Member Focus: Dominique Butler

What do you do? What is your professional background?

I work at the New Orleans Youth Alliance (NOYA) as the Director of Communications. I was placed at NOYA in 2018 through an Americorps program called Public Allies, initially supporting our Youth Program Quality Initiative and leading our Youth Leadership Fellowship. Beyond working those roles I have always been doing our communications and social media in the background. So a couple of years ago it was just formalized. The New Orleans Youth Alliance is basically an intermediary for youth-serving organizations throughout the city. We are a hub for a lot of nonprofits to be able to have professional development and figure out their goals and how they want to improve. We do a lot of work around trauma informed practice and healing justice. Before all that I was a bartender at Evangeline, and I still enjoy getting creative with mixology from time to time.

What is your favorite part about your job?

We have a youth led grant making process as well as a fellowship program and through that we developed a philanthropy project, I say young people broadly; we say 0-24 years old. But most of our programs target the 17-24 age group. So these young people can decide who to fund, how much to fund and for what reasons. I love this program because I get to see people doing things that they are passionate about.

How do you like living in New Orleans?

It's fantastic, there's always something to do and somewhere to go. I really like how locals love and protect their city. The culture that has been built here by the people that live here is so unique and special. 

How did you hear about the common house?

I found out about Common House through the Membership Manager Raquel. I met her by chance at an event we were hosting with NOYA. She has such wonderful energy, and after learning more about the club and concept I decided to join!