By R. Maria Wright

The Grady Homes Project was begun about two and a half years ago during the crisis of Atlanta’s missing and murdered children. Mrs. Susie LaBord, president of the Grady Homes Tenant Association, was asked by Bob Bevis of the Joint Urban Ministries in Atlanta to participate in an ecumenical church cluster group.

The cluster focused on the missing and murdered children case by gathering information relevant to the incidents, implementing block parenting and working closely with Atlanta law enforcement officials.

Members of the group included St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Atlanta Friends (Quaker House), Big Bethel A.M.E. Church, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Liberty Baptist Church and Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.

Representatives from these congregations “clustered” around the Grady Homes community, meeting once a week to discuss ways of solving the problem of the missing and murdered children, attending workshops, and compiling information. The group also sought ways to engage neighborhood youth in meaningful activities which would keep them close to home while the murders continued to take place.

“I believe to this day,” said Mrs. LaBord, “the prayer of these church cluster groups all around the city of Atlanta did more to end the crisis of the missing and murdered children than anything.”

When the crisis ended, the church cluster group, because of the love and togetherness which had been fostered in working so closely on the issue, decided not to disband.

Mrs. LaBord, Ed Scroggins, director of the Grady Homes Youth Center, Sister Linda Maser, pastoral assistant at Our Lady of Lourdes and Father Frank Giusta, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes, are some of the harvesters of good will who continue to keep the Grady Homes Project going.

In March of this year, when both the Girls and Boys Clubs in the area were closed, the Grady Homes Youth Center felt the impact. Officials at the center struggled to keep it open for young people, aged six through 16, despite the increased demands placed upon it.

“They say it couldn’t be done,” Susie LaBord remembered. “There was much work to be done – equipment had to be bought, the center needed painting. Some of the churches used their Sunday bulletins to make appeals. No one felt we could re-open the center in time because there just was no money.”

Mrs. LaBord finally took to the airwaves and made a television appeal. “I asked for help from the public,” she said. “The public gave it to me.”

This summer, the center’s activities for young people included Vacation Bible School at Big Bethel and Ebenezer, arts and crafts at St. Andrew’s and the use of Ebenezer’s bus to transport children to various locations around the city. There was swimming at the Martin Luther King Center, dance classes and weekly lunches for 150 children provided alternately by cluster member churches. The center currently maintains an after-school program with hours from 2:30-6 p.m.

“I believe that children in the developing stage should learn as well as play. A program that benefits them where they are is essential. The total child should be developed,” said center director Ed Scroggins, a Morehouse College graduate with an interest in athletics and youth.

When he thinks of measuring results of the work he and others have done in Grady Homes, Scroggins says he can tell the difference in the respect he receives when walking through the project, or perhaps when a youth who grew up in Grady Homes later returns to bring his children to the youth center.

Sister Linda Maser of Our Lady of Lourdes is optimistic about the future of the Grady Homes Project. “I would hope for ongoing development,” she said. “The advantages of working with a cluster is that people from many backgrounds come together to work toward a common goal.”

At Grady Homes, Sister Linda said, the cluster group strives to meet the needs of the community as they arise. Those interested in volunteer work with the project attend cluster meetings the second Thursday of each month at 6 p.m. in the Jackson Room of the administration building at 148 Bell Street.

There still exists a need for arts and crafts supplies, furniture, games, a ping pong table and horseshoe sets to help keep the center going. Anything that is done to help the children of Grady Homes is always appreciated by center workers.

Susie LaBord, whose long career of civic service spans more than three decades, said gratefully, “I would like to thank all the churches of the cluster for their work in helping these kids we serve at the Grady Homes Youth Center and all the volunteers who give of their time and service to make this project work.”