The 2024 Citizen Team Lineup
Team Language Cafe
Our idea is to organize a Language Cafe in Lafayette. Lafayette has a vibrant community from al over the world. A language café can significantly enrich community life by fostering cross-cultural understanding and inclusivity. It provides a welcoming space for individuals to practice different languages, share their cultures, and connect with others. This relaxed environment encourages meaningful interactions that break down barriers and build relationships among residents from diverse backgrounds. Moreover, In the future, the café can serve as an informal educational resource, hosting themed events like book clubs and cooking classes that make language learning enjoyable. By promoting civic engagement and celebrating cultural diversity, a language café can strengthen the social fabric of the community, ensuring that everyone feels valued and included.
We want our Language café to serve as a vital tool for community building in Lafayette, fostering inclusion, and providing a welcoming space for individuals to connect, learn, and grow together. The café would help create a more united and vibrant community, where everyone feels welcome and valued. It is a dream to make it a monthly event but wanted to start it somewhere and the 24-Hour Citizen Project might be the best way to launch it to the community. The primary goal is to enjoy language learning and cultural exchange!
Team Reel Connections
Recent reports from the National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that 1 in 6 children between the ages of 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year in the United States. The American Psychological Association reports that in the 10 years leading up to the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a 40% increase in depressive symptoms, feelings of hopelessness, and suicidal behaviors among American youth.
The first step in ensuring children have the tools they need to seek assistance for their mental health is setting a standard of open and transparent communication about mental health.
Team Reel Connections is pitching an innovative approach to modeling and facilitating mental health conversations and improving community access to resources with our (e)motion picture family movie event. With this project we will use a popular family film to engage participants in a dialogue about emotions and provide them the tools needed to replicate these conversations at home. We will treat all our attendees to the red-carpet experience to create an atmosphere
of fun and excitement. We will follow the movie screening with brief, facilitated discussion groups led by mental health professionals to model discussion techniques for families to continue sharing and communicating about mental health topics at home. At the conclusion of the event all attendees will get their “VIP swag bag” of local mental health resources and materials designed to help foster healthy communication patterns for families. We believe engaging experiences like (e)motion picture events can serve Acadiana as a vital resource in battling the mental health crisis currently impacting all communities in the US and can improve social determinants of health in our region. We look forward to collaborating with community partners, qualified mental health professionals and the families in Acadiana to shine a spotlight on mental health.
Team Zine
The Lafayette area is home to a vast number of creative artists and writers, but the general public only ever gets exposed to the ones that fit the mold of the Traditional Artist. Those are the ones whose work hangs on a gallery wall or is displayed at a festival tent or can be published in a mass media format. But what about the people who draw cartoons or comic books, write poetry or short stories, do single illustrations, or create a combination of any of those artistic outlets? It’s time to bring attention to their work and not let them languish in places like the seller’s tables in the shadows of Jefferson Street during Artwalk, at the drawing boards and laptops of their home bedroom, or on low-traffic web pages on social media.
We want to gather work by these “Art Misfits” and put them all into a single, Do-It-Yourself, paper publication to be distributed twice annually, for free, at local events where people gather. This type of format is called a Zine and is a collection of work by a wide range of contributors. Our Zine will be called “The Ledge: Creativity on the Edge,” and that’s exactly what we plan to deliver: creativity that is on the edges of the art world, both in visuals and concept.
By gathering submissions from high school students to anyone above that in age, we will showcase their work, encouraging collaborations when possible, and offering both editing help as well as digital assistance when needed. Our goal is to be like past 24hr Citizen Project Winner, The Krewe de Canailles parade, in that we want The Ledge to be an ongoing publication with a constantly revolving list of contributors and an audience that looks forward to the next issue, year after year.
