COMMUNITY LIGHTHOUSE UPDATE FROM HIGHLAND CENTER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The Highland Center is one of two Shreveport Community Lighthouse centers, the other being at Morningstar Missionary Baptist Church.
 
Here is  Center’s executive director Madison Poche update on the center’s Community Lighthouse:
 
“Three years ago, during a heat wave on Father’s Day weekend, the Shreveport area experienced one of the largest and longest power outages in modern history after an unexpected storm.
 
For most of us, the dreaded sound of power cutting off in our homes comes with discomfort, but for some of our neighbors– who may have been recently discharged from the hospital, rely on power to keep their medicines cool or their medical devices working, or have health conditions, losing power can become a critical emergency quickly.
 
One of those residents was Catherine Haley, 64, who was hosting her six grandchildren for the summer. Ms. Haley has COPD, a lung disease, and was having trouble breathing in the summer heat without power.
 
By coming to the Highland Center’s shelter, not only was Ms. Haley able to cool down enough to remain well and care for her grandchildren, but she also didn’t need to call upon first responders, who are spread thinly during a disaster, or go to an emergency room.
 
Ms. Haley was one of over 100 residents per day who came to the Highland Center when straight-line winds knocked out power, and Morning Star Baptist Church also opened a second disaster-response shelter site to meet the needs of our community.
 
On blue-sky days, the Highland Center is a community hub with over 20 partners and programs focused on Cradle-to-Career Education, Economic Opportunity, and Neighbor Wellness in Shreveport’s Highland Neighborhood.
 
To have the capability to respond to summer power outages and winter water outages, the Highland Center has now become a “Community Lighthouse,” a new model for neighborhood-based disaster response that brings the highly successful initiative started in New Orleans to North Louisiana.
 
In addition to training volunteer teams and coordinating with social service partners, Community Lighthouses are equipped with backup power through modern solar panels and battery backup systems alongside traditional water wells in Shreveport.
 
The Community Lighthouse operates with staff and volunteers from the Center and St. Francis Episcopal Church for the Highlands and coordinates with the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office for Emergency Preparedness, the American Red Cross, and VOAD to be the physical sites of humanitarian response during severe weather events.
 
To fund the commercial-scale infrastructure systems at the Highland Center, $250,000 came directly and indirectly from federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars designated for disaster response infrastructure through the Caddo Parish Commission, a priority spearheaded by Highland-area Commissioner John-Paul Young. Additionally, the Highland Center’s partner, North Louisiana Interfaith, provided matching funds, investing outside private foundation dollars into our community.
 
One important component of building these back-up power and water systems was requiring the use of local union labor as well as apprenticeship programs so that our Caddo Parish workforce could get hands-on training, particularly with new energy technology.
 
The systems are designed to last for decades, and cost savings from solar panels help to cover a portion of the systems' maintenance, repair, and insurance expenses as well as operating costs of disaster response for the organization.
 
Two years after the 2023 Father’s Day storm, the Highland Center held a ribbon-cutting for its Community Lighthouse with more than 400 supporters in attendance on June 26, 2025.
 
Now, the Highland Center and Morning Star Baptist Church’s Lighthouses are fully operational and serve residents in Caddo-Bossier. Two additional sites in Caddo Parish are expected to be completed and operational before the end of 2026. Together, these efforts are part of a growing network that includes two Lighthouse sites in Baton Rouge and fourteen operating across the greater New Orleans area. The model continues to gain recognition beyond Louisiana, with leaders in Houston, Texas, now working to replicate the model.
 
In recent years, the Highland Center has opened its doors to the community during every Caddo Parish-declared weather disaster, like heat waves, winter storms, and snow events, publicized available resources widely, and has never turned away a guest.
 
Staffed by the Center and Church’s trained teams, the Community Lighthouse response starts as a daytime respite center and can convert into an overnight shelter at the request of the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office. Organization leaders join the Caddo Unified Command Group meetings for emergency response operations and work with response partners like VOAD, North Louisiana Interfaith, Red Cross, and public officials.
 
Moreover, during multi-day weather events, equipped community-based sites like the Highland Center and Morning Star operate immediately alongside shelters for people who are homeless, which means that our local Caddo Parish and Shreveport tax dollars do not need to be expended to open the large-scale shelter on Jewella or attempt to organize other types of public employees on their holidays or weekends.”