East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Kip Holden’s Office recently launched a new program called “Baton Rouge Proud,” meant to improve the quality of Baton Rouge residents’ lives.
Scott Dyer, spokesman for Holden’s office, said the program’s purpose is to improve and revitalize the Baton Rouge community and better prepare disadvantaged children for kindergarten.
Dyer said the city has been participating in a program called “Restore Pride,” which is set up to revitalize run-down areas of the city, for several years.
He said the difference between that program, which is run by the city, and the “Baton Rouge Proud” program, which is part of a nationwide plan, is that the new program will include all areas of Baton Rouge, not just those neighborhoods considered “bad.”
“The need is so great out there,” he said. “Hopefully this will encourage people to really make an effort.”
Blythe Daigle, chief service officer for Baton Rouge, was hired this year to coordinate with Holden and the community to formulate plans.
Daigle said the Mayor’s Office received a Cities of Service Leadership Grant for $200,000 in June.
The grant is funded jointly by the Rockefeller Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies, according to a news release from Holden’s office.
Daigle said the Rockefeller Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies will only pay for the program for two years, but the program may continue if the Mayor’s Office can find alternate funding.
Daigle said Baton Rouge was one of 21 cities in the United States to receive the two-year grant.
She said the “Baton Rouge Proud” program merges Holden’s initiatives with residents’ concerns to create achievable goals.
The first part of the program, titled “Love Your Block,” is geared to get residents together to plan their own community.
Daigle said a group of residents can apply for a grant of up to $750 to improve their neighborhood by cleaning the area, planting trees and creating gardens.
“It’s not a group or the government doing this,” Daigle said. “The residents decide what they want, and they do it.”
She said the grants will be funded through the Home Depot Foundation and Exxon Mobil.
The second part of the program is called “Kindergarten Reading Ready,” which gathers early-childhood educators to compile a summer program for children ages 4 to 6.
She said Exxon Mobil is sponsoring the program, so many company employees volunteered to meet with children twice a week to help them learn to read.
Dyer said the tutoring program is meant to prepare children for kindergarten by teaching them about colors, numbers and other subjects in which children their age are expected to be skilled.
“We’re just giving them some preliminary education so they’re at less of a disadvantage,” he said.
The program officially launched at the end of March, and Daigle said several members of the student organization Volunteer LSU are getting involved with the project.
Daigle said she hoped to form a long-term partnership with VLSU in the future.
Daigle said the Mayor’s Office will work with groups like the Mid City Redevelopment Alliance and Volunteers in Public Schools.
“We wanted to partner with people who really know this kind of work,” she said.
 
____
Contact Rachel Warren at [email protected]