Who we are:
Welcome to 504ward, the home-base for the young talent in New Orleans to meet, learn, explore connect and grow. Allow us to be both your hub and your bridge, your anchor and your sail, your source for deep connection and frivolous nonsense.

Our mission? To keep you: the twenty and thirty-somethings living in New Orleans and working to improve it.

Like many others in this city, we are inspired by the influx of talented and motivated young professionals, and we are working to retain these powerful assets by providing access to jobs, leadership, social connectivity, and opportunities of all shapes and colors.

How we came to be:
This is a powerful moment in New Orleans. While Katrina may be our nation's greatest challenge, it could also be our resounding legacy. For the first time in its storied history, New Orleans is saturated with talented networks of young people, who have followed the road less traveled all the way to the Crescent City. In what has become an incubator for innovation and intellectualism, New Orleans is watching the development of a generation of leaders, who will pay dividends to their country for generations to come.

In early 2008, following an independent consulting firm’s assessment of the unique challenges and opportunities facing New Orleans, Leslie Jacobs, a local venture philanthropist, spearheaded the 504ward movement to engage the young movers and shakers who are arriving in New Orleans with dual aspirations of sparking social change and advancing their careers.

Representatives from a broad spectrum of New Orleans organizations have united to address the issues pertinent to this 23-35 year-old dynamic: career prospects, social engagement, and opportunity for community impact.

504ward was developed in collaboration with our partner organizations to retain the New Orleans “Vanguards,” those brave enough to see an opportunity and crazy enough to lunge for it. It is our belief that this generation is capable of delivering social and economic change, and we are committed to making New Orleans the hub of opportunity.