‘We’re all in this together’: New Orleans community care

When the Youth Empowerment Project started in 2004, it was a reentry program for young people returning from incarceration. Now, YEP provides youth from all backgrounds with wide-ranging programs: homework help, drumline and dance teams, summer camps and a workforce development program for young adults — all for free.

“We realized quickly that there were several other needs in the community,” said Jerome Jupiter, a former teacher who now heads up YEP. YEP expanded to help young people complete their schooling, become ready for the workplace and stay engaged after school. It also added programming for younger children, ages 7 to 15.

Over the past 22 years, YEP has helped hundreds of New Orleans young people earn their high school equivalency diplomas and provided afterschool care for thousands more. 

It’s also built a network of mentors who support young people as they navigate academic, social, financial and health challenges. Its mentors — young adults in paid positions who are responsible for checking in with the program’s participants — are its “secret sauce,” Jupiter said.

“They can get a call in the middle of the night and are responding to crises, or it could be that one of our participants is playing flag football so they go to the game with them one Saturday,” Jupiter said.

In New Orleans, community-based programs like YEP provide low- or no-cost access to childcare, sports, mentoring and tutoring for thousands of children and young people. Many programs also offer “wraparound” support services, such as helping young people find jobs and building networks of alumni who serve as trustworthy adults for the next generation.

These programs are the bread and butter of childcare in the city, said Gina Warner, who helped develop afterschool programs in New Orleans post-Katrina and now serves as the chief executive officer of the National Afterschool Association.

“That’s just New Orleans,” Warner said. “That’s a best practice, that you have this holistic and community care approach to it, but I also feel it’s very reflective of New Orleans. I feel like New Orleans has this ‘We’re all in this together’ spirit.”

Removing barriers to success

Kids and young people who lack money, transportation and time might have trouble accessing childcare and mentorship. At YEP, removing those barriers is an essential part of the work, Jupiter said. 

For example, when a 17-year-old mother experiencing housing issues came to the program several years ago hoping to  complete her HiSET, a high school equivalency test that awards a diploma-equivalent, YEP helped her find stable housing,  childcare and a workforce training program. The young woman completed the training program, was able to get her HiSET and is currently a student at Delgado, Jupiter said.

Now, the nonprofit is working to make sure people like this young woman have continued support throughout adulthood, Jupiter said.

“We know when our young people are with us they’re doing well, they’re progressing, they have the support that they need, but oftentimes they go back out into the world and they have other challenges they may face,” he said.

Whether a person is 17 or 7 years old, this method of community-based care creates environments where children and young adults have their needs met and feel supported by a group of people — an approach that has positive impacts on everything from brain development to civic engagement, said Libbie Sonnier, the chief executive officer of the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children.

“When you support a child’s social emotional development in their younger years, they know they have a voice, they have agency, and that’s really important,” Sonnier said.

A similar approach, in the kitchen

At 25, Keenan Jordan, an entry-level chef at the Hotel Fontenot in the Central Business District, dreams of opening his own business. He’s thinking about a food truck serving up “Southern homestyle cooking,” he said — offering oxtail and gravy rice, among other options.

That dream is thanks in part to Jordan’s time at Café Reconcile, a training restaurant that provides workforce development to New Orleans young people. Open to those ages 16 to 24, the café aims to build young people’s confidence and help them navigate the early-career landscape, said Kheri Billy, the chief executive officer of Reconcile New Orleans, the nonprofit that operates the café.

By the time Jordan graduated from the program in 2024, he knew how to batch a recipe, julienne vegetables and break down a chicken, he said. But the program also taught him about being on time for work and pushing others to try new things, he said.

“I’m not too loud. I try to conceal myself and stay in the back, but they really pushed me to be the person in the front … that one person that just encourages everybody,” he said. 

Several years ago, Jordan earned his GED through YEP, he said. After that, he decided to try something new, and moved to Texas during the pandemic. He eventually moved back to New Orleans and found it difficult to get a job, he said, then started at Café Reconcile in 2023, which connected him with a community of mentors who helped him search for work — and made him want to be a better version of himself.

“You probably have parents that don’t listen, or you might need an ear to talk to, and they might not understand,” Jordan said. “Coming here and seeing how they’re changing lives and being here for everybody, that made me into the person I wanted to be from day one.”

Like YEP, Café Reconcile sometimes covers childcare costs or utility bills for its participants to ensure there are no barriers to participation, Billy said.

The nonprofit also focuses on building a community across the city, she said. It partners with organizations including YEP, which has a facility on Oretha Castle Haley Boulevard within earshot of Café Reconcile — Billy said she often hears kids playing outside.

