About Us - Forum 225

Who we are

About Forum

Our mission is to create opportunities for Baton Rouge young professionals to grow philanthropically, professionally, and civically. We're enhancing the vitality of the Baton Rouge community through civic-minded and service-oriented young professionals.

Meet Our Members

We have members working across the Capital Region.

Meet Our Board

Our Board of Directors are making a difference.

Over 25 Years of Young Leaders for a Better Baton Rouge

Founded in August 1993 to inspire young professionals to become involved with philanthropic organizations and activities, Forum 35, as we were formally known, was founded to support young men and women dedicated to leading, improving, and shaping Baton Rouge. The Baton Rouge Area Foundation, under the leadership of John Davies and John Barton, Sr., provided $5,000 each to start the organization.

1993

Lighting the Bridge

Worked with many partners to raised $350,000+ to install lights on the Mississippi River Bridge, which serves as a gateway into the Capital City.

2000

Harvard Research Study

Facilitated Baton Rouge's participation in a Harvard University research study designed by Robert Putnam known as the Social Capital Survey.

2004

Barton Leadership

Created the John W. Barton, Sr. Community Leadership Development Program in Partnership with the Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations (LANO).

2011

Mixture

Kicked off our Cultural Diversity Initiative kicked, Mixture, to feature our backgrounds, cultures, and unique sense of self through art, fashion, music, dance and much more.

2015

Adding Service

Recognizing the organization's rich history with service to the community, Forum 35 officially adds Service as a fourth core pillar.

1997

Plan Baton Rouge

Meetings began that would firm the participation in Plan Baton Rouge.

2001

Forum Fridays

Started engaging leaders at Forum Fridays to create continued dialogue on issues in our community.

2005

Art Mob

Art Mob was created to assist in supporting and sustaining smaller arts organizations in Baton Rouge with limited access to advertising opportunities.

2013

Diversity Committee

Partnering with 100 Black Men and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, we formed a Cultural Diversity Committee to increase the diversity of our membership and create dialogue.

2017

Strategic Planning

We revised our strategic plan to ensure the organization could sustain for another 20 years. We identified three core pillars: Arts and Culture, Diversity and leadership.

1998

Community Cleanups

Organized a three-hundred person volunteer cleanup and beautification of the inner city Gus Young Park.

2003

We Are BR!

Launched the We Are BR! campaign to increase civic pride and support the observance of the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott 50th Anniversary.

2007

Plan Baton Rouge

After hosting a New Urbanism lecture series, BRAF and Forum35 to investigated how to apply new urbanism to Baton Rouge. These efforts resulted in hiring noted urbanist Andres Duany to conduct a community brainstorming session. This work was the catalyst for Plan Baton Rouge—a blueprint for the re-development of downtown into a 24-hour city.

2014

Policy & Activism

We began to speak out on major policy issues in the community. We also unveiled a new logo, volunteered for more than 3,500 hours in the community, and we had our largest Reindeer Run event ever.