Loving Lamar — for the long haul
Partnership of St. John the Divine and other groups helps students at Houston high school
Poverty and homelessness can exist where you least expect.
For Larry Lawyer, it was in the hallways of Lamar High School, right in the middle of River Oaks, across the street from the
Church of St. John the Divine, where he serves as a senior warden.
His job requires setting goals and policies for the church — and its mission is reaching out to neighbors.
In January 2020, Lawyer asked Lamar principal Rita Graves, “What would you like to see with a church relationship?”
“She was very gracious with her time and very open,” Lawyer recalled. “We started a dialogue.”
In a short time, Lawyer went from never having set foot on the school’s campus to launching the Loving Lamar initiative at St. John the Divine.
“Rita educated me very quickly,” Lawyer said. “What I learned was that 55 percent of students there won’t graduate or go to college.”
He also discovered that of the 3,082 students enrolled, 46 percent are considered economically disadvantaged. And at least 100 are without a place to live.
“And those are only the ones they can count,” he said.
Loving Lamar in the midst of COVID
Lawyer reached out to nearby St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, Bethany Christian Church and the nonprofit Christian Community Service Center, all of which were eager to help.
“Larry is quite the connector,” said Karen Holloman, the center’s program director for basic needs and children. “He helped us better strengthen our relationship and helped them better understand the services we have available.”
Immediately, Loving Lamar was able to connect families in need to the emergency resources available at the center, which aims to serve those who are poor, hungry or disabled by providing help with groceries, utilities and rent.
St. John the Divine then discovered a new partner — Houston reVision, a faith-based nonprofit dedicated to aiding the city’s most disconnected youth, including those experiencing
homelessness or in the juvenile detention system.
“We had students who attended Lamar that we were working with, and we knew that having a presence on campus would be even better,” said CEO Charles Rotramel.
Rotramel explained that Lamar’s count of 100 students without homes is one of the highest of any school in Houston ISD.
“Look at the attendance zone for Lamar,” he said. “It stretches all the way from I-10 to Third Ward, through Midtown and Downtown. It’s a vast area.”
There are a number of shelters in the attendance zone, Rotramel added.
“There’s a large population of kids that attend Lamar who certainly don’t live in River Oaks,” he said.
Houston reVision began setting up its office on campus
Sept. 1. The room will be a safe space for students, stocked with snacks and school supplies.
“Our volunteers also need a safe space to work with students to encourage them to attend school,” Rotramel said. “That’s our main goal. If we can get them to attend, then it’s half the battle.”
COVID-19 has exacerbated obstacles that students were already navigating, Rotramel explained, whether housing, anxiety, depression or hunger.
“We’re at a moment when many churches want to get more involved in their community,” Rotramel said. “This provides a direct model for how they can do that, partnering with an organization like reVision, finding a school like Lamar and then working to deliver support and services.”
Churches can have a strong impact by providing volunteers
and financial support, he added.
“This is a way to support the schools — and link with the church in a very meaningful way,” Rotramel said.
He added that with the economic effects of the pandemic — and the rising number of refugees coming to Houston — the time is right for churches to follow the Loving Lamar model.
“If we ever felt a call to action, it should be now,” he said.
Several opportunities to join forces
Holloman, at the Christian Community Services Center, said any school could benefit from this model.
“Every school needs the community around it,” she said. “How much more could schools accomplish if businesses, churches and nearby neighbors asked, ‘How can I help?’ That’s really what Larry has done.”
Loving Lamar continues to search for ways to help students. Members have purchased 400 pre-paid bus cards for students to help eliminate transportation issues. The church also adopted 30 families last Thanksgiving and Christmas and will continue the program this year.
In May, the Loving Lamar initiative worked with the school’s coordinator Kadee Harper to host a job fair, with 15 businesses present to interview and hire students and seminars on writing résumés and preparing for interviews.
Becoming a blessing
Loving Lamar’s three pillars are to address homelessness, promote education and assist with employment.
“It’s really more of a when, not an if, support is going to be needed,” Lawyer said.
And the effort is just beginning.
“It’s growing,” Lawyer said. “One thing leads to another.”
He has two sons of his own — 22-year-old Jacob and 18-year-old Zachary.
“It literally takes a village,” he said. “And I’m grateful for all the people who have blessed my sons’ lives.”
He hopes that St. John the Divine can become a blessing for the school.
“Students really appreciate and value consistency,” he said. “Not the one and done — but someone who will develop a relationship with them and be willing to walk with them.”
Lawyer is working on building volunteer opportunities for Loving Lamar.
They can be as simple as joining in an hour-long back-toschool prayer or as long term as becoming a mentor for a student through the high school years.
With every aspect of Loving Lamar, the guiding principles are the commandments to love God and love your neighbor, Lawyer explained.
“It’s our calling to not just let those be words — but to put them into action,” he said.
And working with like-minded area churches and other nonprofits makes it possible to help a greater number of students.
“It has been an opportunity to set the foundation and see where God is going to lead us,” he said.