INNOVATORS Gold Award - New Orleans City Business

NONPROFIT
PHOTO BY TRACIE MORRIS SCHAEFER
Frank Delaney, program director for the Campaign to Build a Teen-Friendly New Orleans and Kimberly Byas-Dilosa, founder and executive director, unpack T-shirts for a recent event as program director Ted
Stevenson fields calls.
Campaign to Rebuild a Teen-
Friendly Greater New Orleans
Key innovation: calling on companies that profit from
teen spending to invest in young people
Biggest clients: the 150 youth active in the program and
the thousands of youth attending outreach events
Where they’re based: New Orleans
Top executive: Kimberly Byas-Dilosa, founder and adult
adviser
Year introduced: 2006
2007 funding received: $293,184
MANY PARENTS, CLERGY, EDUCATORS and law
enforcement officials have lamented discouraging statistics
regarding New Orleans’ teenagers, working to curb problems
that seemingly never end.
Enter New Orleans native Kimberly Byas-Dilosa and
the Campaign to Rebuild a Teen-Friendly Greater New
Orleans, which is calling on corporations that benefit from
teen spending to invest in their success.
Since teenagers spent $189 billion nationwide last year
on such things as fast food, electronics, clothing and soft
drinks, why not get such manufacturers to invest in teens,
a strong source of their revenue
“We’re just kind of introducing the city to not only
another source of revenue but another way you can
attract children to the city,” Byas-Dilosa said. Just as the
city’s reputation for fun attracts adults, a reputation for
being teen-friendly will attract youth.
Byas-Dilosa and the teens she serves have spent the past
two years laying the groundwork for the campaign under
the umbrella of her 10-year-old Youthanasia Foundation.
The campaign’s official kick-off was Aug. 29, the third
anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
The campaign’s goal is to reach 250 teen-friendly companies
within the next year, using donations to engage
teens in healthy, constructive, fun activities to secure their
success and help them avoid pitfalls such as teen pregnancy,
illegal drug use and abandonment of educational and
career goals. The campaign seeks to reduce the recidivism
rate at juvenile detention centers and keep students positively
engaged during after-school hours.
Byas-Dilosa already has launched www.teenfriendlygno.com,
where residents have donated about $25,000.
Corporate sponsorships and grants have totaled more than
$290,000 since the campaign’s inception, including a catapulting
$120,000 from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, $75,000 from the Louisiana Recovery Corps
and $45,000 from the Louisiana Department of Education.
The Final Fridayz campaign, a series of teen productions
held the last Friday of each month, involved teens in
programs such as talent shows, poetry slams and hip-hop
hair shows. With public attendance, Final Fridayz also
serves as a marketing venue for teen-friendly companies’
products.
The campaign’s Post Prom Party Series kicked off this
year, giving teens a fun, safe party alternative.
Perhaps most importantly, the campaign engages the
same young people who helped conceptualize and plan the
events.
“It’s their ideas coming together and being put into
reality,” Byas-Dilosa said.•
— Diana Chandler
44A 2008 Innovator of the Year