A nonprofit organization backed by local business executive Eddie Rispone has launched a billboard campaign aimed at promoting the importance of the traditional family structure.
Baton Rouge Families First, incorporated by Rispone in late 2017, has purchased outdoor advertising space on three billboards in heavily traveled areas for the next three months.
“Family matters. Married families have the lowest poverty rate,” the billboard reads next to a silhouette image of what appears to be a mother, father and two small children holding hands against the backdrop of a sunset.
Rispone says he bought the billboard space to draw attention to the family and “what our real problems are.”
“All our social ills start with the degradation of the family structure,” he says. “It’s not a race thing. It’s a cultural thing.”
More than 50% of Louisiana children today are born outside of wedlock, says Rispone, who believes there is a direct correlation between that statistic and the state’s high poverty rate, low education attainment level, and crime.
“Everyone realizes the breakup of the family is the main problem,” he says.
Rispone founded BRFF in December with the goal of empowering lower- and middle-income families by advocating for a strong family structure, encouraging education reform and promoting quality jobs through proactive economic development.
In the months since, he has met with local pastors to get their support and feedback. He says he’s also had several calls of support from high profile business leaders, who have offered to help him spread the word.
Rispone says the billboard campaign, the group’s first positive outreach effort, won’t be its last. He declines to say how much he is spending, but the estimated cost of three billboards, including two digital boards, for three months would be around $30,000
Earlier this year, BRFF produced a five-minute video taking on Together Baton Rouge, a broad-based community organization that advocates for policies that help the low-income population.
The video questions TBR’s motives, tactics and affiliation with the Chicago-based Industrial Areas Foundation, a nationwide network of community organizations.
Rispone said today the purpose of BRFF was never to go after TBR but, rather, to promote the larger message of the importance of the traditional family structure.
“It was never about just TBR,” he says. “They were not tied together.”