Together, the aligned agencies help kids grow into young adults who help build the city up even more. That earns them the trust of a network of adults and families. Often, Reconcile referrals come from cousins, best friends, aunts and grandmothers who have seen older children succeed in Reconcile and go on to thrive in New Orleans.

“We’re trying to keep young people in the city, to add value to our hometown as taxpayers in our city,” Billy said.

A new player in town

One humid September evening on the soccer fields deep in City Park, teens and tweens wearing neon pinnie jerseys ran from goal to goal, breathing heavily and calling for the ball as the sun set in long rays over the grass. Coaches directed players to pass to their teammates or take a shot while a small group of parents sat on the sidelines, swatting at the occasional mosquito.

Henry Hottor, an Algiers resident, watched as his son Phanuel-Marie played in a scrimmage between teams of 11- and 12-year-olds. Hottor, who grew up playing soccer in his home country of Togo, said the nonprofit that organizes the program, called 18th Ward, has created an inclusive community centered around sports.

“It’s the community aspect, the cultural aspect of it,” Hottor said. “It just brought everybody together, not just on the field, but we do things together with the parents. We’ve grown up with the kids.”

Founded in 2019, 18th Ward offers soccer, swimming and gymnastics, among other sports, to kids and teens in New Orleans. The nonprofit currently serves families from 90 different schools across 22 zip codes, according to founder and chief executive officer Lowrey Crews.

For parent Kenneth Cooper, a West Bank resident who said he’s sent his children to 18th Ward soccer, gymnastics, swimming and dance programs, the nonprofit is more affordable than other sports programs, and has an approach focused on inclusivity, which he prefers.

The coaches “understand that these kids need to have fun and be happy with doing it,” said Cooper as he helped his 9-year-old daughter Sage collect a tiny pair of neon-pink cleats and matching shin guards at the end of practice. “They nurture that love for the game, and it grows.”

Funding is a universal challenge

Similar to many other youth development programs, much of the community-based childcare available in New Orleans is in the city’s nonprofit sector. And while this means that programs can provide services and support free of charge, they have to get creative to keep their doors open.

For example, 18th Ward offers its participation fee on a sliding scale with no questions asked, Crews said. Families can pay as much as they’re able to, even if that’s $0 — and about half of the families in the program don’t pay anything, Crews said. But the nonprofit’s programs cost about $80 to $120 per child, depending on the sport, and that “creates a funding gap that we’re constantly trying to close,” Crews said.

To stay affordable, the nonprofit has partnered with the New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD) — which serves 5,000 kids annually through its own no-cost athletic programs  —  to expand soccer programming, which had been limited through NORD. The 18th Ward is currently working with the city’s health department to offer more swim lessons, to supplement what’s already offered at NORD pools, Crews said. 

He also noted that there is a “fairly popular rumor” that 18th Ward is planning to take over the rec department, but said the nonprofit neither wants nor intends to do so. 

“We value partnerships with schools, nonprofits, for-profits, and we would like to build a stronger relationship with NORD,” Crews said.

These types of partnerships are common in the after-school space, Warner said, because they allow nonprofits to offer programming without owning expensive and potentially liable recreation spaces such as parks and playgrounds.

Most nonprofits apply for grants and collaborate with city, state and federal governments to get more funding. But as federal funding cuts trickle down to the local level, that money is dwindling.

Much of Café Reconcile’s funding comes from donors, Billy said, but cuts to federal and state funding also changed the amount of city funding available to Reconcile — and forced the nonprofit to reduce its number of participants. 

Reconcile doles out more than $250,000 annually in stipends to its program participants, and pays for their uniforms and supports transportation costs, Billy said. This year, the program had to reduce its enrollment from 130 young people to 110 due to funding cuts, she said.

Funding nonprofits like many of the community-based programs in New Orleans can be a financial challenge, Warner said, and she acknowledged that federal funding cuts have made it tricky for many organizations across the country. But she pointed to certain cities and some states, such as Michigan and California, that have pledged to help bridge those gaps. 

“We’ve seen cities around the country put ballot measures forward that have been successful to bring extra dollars to youth programs,” Warner said. “In the absence of that we’ve seen city governments decide on their own to find discretionary dollars for their young people.” 

Jupiter also noted that public funding has dwindled, and pointed out New Orleans’ lack of major companies that might help fund such programs, leaving philanthropy instead to individual donors and smaller organizations. But, “where there’s a will, there’s a way,” Jupiter said, and YEP is committed to staying completely free.

“We’ve built a pretty strong and solvent organization, and we will continue to embody our core values and make sure we’ll sustain and continue to be a place, a resource, for our community,” he said. “That’s non-negotiable.”