Everything we do in Central Louisiana Interfaith stems from building Relational Power: power that we have when we work with one another and dedicate ourselves to that endeavor. Since we first started the journey to build this organization back in 2021, we have stressed that before we know what we are going to work on, we need to get to know who we are going to work with. Who do we share this common home with? What drives us? What are our stories? What do we imagine for our community?

Out of the intentional, patient, deep work of taking the time to sit down with each other and ask these questions (and share our answers) came the issues that we are now working on.

2023-24 Works in Progress

• Partnering with the Rapides Library System on an Adult Literacy Program
• Helping residents of Central Louisiana register for Medicaid coverage
• Energy Efficiency and Long-Term Utility Bill Savings in Alexandria, Pineville, and surrounding areas
• Pursuing a solution towards permanent funding for Early Childhood Education in Rapides Parish
• Bus Stop and Transportation Improvements
• Partnering with the CENLA Homeless Coalition on an initiative to provide breakfast to our homeless population M-F every week of every year.
• The Community Lighthouse Project. Building a network of solar and storage resiliency hubs around Central Louisiana that will be ready to respond in the event of a power outage.

Past Accomplishments

• Vaccine Equity Project
  • In 2021-2022, CENLA Interfaith and its sister organizations across Louisiana partnered with the Office of Public Health and medical institutions on a strategy we called the Covid-19 Vaccine Equity Project.
  • In Central Louisiana, we held over 30 community vaccine events to raise awareness about the coronavirus and provide vaccines and testing for folks who did not have access to them.
    • Over 40,000 doors knocked
    • 18,000 conversations
    • 1,445 vaccines administered
• Education
  • Early 2022, we organized our institutions to spread the word and turn out for the District 62 School Bond – allocating 100 million dollars for facility updates for schools in District 62. It has been next to impossible for a bond like this to pass in CENLA for the better part of the past three decades. This vote passed 64-36.
• Utility Bills
  • We partnered with the Cenla Community Action Agency, City of Alexandria, and others to provide emergency utility assistance during the month of July 2022 following the system hack
    • We worked on eligibility requirements for the emergency distribution period and set up a model for when surplus funds come into the community that they are disseminated at scale to help the most amount of people in need
    • Worked to put together a one-pager to go out in the mail with information about the system hack and underlying reasons why utility bills are so high