One Rouge Lighthouse

Entrepreneurs frequently explain how they came up with a business
idea to solve some sort of problem they personally experienced.
This "necessity is the mother of invention" incentive is also
true in the world of non-profits and purpose-driven businesses
more concerned about making a difference than making a profit.


Often it is during the worst of times - crises, hardships, or
conflagrations and controversies - that people see opportunities
to help those most in need. Or, on a grander scale, to dismantle
systems of oppression and come together in new ways to make
things better.


Take, for example, Casey Phillips of The Walls Project. 


We've talked about The walls Project previously on Out to Lunch.
In this conversation, Casey expounds on a specific initiative
that has the potential to address Baton Rouge’s systemic problems
in new ways. It’s called OneRouge, a partnership between The
Walls Project, which works to break down the societal walls in
our community, and MetroMorphosis, Reverend Raymond Jetson’s
nonprofit organization that seeks to transform urban communities
from within.


The OneRouge Coalition was created in 2021 and has brought
together 400 organizations in the community to address the
economic and social disparities in Baton Rouge through a
systematic framework that has identified the nine drivers of
poverty and created coalitions to tackle each one by breaking
down its component parts and working together – what’s known in
the nonprofit world as collective impact -- to address it.


Casey is a music industry entrepreneur who spent more than a
decade away from Baton Rouge, before moving back in 2011 to found
The Walls Project.    


Amber Elworth is owner of Light House Coffee, a coffee shop with
the unique mission of supporting migrants by providing them with
opportunities for employment, a space to sell handcrafted items
they have made and just a safe space where they are welcomed and
included.


Amber and her husband founded the shop in 2017. At the time,
Amber was working at Catholic Charities in Baton Rouge as a
social worker in its immigration and refugee services division.
She got to know a lot of the migrants coming into the community
and recognized the need for a place like Light House.


Today, the coffee shop has grown in popularity, expanded its menu
to lunch and dinner, and secured a liquor license to serve beer
and wine.


As a middle class average working person, it's easy to live in
Baton Rouge and think that our most urgent problem is traffic.
It's more difficult to be aware of the issues that trouble the
people in the cars and buses clogging our city streets or living
alongside them. It's encouraging to learn from Casey Williams and
Amber Elworth all that they're doing to improve Baton Rouge for
all of us.


Out to Lunch is recorded live over lunch at Mansurs on the
Boulevard. You can find photos from this show by Erik Otts
at itsbatonrouge.la


See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.