Talent is everywhere. Access is not.

Help New Orleans young creatives turn what they know how to do into what they can own.

Imagine a young person who cuts hair because they enjoy it, it provides an income stream, and has never considered their clientele as the basis for a legal business as an entrepreneur.

A young designer selling shirts via social media, operating without any formal business structure.

A photographer with clients who pay but with no business bank account.

A young lady making jewelry who has never met an accountant, an attorney, a banker, or a business mentor to help guide this art into a lucrative legal business.

The talent is there.

The missing components definitely involve a lack of access, information, professional relationships, and business infrastructure.

The UTH Foundation commits to being in a position to provide these components, help youth use their time here to pursue their dreams, and provide a professional business roadmap to business ownership. Our aim is not to guarantee that every participant will go on to build a successful company.

We aim to ensure young people are ready to take their entrepreneurship to the next level, with a real opportunity to understand what it takes to be a business owner and have the support (wrap-around services) in place as they move forward.

In New Orleans, creativity is more than entertainment.

It is how people make a living. It is how families pass knowledge from one generation to the next. It shows up in music, fashion, visual art, beauty, culinary arts, digital media, skilled trades, design, and countless other talents.

Across our city, young people are already creating. Some are already earning money from their skills. But earning money from a talent is not the same as owning a business. That is the gap the UTH Foundation is working to close.

THE CHALLENGE

Young people do not all travel the same road to success.

College is an important pathway. Traditional employment is an important pathway. Workforce development is an important pathway.

Entrepreneurship and business ownership must be a pathway, too.

Opportunity youth are generally defined as young people ages 16–24 who are neither enrolled in school nor employed. Nationally, Measure of America reported that approximately 4.34 million young people were disconnected from both school and work in 2022.

The challenge is particularly significant in Louisiana and New Orleans.

Recent Louisiana research found that in 2023, 85,325 young Louisianans ages 16–24 were disconnected from both work and school, representing 15.7% of the state's young people in that age group. LA Opportunity Youth Alliance

Primary source: Louisiana Opportunity Youth Alliance (LOYAL), Powering Potential: Plugging In Louisiana's Opportunity Youth. The report uses 2023 U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey microdata via IPUMS USA and defines opportunity youth as young people ages 16–24 who are neither working nor in school. These numbers do not mean young people lack talent. They tell us that traditional systems are not connecting every young person to opportunity. UTH believes we must build more doors.

OUR RESPONSE: TURN CREATIVITY INTO OWNERSHIP

The UTH Entrepreneur Business Market is designed to help young adults ages 18–25 take a skill, talent, side hustle, or early-stage business and begin moving it toward legitimate, sustainable business ownership.

This is not simply a youth business market. It is a business-building environment.

Young entrepreneurs who meet the qualifications for entrepreneurial acceleration will have access to professionals and practical assistance in areas that can include:

Business formation and legal structure
EIN and business-readiness support
Banking and financial literacy
Accounting and financial management
Digital marketing and website development
Branding and intellectual-property education
CEO development and mentorship
Business resources and professional networks
30-, 60-, and 90-day follow-up support

We want participants to leave with more than inspiration. We want them to leave with infrastructure.

New Orleans is internationally recognized for its culture.

But preserving a creative city requires more than celebrating the culture its people produce. We must invest in the people who produce it. When a young creative learns to formalize a business, establish financial systems, protect a brand, build a digital presence, develop customers, and lead as a CEO, creativity can become an economic asset. That can change an individual's trajectory. Repeated across neighborhoods and generations, it can strengthen a city.

The UTH Entrepreneur Business Market is an investment in what's possible when young people get the tools, relationships, and access they need to move forward.

We are starting in New Orleans.

But the idea behind this campaign is national. We cannot afford to overlook young people's creativity as a pathway to economic participation. Help us demonstrate what can happen when we connect talent with infrastructure and creativity with ownership. You don't have to live in New Orleans to believe talent deserves access.

Your contribution will help the UTH Foundation bring together young entrepreneurs, business professionals, mentors, and resources in an environment specifically designed to move participants from creativity toward ownership.

Donations will support the infrastructure necessary to deliver the Business Market, including professional business services, technology, participant resources, educational materials, event operations, mentorship, follow-up assistance, and other direct program needs. Whether you give $25, $100, $500, $1,000, or become a major philanthropic partner, you are helping us build another pathway.

A pathway where a young person's creativity can become a business.

Where a skill can become an asset.

Where a side hustle can become an enterprise.

UTH Foundation: Entrepreneur Business Market and Panel