Team Art on Wheels
Lafayette’s quality of life studies, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure studies, and community anecdotes, indicate a lack of viable cycling infrastructure, particularly end-of-trip bicycle parking in Lafayette. Lafayette isn’t a fully safe, walkable, or bikeable city yet, but cyclists are still here and are in need of support and we believe that community-driven efforts can make substantial progress toward creating a safe haven for cyclists. Many end of trip destinations like schools, parks, grocery stores, and local businesses lack bicycle parking. Installing bicycle parking that doubles as art murals on private and public property at end of trip destinations is a step in the right direction to expand bicycle infrastructure, inspire citizens and businesses to embrace cycling, support local artists, and boost overall ridership in Lafayette.
Phase I of this project seeks to utilize 24-Hour Citizen Project funds to purchase and strategically place Bicycle Rack Art Murals at two key locations—northside and downtown—where cyclists are already present, and bicycle parking is in demand. These bicycle racks, shaped like bicycles and are capable of holding 2-4 bikes, will be painted by local artists through a community art competition. Designed to be replicated, these Bicycle Rack Art Murals will become community art installations that businesses will want on their properties, similar to the popular Pelicans on Parade project. This colorful initiative encourages local businesses to invest in bicycle parking, show their support as bike-friendly establishments, and add vibrant local art to our community.
Phase II, includes a 5 year plan to place 10 Bicycle Rack Art Murals in Lafayette by partnering with local businesses who will sponsor and adopt a Bicycle Rack Art Mural for the front of their business. Through the success of Phase I, we aim to generate public excitement around the bike racks, motivating more businesses to join the movement by sponsoring their own custom-painted racks. Bicycle Rack Art Murals can include it’s sponsors’ logos and feature fun local designs from local artists facilitated through a Community Art Competition. Before a public Community Art Competition, a Call for Artists would go out internally to the Sponsor’s Business employees first to allow creative employees a chance to design a winning design and paint their company’s bike rack. This approach fosters a sense of ownership for the sponsoring business, encouraging the business to take pride in maintaining these painted bike racks and ensuring their long-term care. The Bicycle Rack Art Mural Initiative has the potential to spark broader interest in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in Lafayette. Cities that have invested in quality bike and pedestrian infrastructure consistently report improved quality of life, increased happiness, enhanced safety, economic growth, higher property values, and better overall community health. Installing bicycle parking will increase non-motorized access to essential services such as healthcare, education, food, and goods, fostering a healthier, more connected community. The Bicycle Rack Art Mural Initiative is a small-scale community intervention with the potential for a big impact, to transform Lafayette into a more vibrant and colorful bike-friendly community.
Team Doula Right Thing
Project “Doula Right Thing,” led by Citizen Jenny Thompson, focuses on addressing the rising maternal and infant mortality and morbidity in the Lafayette region. As a professional doula with over 15 years of experience, Jenny and her team recognize the essential role that doulas play in providing physical, informational, and emotional support to birthing families. Doulas have been proven to improve birth outcomes for mothers and babies, especially for vulnerable populations, such as Black women, who are at a higher risk for adverse outcomes during childbirth.
One of the primary challenges facing families is the cost of accessing doula services, which often makes this support inaccessible to many in need. The project seeks to address this barrier by training 24 doulas within the region. By offering free training to doulas, the initiative aims to create teams of certified doulas who will provide birth services at no cost to mothers in need. This not only improves birth outcomes for these mothers but also empowers doulas to start their own businesses, creating a self-sustaining solution to the maternal health crisis.
The project’s goal is to train 24 doulas, which, when organized into teams of three and supporting minimum two births each year, could provide services to ~50 mothers annually, potentially serving up to ~150 mothers or more over time. Achieving this scale of support would significantly impact maternal health outcomes in the community, ensuring that more women have access to the care they need during childbirth.
