With pet ownership on the rise and Downtown Lafayette becoming a place where more people want to live, the need for proper pet waste management grows. We are excited to introduce a community initiative aimed at enhancing the cleanliness and appeal of Downtown Lafayette while promoting responsible pet ownership. This project involves the installation of ten strategically placed pet waste stations throughout the downtown area, providing a convenient and hygienic solution for both resident pet owners and visitors. 

Project Objectives: 

1. Promoting Responsible Pet Ownership: The primary goal of this community initiative is to encourage responsible pet ownership by providing accessible and well-maintained waste stations. This, in turn, will contribute to a cleaner and more enjoyable downtown environment. 
2. Improving Public Spaces: The ten pet waste stations will be strategically located in high-traffic areas and popular pet-friendly spaces, ensuring accessibility for pet owners while maintaining the overall cleanliness of public spaces. 
3. Community Engagement: The project aims to foster a sense of community responsibility. By involving residents, local businesses, and visitors, we hope to create a collaborative effort in keeping Downtown Lafayette beautiful and pet-friendly.

The sights and sounds of a festival or any large scale event can be very overwhelming, especially when there’s nowhere to retreat to. Think of a Mardi Gras Parade…you’ve been standing all day, the music hasn’t stopped, you may be hungry, cold…hot…like you want to crawl out of your skin…You don’t want to leave the parade for good but your brain is telling you: I just need a minute!! Or, what if you are in a wheelchair and need to change, but there’s no accessible changing station close by? This is where Team Sensory Safe Spaces comes in.

Team Sensory Safe Spaces will team up with that particular event to provide an inclusive space for ALL to rest, refresh, and decompress before enjoying more of the event. At these designated spaces, there will be sensory tents (hello shade and decreased noise), sensory bags to be given out (think fidgets, sunglasses, earplugs, gum), calming activities (art, sensory bins, and bubble machines) and much more to ensure that those who may be overwhelmed or just need a break can still experience and enjoy their time.

One key (and hopeful) feature of the space will be to provide a changing area for individuals who are in wheelchairs or still have difficulty with bowel and bladder control. There will be a designated tent (not necessarily at the main location) that can still provide the appropriate accommodations and autonomy that everyone else has at an event. We all need and deserve an opportunity to take a break and chill at large scale events. To date, there is nothing like this in our community. The Beluga Project, in conjunction with Festival International, helped create the first space like this at Festival in April 2022. The positive feedback we received throughout and the call to do more of this is apparent, however, we need funding to make this space work over and over, not just one time. From durable tents, to filling the sensory bags, we need our community to help make this happen…one inclusive event at a time. Thank you 24 Citizen Project for helping make this happen!

We’ve all heard the common phrase “when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade”. The Lemonade Stand Project will allow youth to use their lemons to make a difference instead! By combining lessons on entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, basic construction, and quality control, youth at the Granberry Boys & Girls Club will build a lemonade stand brand and use the proceeds to impact local community initiatives.

There are nearly 1,500 nonprofit organizations listed in Lafeyette alone. Those organizations serve missions rooted in education, youth development, homelessness, hunger, and plenty of other meaningful services. Today, youth struggle to identify where to fit into the equation and how to make an impact while gaining useful skills in the process. The Lemonade Stand Project will allow youth to do just that! The club will partner with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Louisiana Entrepreneurship & Economic Development Center to deliver lessons and mentorship to participating youth to teach them important skills to develop their lemonade brand and business. Youth will then implement those lessons to pitch three lemonade stands across Acadiana on National Lemonade Day! 30% of each sale will remain in business to purchase supplies for the next year. Our teams of kids will spilt 10%. The last 60% will be donated to a community organization determined by participating youth. The first step of the project will be to devise a business plan for the lemonade stand. In the process, youth will gain valuable business skills, earn some money, and make a difference all through this project!

The Oasis Pantry will serve as an alternative food resource for the Oasis Community. Constructed in an easily accessible location within the neighborhood, this unit will feature cool items, nonperishables, and fresh fruit and vegetables. The pantry will also include a Dropbox for area residents to give donations throughout the week. While we welcome all community members to partake and participate in this initiative, its centralized location will allow safe and easy accessibility to our community’s most vulnerable population, children under the age of 14.The food pantry would not only be a way to curb hunger but to show love & compassion. We at Oasis believe that we can help the problem by becoming the internal solution. Being proactive in this time is critical and needed. Showing love and hope is not only rewarding but appreciated by the ones receiving. It is our hope that this pantry will also be a cycle of hope in our community in that when families utilize the resources of the pantry and are able to get back on their feet, they can invest back into the pantry for other families in need.The oasis food pantry is not only a way for us to give back to the community, but for the community to give back to itself. Our hope is that this initiative will spark community engagement, pride and unification.

The idea for constructing this neighborhood pantry is not only for needy families in our community but for the homeless population existing in our community. We have a heavy presence of homeless people in our community and the pantry is to be the hand up they need, continuing the restoration in our community. We desire for our residents to see Oasis Pantry as a reservoir and source of hope, healing and restoration.

Team”Eyes of The Sun” was funded $3,000 during the 24 Hour Citizen Project in 2018 to create two public murals.

 Eyes of the Sun mural project consists of installation of murals of the poem, “Eyes of the Sun”, written by incarcerated youth in the Lafayette Parish Detention Home.  Local visual artist Justin Robinson will lead in designing/installing the mural to celebrate the juvenile students proving that when we focusing on our education and being positive we can and will be successful. The Eyes of the Sun poem will be written out and signed “Written & Directed by LPDH Incarcerated Youth. The mural would serve as proof to youth in our community, that when you focus on your education and being positive you can and will be successful. Giving credit to the youth that authored the poem while incarcerated shows youth in your community that that if the students that wrote Eyes of the Sun can be successful, so can they. In 2015, I worked with youth incarcerated in the Lafayette Parish Juvenile Detention Home to create spoken word poem, Eyes of the Sun. The poem is written and directed by youth in the facility. Our goal for the project was to prove that when we focus on our education and being positive, we can and will be successful. Majority of the students were from groups in Lafayette neighborhoods that often do not get along. Lafayette youth have faced a number of traumatic incidents including an increase in gun related violence, bullying, as well as the stressful climate caused by numerous school shootings. Our youth are in need of support, reassurance that they are not alone and exposure to healthy forms of self-expression.

The mural would expose Lafayette youth to creative expression authored by students incarcerated in the local juvenile home. It would serve as proof that Lafayette Incarcerated youth were able to unite despite their differences to work together and that the perception of Lafayette incarcerated youth should not always be one of hopelessness and lost causes, but one where everyone can have a chance if given an opportunity. The Lafayette Parish Juvenile Detention Home student’s testimony through poetry would be shared with the Lafayette community and all others that visit.