Young people deserve a future full of possibilities. We deserve a city that listens to us and does everything possible to create safe, thriving communities where we can learn and grow. Creating this future will require bold initiatives to address the systemic disinvestment, poverty, lack of economic opportunity, and isolation that young people like myself face—because as it currently stands, the status quo is failing New Orleans’ young people.

As a young person born and raised in New Orleans, I understand these infrastructure failures firsthand. But through my work with the New Orleans Children & Youth Planning Board as a Youth Advisory Board co-chair, I’ve formed relationships with other young people from across the city who all have different stories, yet we all come together to better our city with the Youth Master Plan as our shared tool. Launched in 2020, the Youth Master Plan is a 10-year plan for improving the lives of children and youth in New Orleans. Built with youth and community wisdom, the plan establishes ambitious targets for improved outcomes across all aspects of young people’s lives and acts as a roadmap for breaking cycles of disinvestment and disrupting the false narratives that reinforce them. 

As a Youth Advisory Board Co-Chair, I engage with other young New Orleanians and work with partners from across the city to inform and implement Youth Master Plan solutions for a positive, youth-development focused, results-oriented New Orleans. But a plan as transformative as ours can only be impactful if it is properly funded. 

Luckily, the city of New Orleans Office of Youth and Families has included data tools to measure youth services and provide support to youth programs in their 2024 city budget request. This is a great first step, because in order to know how to build a better future for youth, we have to know where we stand, what we’re doing right, and where to place our priorities. But we can’t stop there. We need more robust investment in young people in order to support positive outcomes for us and prevent harm and violence in our communities. 

In order to address desperately needed services for youth, New Orleans City Councilmembers should increase the Office of Youth & Families’ proposed budget of $22.1 million to $38.6 million when they vote to adopt the 2024 budget on Friday (Dec. 1). 

Youth Master Plan partners worked with other organizations in the Big Easy Budget Coalition to identify how this additional $16.5 million would be spent to meet the needs and interests of youth and our communities. A greater budget commitment could expand programming for students and opportunity youth — young people ages 16-24 who are neither in school nor working — including career and technical education pathways and out-of-school programs for middle schoolers. This funding could be used to make necessary resources — such as transportation access, recreational activities, and mental health support — more accessible to young people in New Orleans.

I know firsthand how critical it is to prioritize resources like access to mental health for young people. Growing up in a single-parent household after my father’s death at age 4, I struggled, but I felt lucky to have a supportive family and the resources to go to therapy and process grief. In retrospect, I recognize that I was lucky — not everyone has that same access to support. I want to live in a city that is funded to truly support young people in mental health crises, especially young people who have lost a parent, or who are growing up in single-parent households and need additional support. 

People in my generation from birth to age 24 make up 25% of the New Orleans population. Shouldn’t our city budget better reflect that?

This additional $16.5 million is a small percentage of the overall city budget, but it could make real change in the lives of young people by fostering positive outcomes for youth like myself, our families and our communities. New Orleans leaders love to proclaim that young people are the next generation and the future, but the fact of the matter is that the future is now. Young people need financial investments today, not tomorrow.

If elected leaders took more time to listen to and follow the leadership of young people, New Orleans would be an even better city. As the City Council wraps up its budget process this week, reach out to your councilmembers today and demand that they show up for our city’s youth.

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Kaleb Nelson is the Youth Advisory Board Co-Chair of the New Orleans Children & Youth Planning Board and a Steering Committee member of the Youth Master Plan. He is a graduate of The 1881 Institute...