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Love Your City hosted the second Impact Officer Roundtable of 2024 on July 30th at the Windsor Court Hotel to promote equity in the workforce of New Orleans. Quarterly, these workshops bring together Impact Officers across industries to focus on promoting and taking action towards sustainability within their operations.

Britain Forsyth and Earl Hagans - Step Up Louisiana

Young Fellaz Brass Band

This equity workshop was filled with sector networking, discussions of sustainable strategies and reflections on areas of improvement for equitable growth, and included presentations from the Office of Human Rights and Equity, The Office of Workforce Development, The Data Center, Thrive New Orleans and Step Up Louisiana.

Impact Officer’s were given the opportunity to earn their first Love Your City “Equity Badge” by “attending this equity educational workshop” one of this year’s “Work for the Future” equity campaign action items. In addition to attending equity workshops, there are many other ways to earn badges and and take action towards equity in New Orleans. You can see the list of equity badge earning actions HERE.

Impact Officers

lead their organization’s sustainability efforts by tracking and sharing what impact they have on their community.

Attendees were also able to connect with local service providers who tabled to share information on their mission, resources and opportunities to take action, today! Featured Service Providers included LA Green Corps’ career-building opportunities for both adults and youth through their Green Infrastructure Construction Corps (GICC) classes, Job1 which provides workforce development programming to local jobseekers and aims to connect employers with skilled workers and Beloved Community, a New Orleans-based nonprofit, that advances diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) by offering individualized training and capacity-building sessions as well as equity audit services and consulting.

If you missed it, here are some of our key takeaways from some of our speakers:

The Data Center:

Employer businesses (businesses that have employees) are fewer in number, are largely white-owned, and have a higher potential for revenue
Meanwhile, non-employer businesses (freelancers, barbers, etc) are higher in number but have a lower potential for revenue
In New Orleans, wealth disparities prevent communities from thriving

White households are estimated to have 13x the median net worth of black households and nearly 9x the net worth on hispanic households

City of New Orleans Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development & Thrive New Orleans:

The office secured $11 million to focus on 3 pillars: prevention, prepare, and connect
Through this funding:

Total # of individuals served: 7500
Total # of programs established: 19 programs
Total # of partnerships established: 20

Thrive New Orleans seeks to provide workforce development programs for formerly incarcerated individuals to enter the workforce

Mayor’s Office of Human Rights and Equity & Step Up Louisiana:

Benefits of hiring equitably include increased diversity, improved innovation, higher employee retention, enhanced reputation, legal compliance, and more
To better understand the role that diversity, equity, and inclusion play in your organization: reflect on these 3 questions:

Do you understand the breakdown of different races, genders, ethnicities, ages, etc in your organization?
What are the roles, titles, and wages of each employee in your organization?
Do your employees feel included and welcome in your organization?

When making those decisions about who to bring on to your workforce, giving formerly incarcerated individuals opportunities is a decision you can make every time you start a new hiring process

Join us for our next workshop on October 17th to learn more about supplier diversity and equitable purchasing, meet local service providers, and collaborate with local Impact Officers!

For more information on this event and registration, please visit loveyourcity.us/campaigns, follow loveyourcity.us on Instagram and subscribe to our newsletter at loveyourcity.us.

Written by Grace McGann