We Develop the Whole Young Person
Young people do not experience life in separate categories. Academic performance can be affected by hunger. Career aspirations can be limited by exposure. Confidence can be shaped by trauma. Progress can be interrupted when support ends at the program door. That is why C.H.A.M.P. uses a whole-person, whole-family approach.
Identity Comes First
Before young people can communicate their goals, build a career, or lead others, they need opportunities to understand themselves. Our programs help participants recognize their strengths, values, interests, and personal stories.
Relationships Create Stability
Consistent mentors and trusted adults give young people safe relationships through which they can ask questions, work through challenges, and practice accountability.
Skills Create Options
Academic support, digital literacy, financial education, leadership development, entrepreneurship, and workforce readiness help participants turn interests into practical next steps.
Exposure Expands Possibility
College visits, workplace tours, guest speakers, cultural experiences, travel, and creative opportunities help young people imagine futures they may not see in their immediate surroundings.
Families Strengthen Progress
Young people thrive when the adults around them also have support. Referrals, workshops, food assistance, resource navigation, and workforce connections help reinforce progress at home.
Our Mission
C.H.A.M.P. empowers young people to discover their identity, strengthen their confidence, develop practical skills, and access the relationships and resources they need to maximize their potential.
Vision
Communities where every young person has a safe place to belong, trusted people who believe in them, and clear avenues to build a healthy, purpose-driven, and economically secure future.
Where Personal Experience Became Public Purpose
C.H.A.M.P.S. began with a simple but urgent belief: children need more than instructions to succeed, they need an ecosystem of support.
Founder D’Lai Laird’s vision was shaped by his own experience growing up in Alexandria, Louisiana. He understands how the absence of stable support, positive role models, and meaningful opportunities can shape a child’s view of the future. He also knows that exposure, encouragement, discipline, and trusted relationships can help a young person imagine a different life.
As his career expanded, so did his desire to create intentional, lasting change. Informal acts of service, including feeding families and helping people meet immediate needs—revealed both the depth of community need and the importance of building a sustainable response.
C.H.A.M.P. was created to turn that compassion into coordinated action.
The organization is being developed as a comprehensive youth and family resource hub, beginning in Alexandria and designed for future replication in other communities. Its programming brings mentorship, education, wellness, athletics, creativity, career exposure, and family support together under one mission.
C.H.A.M.P. represents the people, resources, and possibilities every child deserves within reach.
Our Promise
Every young person who enters C.H.A.M.P. will be seen, valued, challenged, and connected to meaningful opportunities.
Callout:
Belong: Find safety, connection, and trusted support.
Build: Develop confidence, knowledge, and practical skills.
Become: Pursue purpose with preparation and possibility.
Meet Our Founder
D’Lai Laird, Founder & Executive Director