SB PEOPLE
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BY SCOTT ANDERSON
onro Brown marches to the beat of her own drum. It’s a blues beat, but her outlook for Shreveport is not blue at all. “This has been a journey,” Brown said of her life that has taken a few unexpected diversions. “But I try to keep a good attitude all the time. I’m learning that everyone is different. That’s what makes life interesting. It’s like a Louisiana gumbo.” That is Brown’s approach to building a stronger community. Through her work with Community Renewal and her own non-profit organization, Seniors First, she seeks to span generation gaps by bringing seniors and young people together. “Seniors First is non-profit organization I founded to fill the gap between seniors and youth,” she said. “It reintegrates seniors into the community to sustain their cognitive ability. They become leaders in their own communities.” Seniors First grew out of life-altering unexpected circumstance in Brown’s life. The Captain Shreve High School graduate earned a dual Associates degree in Accounting and Business Management from Southern University Shreveport in May 2017. She planned to move to Baton Rouge to continue her education, but her father, Lester “Knockout” Brown, died in February and her mother, Martha, eight months later, so she stayed in Shreveport. “That’s when I started to realize there was a void in our community among our seniors,” she said. “I decided to do a case study, because I was really bamboozled by the fact that both my parents died in such a short time frame.” Her case study became the launching pad for Seniors First. Still, her initial goal was not to run a non-profit service organization. “When I first started, I thought I was going to have a program every quarter,” Brown said. “Instead, it has turned into a developmental nonprofit. We react to things in the community. Whatever the community needs, we go out and get it.” “Shreveport is about families that have known each other for years. Seniors First taps into that for the benefit of community as a whole.” Brown is a case manager certified in trust-based relational intervention and crisis intervention.
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MONRO BROWN
Marching On
Brown said her service as a Haven House leader for Community Renewal opened her eyes to a way both seniors and young people could find something they have been missing. “I saw a lack of authority in the community,” she said. “I see a lot of children who don’t identify the difference in themselves and adults. Instead of me trying to implement that connection, I decided to bring the seniors in. The youth are more comfortable with seniors giving guidance. “It helps seniors feel involved and combat loneliness and age- and death-related illnesses due to delayed access to transportation lead-
ing to isolation and depression. And there definitely needs to be some sort of pecking order today.”
“I would never disrespect my elders because that’s what I was taught. Today, we have other challenges. At Seniors First, we try to provide basic needs for the children.” And while Brown’s name is on the letterhead, she knows who’s in charge. “I am not the boss,” she said. “Those seniors will tell you, ‘No, you can’t do it that way.’” Brown said the connections she helps foster through Seniors First meet needs on multiple levels.
