In the News

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy and U.S. Rep Mike Johnson joined with other local leaders on Friday to laud the creation of the North Louisiana Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program (NorLEAP).

“This is the perfect time to invest in something like this, to create more of those jobs and more of that economic opportunity,” Johnson said. “Our whole region is going to benefit. This is going to be a key to that.”

NorLEAP is an expansion of the Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program that begin in 2014 as a public-private partnership between BRF, the City of Shreveport and the Caddo Parish Commission.

The mission of the EAP is to help launch and nurture local business startups, which in turn enriches the regional economy. The EAP provides business models, marketing strategies, financial models, sales strategies, networking and more.  

“We came up with this idea — let’s take this model and let’s expand it,” said Dave Smith, executive director of the EAP. “Let’s take on north Louisiana with this model.”

With aid from the Economic Development Assistance Programs (EDA) and BRF, NorLEAP will expand the benefits offered by the EAP to 21 parishes in north Louisiana.

According to Cassidy’s office, a $600,000 grant is being awarded to spur the creation of NorLEAP.

BRF will match the $600,000 grant, bringing the total project to $1.2 million.

According to BRF, this initiative will save or create more than 200 jobs and generate $15 million in revenue in the first 15 months.

“My concern as your elected representative is how can we create economic opportunity for people in north Louisiana,” Cassidy said. “How do we give those folks who are finishing high school, finishing college, about to start a family, folks who can vote with their feet, how do we give them a reason to stay here?”

Cassidy said the key will be ensuring that young people who could move anywhere else choose instead to stay and contribute economically to the 21 parishes in this region.

“This region has so many strengths, but I can tell you, even with those strengths, unless we have young folks excited to stay, innovating, creating those new businesses with those new jobs we cannot even anticipate now, we will not grow,” he said. “That is our goal.”