News Releases 2008
LETU Commended by City of Dallas for Community Service
Members of the Dallas City Council, FRI board members and LETU faculty and staff gathered together for a photo following the ceremony commending LETU and FRI for partnering on behalf of community revitalization.
Thu, Sep 4 2008
LeTourneau University was honored with a special recognition for
community service work done by its students for a neighborhood clean-up program in Dallas.
Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and City Council members Steffie Kadane
and Carolyn R. Davis presented LETU with a
proclamation that honored the
school for its students’ and faculty members’ work on the Ferguson Road Initiative (FRI) and its
Weed and Seed program. The proclamation was read at ceremony Wednesday, Sept. 3, in the Flag Room
of Dallas City Hall. A reception preceded the ceremony.
Students in LETU’s Dallas Education Center provided valuable
strategic analysis and outcomes assessment studies over the past few years for a nonprofit
organization in Dallas known as the Ferguson Road Initiative (FRI).
The students’ assessments were used by FRI in a successful $1
million grant request from the United States Department of Justice to expand its neighborhood
clean-up program.
The community-based organization’s strategy is to “weed out”
criminal activity while they “seed” the area with initiatives to ensure long-term economic growth
and a better quality of life.
FRI comprises neighborhoods, schools, churches, businesses,
apartments and others working together to improve the crime rate and quality of life in the White
Rock Hills area of Dallas, north of Interstate 30 along Ferguson Road. Their mission is “to
transform the Ferguson Road corridor into a safe, beautiful, prosperous and proud community by
inspiring hope through collaboration and developing and implementing a shared community
vision."
The area was plagued by home burglaries, graffiti, drug-related
crimes, gangs, prostitution and auto thefts.
LETU students also have done similar work for the City of Anna,
Texas, located about 40 miles north of Dallas. The university’s Business Research class,
taught by Dr. E. James Tew, analyzed the feasibility of the city’s business and industrial
attractiveness to make plans for rapid population growth like the city has experienced in the past
five years.
