2022 Regular Session ENROLLED
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 100
BY SENATOR TARVER
A RESOLUTION
To commend AmeriCorps Seniors Southern University (SUSLA) Caddo/Bossier/Desoto
Foster Grandparent Volunteer Program for its forty-two years of exceptional service.
WHEREAS, AmeriCorps is a federal agency with a mission to bring people together
to tackle the country's most pressing challenges through national service and volunteering,
and every year the agency places more than 270,000 AmeriCorps members and AmeriCorps
Senior volunteers with organizations across the country; and
WHEREAS, AmeriCorps Seniors includes a national Foster Grandparent Program
(FGP) that engages volunteers who are age fifty-five years and above to serve as role
models, mentors, and friends to children; and
WHEREAS, the AmeriCorps Seniors Caddo/Bossier FGP has operated in the
Shreveport/Bossier City area since 1980, providing volunteer support to meet critical
community needs while also providing high quality volunteer experiences for the
participants; and
WHEREAS, on July 1, 2021, Southern University at Shreveport (SUSLA) became
the FGP's sponsor and DeSoto Parish was added to the program's service area; and
WHEREAS, over the past forty-two years, the staff and volunteers of the
Caddo/Bossier/Desoto FGP have given the extra love, nurturing, and understanding to fill
gaps in available services by bringing children in need together with seniors in a constructive
setting that is mutually beneficial; and
WHEREAS, the program's army of volunteers helps children to learn to read,
provides one-on-one tutoring, mentors troubled teenagers and young mothers, and assists in
the care for premature infants, children with disabilities, and children who have been abused
or neglected; and
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WHEREAS, outcomes as a direct result of the program include a fifteen percent gain
in language skills by participant children over peers not supported by Foster Grandparents
and steady growth in the six core domains of gross motor skills, fine motor skills, cognitive
skills, language skills, self-help, and social-emotional behavior as measured with the Early
Learning Accomplishment Profile assessment; and
WHEREAS, SUSLA's AmeriCorps Seniors Caddo/Bossier/Desoto Foster
Grandparent Program continues to provide the personal attention to local children that is
essential to help youth grow, gain confidence, and succeed as productive members of society
while providing the senior volunteers with the joy and satisfaction of being a needed and
vital part of their communities.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
does hereby commend SUSLA's AmeriCorps Seniors Caddo/Bossier/Desoto Foster
Grandparent Program and its staff and volunteers for its forty-two years of exceptional
service to area children; does hereby extend best wishes for continued success in the future;
and does hereby recognize Thursday, May 5, 2022, as "AmeriCorps Seniors Foster
Grandparent Volunteer Day" at the Senate and extends best wishes for continued success in
the future.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
Ms. Neva Jones, SUSLA Caddo/Bossier/Desoto FGP Director.
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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