Committee for A Better New Orleans

Bryan Bell Metropolitan Leadership Forum - In 2023, CBNO hosted our 55th Annual Leadership Forum. The Forum is a 12-week intensive training program annually bringing together 50 emerging leaders from New Orleans, that delves deeply into the critical issues and topics affecting New Orleans, including housing, disaster preparedness, cultural preservation, economic development, and more, all viewed through an equity lens. In 2023, 47 people participated in our cohort. Participants gain essential context and tools to drive positive change through this exploration.

Peoples Budget - During the City of New Orleans annual budget process each fall, we publish a Residents Guide to the City Budget with detailed breakdowns of the budget process and City priorities to community groups and residents in-person and online. In 2023, our budget education reached thousands of residents across New Orleans. Our work led to a successful community-driven proposal for $46M in ARPA funds for housing, direct services and community violence intervention to help frontline workers and their families recover economically.

Project Why - CBNO began working with the Mayor of New Orleans Office to develop metrics around civic trust and training materials for City employees on building trust with residents in 2021. This year, we hosted 3 lunch-and learns about building resident trust, reaching over 100 City employees. 95% of the attendees surveyed responded that they had learned something they could directly apply to improve their teams work.

Infrastructure:Building Our Future - CBNO serves as the City Councils official resident engagement partner in preparation for infrastructure funds. In this project , we worked with partners to hire 22 Community Engagement Leads from left-out neighborhoods across New Orleans. The leaders were provided training and fellowship and hosted five block parties to collect over 1,000 stories from residents

from every council district about their infrastructure needs.