Iowa City's United Action for Youth hires Omaha anti-gang advocate

IOWA CITY - The former director of an Omaha nonprofit devoted to gang intervention will be the new director of Iowa City's United Action for Youth (UAY).

The UAY board lauded Jannette Taylor's success at fundraising, passion for youth development and leadership of Impact One, the anti-gang nonprofit Taylor founded in 2009.

"It seems like they are doing really creative things," Taylor said of UAY. "It's amazing to have all of that work being done by one organization."

Taylor, 36, succeeds Jim Swaim, who is retiring after 40 years of leading UAY, which provides programs for 2,600 youths and adults each year.

Taylor decided to leave Impact One in 2012 after two cousins were gunned down in separate incidents. It was devastating to help teens advance their education or learn new skills only to see them killed because they lived in a violent  neighborhood, she said.

Taylor grew up in North Omaha and delayed college when she became pregnant as a high school senior, the Omaha World-Herald reported. After her daughter went to school, Taylor earned a bachelor's degree in business and a master's degree in organizational leadership.

At Impact One, Taylor hired and managed a staff that included ex-gang members, visited crime scenes and emergency rooms and convinced victims of violence not to retaliate, the newspaper reported. Impact One provides summer jobs, resource referrals and reentry programs for people coming out of prison.

UAY Board Member Jeffery Ford said every call he made about Taylor came back with glowing reports."One of her references described Jannette this way: 'She is the go-to person; she is the above-and-beyond person; she is the anytime, anyplace person'," he said.

Taylor will start in August.