Our History

In 1996, the Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows of Shreveport received a large house as a donation in a low-income part of the city's old, historic Highland neighborhood. The house was so dilapidated that it took the Sisters eighteen months to renovate it and make it inhabitable. The first day they began working on the house, the neighborhood children went to the house to meet them, curious about the women wearing black dresses and habits. They had never seen nuns before! While working on the house, the Sisters saw the children often had nowhere to go to after school. Their parents were usually away from home, working multiple part-time, minimum wage jobs. Most could not afford to enroll their children in culturally enriching and fun after-school activities. Often they did not have enough education themselves to be able to help their children with their homework. Worst of all, the children were not safe. They were roaming streets beset with prostitution, drug dealing and criminal activity, during peak hours of juvenile crime.
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In 1997, they founded their new organization, naming it in honor of the Order of Our Lady of Sorrows’ foundress, Elisabetta Renzi. The Sisters reached out to a local artist, Donna Service, and together they designed a free after-school program for the Highland area children, offering them free academic and art classes taught by professional teachers and artists throughout the school year.

By 2000, the waiting list of children wanting to enroll in the classes had grown considerably. The Sisters acquired the house next door so they could expand the program, designating it as the Academic House, where academic classes would be held, while the first house became the Art House and held all the art classes. Renzi also began a Summer Arts Camp, held in the month of June every year. Since then, hundreds of children in grades K-12 have attended Renzi’s free After School Program and Summer Music Video Camp.

Providing FREE after-school programming since 1997!