project & Culture Club (youth career pathways and SEL support)

  • Baton Rouge Community Street Team (violence prevention)

  • Adult education programs for out-of-school youth and parents

  • Interventionists and school-based support professionals

  • Robotics and coding initiatives through Urban League and other partners

5. Future Needs & Opportunities:

  • Resource liaisons or advocates within schools

  • Revival or replacement of parent/community liaison roles

  • Centralized communication systems to inform families of opportunities

  • Partnerships with other collective coalitions focused on single-issue or regional solutions

  • Support from strategic partners like Metamorphosis for collective action development

Next Steps

  • Participants were invited to join an in-person Part III strategy session following the holiday break.

  • Jordan Howard requested attendees interested in joining this next phase to email her or drop their contact info in the chat.

Closing

Jordan closed the call with a PBS-Arthur Cartoon affirmation: “Believe in yourself—that’s the place to start.”


Resources & Announcements

  • Participants were encouraged to drop links to summer programs, events, and support services in the chat to be included in the Saturday newsletter.

  • The chat included multiple references to public charter access, Montessori methods, community school desires, and building cross-parish collaborations.






 
 
 

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