25 leaders selected to receive training in the field of development Baton Rouge, Louisiana – The Baton Rouge Area Foundation today announced the 2024 cohort of Development Fellows, a program of the Foundation’s Center for Nonprofit Excellence. One of the Foundation’s signature programs, Development Fellows is a workshop series that teaches fundraising fundamentals to enhance […]
By Jeff Roedel With every step clacking across the cool concrete quicker than the last, it is easy to see Renee Chatelain is elated. She should be. She’s walking through walls. “I’m so excited, I haven’t seen this yet,” says the executive director of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, half whispery confession, half […]
By Maggie Heyn Richardson The 50-year-old Baton Rouge public housing development Ardenwood Village is slated to eventually be decommissioned, but what will replace it is unlike any other public housing experiment to date in the Capital City. Ardenwood Village’s 93 families will move in phases into four newly built clusters of modern, mixed-income housing. The […]
Currents Q4 2020
By Maggie Heyn Richardson Last year, residents of Baton Rouge’s Plank Road corridor were invited to do something they’re rarely asked to do. Dream. The inaugural project of the Plank Road master plan will be an $8 million building with apartments, a YWCA early learning center and headquarters for Build Baton Rouge. A BREC pocket […]
By Jeffrey Roedel Snagging the dry crusty outer bark of a towering pine, the claw hook holds strong as Christopher Cooper wraps his chrome-clad diameter tape around the thick trunk at breast height. The program specialist for Baton Rouge Green tracks his measurements with a series of taps as he navigates an app on the […]
By Sara Bongiorni In Baton Rouge, experienced leaders within our justice system have come to terms with a reality: We can’t jail our way to safety. Their own data showed the imprisonment rate was more than double that of like jurisdictions. They knew that too many residents were incarcerated because they couldn’t afford bail, or […]
A majority of Baton Rouge residents don’t want to attend large events during the pandemic. They don’t want to fly from the local airport either. Parents are okay with sending their children to school. These are some findings from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation’s annual survey for its CityStats project, which has measured the quality […]
Currents Q3 2020
By Olivia McClure For the past three years, Emily Chatelain and her nonprofit have made sure at-risk kids in South Louisiana get the food they need whenever they’re not in school. During the academic year, the Three O’Clock Project provides snacks and suppers to the youngsters who participate in any of about 50 enrichment programs […]
By Sara Bongiorni There is no arguing the role of New Schools for Baton Rouge in the lives of local children. It supported 19 nonprofit schools that enrolled more than 7,000 students in 2019-20. Four more will open in the fall to raise enrollment in NSBR-backed schools to 8,500, nearly one of every four kids […]