[StBernard] Come on down, YLC urges professionals

[Westley Annis]

Come on down, YLC urges professionals
Group promotes city as the new frontier 
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
By Valerie Faciane
Staff writer 
In its continued effort to stem the tide of out-migration, the Young
Leadership Council has embarked on an ambassadorial mission to let young
professionals know that, despite the challenges of living in post-Katrina
New Orleans, this might be the best time to make their mark here. 

 
The group's first "Proud Night," an outgrowth of the "New Orleans: Proud to
Call It Home" campaign was held Thursday in Washington, D.C. 

YLC President Chris Reade used the occasion to spread the word about the
city's booming job market, calling New Orleans the "new American frontier,"
or the place to come to make a difference. 

But Reade said he didn't avoid tough questions posed by some of the 25
people in attendance, who wanted to know more about the city's crime
problem, homeowners insurance rates, high rental costs and diminished city
services. 

"The goal is to spread the good word about New Orleans without Pollyanna-ing
it," said Reade. "New Orleans is not an easy town to live in right now." 

Depending on the turnout of a second Proud Night scheduled for next month in
Houston, the YLC will decide whether to continue hosting gatherings in
places like Atlanta, Birmingham and Nashville, said Executive Director Amy
Boyle. 

"It's a very grass-roots sort of thing -- the people who are invited to the
Proud Night are people with some ties or have cause to be interested in New
Orleans," Boyle said. 

The Young Leadership Council is a nonprofit civic organization of young
professionals created to develop leadership through community projects.
Since the mid-1990s, the group has worked to erase negative perceptions
about the New Orleans area. 

Reade, president of Carrollton Technology Partners, was accompanied on the
trip by the group's membership manager, Ashley Lord. Both have lived in the
Washington, D.C., area. Reade attended high school in Arlington, Va., and
Lord, a Chalmette native, worked in the area after graduating from Tulane
University. 

Reade told those gathered that New Orleans has loads of jobs -- more jobs
than people to fill them. 

"If you're an attorney and just finished clerking, New Orleans has lots of
law firms looking for more attorneys," he said. "Same with technology. I've
literally had to import people from outside New Orleans to work at
Carrollton Technology. 

"There's stuff going on here that if you are a young professional . . .
there are exciting opportunities," Reade said. 

Those opportunities are drawing more people to the area than ever before, he
said. 

"People outside of this area that never lived in New Orleans are suddenly
moving here," said Reade. "It's hard to imagine that being the same four or
five years from now. That's why we have to do our best to transform
newcomers . . . into true New Orleanians." 

Proud Nights are just one part of the YLC's reorganized Proud to Call It
Home campaign. The campaign also includes billboards, media outreach and
merchandise. 

During its 21-year history, the organization has raised more than $25
million in support of community projects, including $500,000 to add lights
to the Crescent City Connection in 1991. It also founded the Greater New
Orleans Sports Foundation to recruit more sporting events to the city, and,
in 2000, presented the Festival of Fins, the largest public art display ever
in New Orleans. 

Its membership, at 869 in August 2005, dipped to 444 members a year later,
but has rebounded to 715, Boyle said. After the storm, the organization
suspended all of its projects to give board members time to figure out what
new projects would best serve the city post-Katrina. 

"We took six months or so to take a strategic look at what the city would
need from us -- from young professionals," Boyle said. 

Besides Proud Nights, other current projects include YLC Wednesdays at the
Square, a 12-week spring concert series in Lafayette Square; Project
Prodigy, a summer music camp for inner-city youth conducted in cooperation
with the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra; and Project GreenLight, an initiative
to collect information regarding infrastructure problems in the city, in an
effort to work with city government to fix the problems. 

The Houston Proud Night is scheduled for June 9 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at
Blanco's Ice House. For more information on this or other projects, call the
YLC at (504) 585-1500 or visit the Web site at
www.youngleadershipcouncil.org. 

. . . . . . . 

Valerie Faciane can be reached at vfaciane at timespicayune.com or (504)
826-3325.