Inside the Inspiration Center, a new facility bursting with resources for families in North Baton Rouge

In North Baton Rouge’s Howell Community Park, a sprawling and colorful new facility debuted on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, packed with features like a basketball gym, a recording studio, a video game arena and other exciting amenities.

But its organizers say this is not just another community center for leisure use. It’s way more than that. 

“We don’t just want kids walking into the building saying, ‘Hey, I want to sign up to play basketball,’” says Baton Rouge Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Foundation (LECJF) founding chairman Clay Young, who conceived the idea of the Inspiration Center more than three years ago. “All of the recreational amenities in the building are just a shiny reason for kids to be in the building, but the main reason is the investment in the person.”

The Inspiration Center, a 25,000-square-foot building with rooms dedicated to essential community resources, is designed to invest in the community through programming and recreation. The ultimate goal is for families to thrive through breaking unhealthy cycles, in turn fostering success and lowering crime in the area. 

Features of the Inspiration Center were based on needs voiced by members of the community, the Inspiration Center committee chairman and retired Col. Lamar Davis says. The center is broken up into two areas, one for pre-teens and one for teens. Other facility highlights include meeting rooms, classrooms, computer labs, a warming kitchen that will serve food and be used to teach about healthy diets, and more. There’s even an area for parents and children to do their laundry, which Davis says can make a big impact. 

“It’s an underserved community. It’s a low-income community, and there is not, oftentimes, access to things like washers and dryers for kids,” Davis says. “And while most people may not think that to be a problem, that can really impact the kids’ well-being, mental state and emotional state. Because that’s important to them. As I found in other locations and other places, it impacts truancy. Kids would not go to school because they did not have clean clothes to wear.”

The Inspiration Center covers a variety of interests and needs in order to reach as many people as possible. And while most areas of the facility are catered toward youth, Young says it’s open to their guardians as well. Adults will be able to attend nutrition classes, access mental health resources, learn about job readiness or furthering education, and more. 

“We didn’t just want to impact the kids, because at the end of the day, if a kid comes to the Inspiration Center and gets three or four great hours of investment and then goes back to a broken situation, we didn’t help that kid,” Young says.

Davis adds, “We know that if you’re going to change the trajectory of a youth, then you must also impact their families and the environment in which they live every day.” 

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Louisiana will use the space to operate its programming. The organization will also oversee afterschool activities, and Young says other partners, like Aetna Better Health, DentaQuest and Baton Rouge Community College, will come through the facility to offer additional resources. 

“My ultimate goal was to give organizations who do the work a place where they can do the work from,” Young says. 

Law enforcement officials are also on site to meet and create rapport with participants, and Young says they’re eager and excited to engage with those who use the center. 

“We want [the Inspiration Center] to be a chance for the community and these agencies to do some bridge building to get back to a space where community and cops actually talk to each other,” Young says.

Those interested in getting involved can do so online but are invited to visit in person. The center’s services will be offered at low or no cost. The Inspiration Center is at 5509 Winbourne Ave.