In terms of impact, doulas help decrease maternal and infant mortality and morbidity rates, particularly for Black women, by reducing the occurrence of low birth weight and complications. Additionally, doulas reduce the rate of c-sections from 25% to 13%, and when mothers are induced, they help lower the chance of a c-section from 59% to 13%. They also play a crucial role in increasing breastfeeding initiation, which improves bonding and helps regulate the baby’s heart rate, breathing rate, and blood sugar. Overall, the project aims to create a healthier, more supportive birth environment for mothers and their babies, while empowering doulas to make a lasting difference in their communities.
Team Soap & Hope
This program focuses on establishing pantries in low-income areas to provide essential household goods and hygiene products to the community. Each month, residents receive a voucher that allows them to shop at the pantry, ensuring they have access to necessary items like cleaning supplies, toiletries, and other basic household essentials. The goal is to reduce financial strain, promote hygiene, and support the overall well-being of families in these communities while fostering a sense of dignity and empowerment through a structured, voucher-based system.
We run this program because we understand that many families struggle to obtain even the most basic necessities, which can lead to challenges both at home and in their daily lives. These small but vital items—like household goods and hygiene products—can make a big difference in maintaining stability and dignity. I started this program because I’ve been in this position myself, and I know how hard it can be when help isn’t available. My goal is to meet the needs of others in the way I once needed support, ensuring families have access to the essentials they deserve.
Team Healthy Creatives
If you look out on our world, the attention on the relationship between our mental health and our daily lives is rapidly increasing. Though it has always been present, communities are realizing that the brain is an organ, like any other, and being an organ, we have the opportunity, and responsibility, to tend to it. Post-pandemic, we live in a completely different world, and with that stacked on top of regular life challenges, we as a collective need moments to BREATHE. With that being said, many communities still do not have access to affordable Mental Health professionals and are not willing to participate in therapy within conventional settings due to the stigmas around asking for help. These fears are particularly rampant amongst men and communities of color. This is where we need to start thinking outside of the box. This is why we need to Cope Creatively.
Coping Creatively is a 10 Week Art Therapy course designed to increase mental health awareness and coping skills through artistic expression. Teaching Artists will partner with Mental Health Professionals to facilitate classes that will teach participants how to examine themselves and their world through the vehicle of creativity. In this way, participants will learn creative tools for healthy living in an unconventional setting. Each session of students would be called a cohort, and weekly classes would be 90 minutes long. For example, a theatre artist would be paired with a therapist. In class, we would utilize basic principles of theatre and performing arts as a way to explore our emotions. That specific class goal would be for the cohort to become more emotionally aware, leading them on the path of developing emotional maturity. The therapist would give direction on how an individual could cope with the emotions we explore through the art, targeting subjects like anxiety and depression. In another class, a painting artist can be paired with a beauty coach on a project where the class draws a portrait of themselves. The goal would be for the students to find the beauty within themselves by expressing it through drawing or painting on the page. This would target subjects like low self-esteem or self-worth. Each class would have a unique focus covering a wide range of topics.
At the conclusion of the 10 weeks (10 classes) there would be a showcase of the chosen pieces from the students’ work. At this showcase, the teaching artists and health professionals would be able to present activities to the general public as a “taste” of what happens in class, and an encouragement for families to sign up to be a part of the next cohort. We would present 2, 10-week sessions a year. Though we would begin with an adult cohort, this model can be expanded to children as well. Particularly those that need alternative methods that encourage healthy communication. Our desire is that each participant will expand their knowledge, and gain the tools to live a healthy and creative lifestyle.
Team Deaf Deaf World
Acadiana is home to about 2,000 Deaf, Blind, and hard of hearing citizens, who are still experiencing a lack of access, discrimination, and subpar opportunities, all because of a language barrier. We are proud of our diverse culture, our welcoming nature, and our shared community, yet we have left out many of our own neighbors who have to fight every day for the same lifestyle we enjoy. Join us for a fully immersive experience into the life of a Deaf person in our region. From ordering food to struggling through medical emergencies, participants will experience a Deaf world navigated by their eyes and heart that will build connections not soon forgotten.