Servant Leadership with Envision Scott
A few days ago, I got a call from Scott Mayor Jan-Scott Richard. Mayor Richard has been a longtime friend of Catholic Charities of Acadiana. He's served alongside our volunteers at St. Joseph Diner and recently surprised a group of high school students from Georgia by thanking them in person as they built a wheelchair ramp through Rebuilding Together Acadiana for one of his residents.
This time, though, he had a big ask.
With short notice, he hoped to bring nearly 20 members of his Envision Scott leadership program to serve at St. Joseph Diner.
I explained to the Mayor that our lunch shifts are intentionally small, with room for about 10 volunteers so everyone has meaningful work to do. To make matters more complicated, that day's he was requesting the shift was already full.
It would have been easy to simply tell him no. Instead, Kayla Stansbury, our Community Engagement Director and I started asking a different question: What if there was an even better opportunity?
Together, we came up with a different plan. We invited the group to our Catholic Charities of Acadiana Regional Response Warehouse. There, we could introduce them to the broader work happening across Acadiana while creating space for meaningful conversation more broadly about leadership, service, and how everyone is uniquely suited to give back to the community.
Mayor Richard immediately embraced the idea, and what followed turned out to be far more impactful than we imagined.
The group received an inside look at how Catholic Charities of Acadiana serves our region through FoodNet Food Bank, Disaster Response, and Rebuilding Together Acadiana. They learned how these ministries intersect, how volunteers make each one possible, and how communities become stronger when neighbors choose to serve one another.
But the most meaningful part of the visit wasn't a tour or presentation.
Kayla facilitated a temperament assessment that challenged each participant to better understand how they were uniquely created, how their strengths complement those of others, and how genuine servant leadership begins with self-awareness. The conversation quickly moved beyond personalities and leadership styles. People opened up. They became vulnerable with one another. They shared where they hope to grow, the kind of leaders they aspire to become, and how they want to make a difference in their community.
It reminded me of something we see often at Catholic Charities of Acadiana.
Service isn't only about meeting immediate needs. Sometimes the greatest impact comes from creating space for people to grow into the people God created them to be. When that happens, the ripple effects extend far beyond a single volunteer shift or a single day of service.
A last-minute scheduling conflict became an unexpected opportunity to invest in the next generation of community leaders.
That's a trade I'll gladly make every time.
