The 2026 Citizen Team Lineup
Team Top 20 Under 20
Top 20 Under 20 is a youth-centered initiative designed to identify, recognize, and celebrate 20 exceptional young people across Acadiana who are already making a meaningful impact. While young people are often recognized for academic achievement, leadership and impact can take many forms. This project will shine a light on youth making a difference through community service, entrepreneurship, creativity, advocacy, athletics, leadership, innovation, and other meaningful contributions.
At the heart of Top 20 Under 20 is the idea of being for youth, by youth. Young people will play an active role throughout the project, including hosting the recognition event and showcasing local teen talent through live performances and entertainment. The celebration will bring youth, families, businesses, organizations, and community leaders together while giving young people a platform to lead, be seen, and celebrate one another.
The broader purpose extends beyond recognition. Top 20 Under 20 will include a scholarship opportunity designed to invest directly in a young person’s next step. Unlike a traditional academic scholarship, funding may support continued education, entrepreneurship, a community initiative, or another meaningful goal that helps the recipient continue their impact. Through recognition, investment, mentorship, and community connections, Top 20 Under 20 aims to elevate young voices and inspire the next generation of leaders across Acadiana.
Team Camp Lit
Campout Literacy is a unique experience that creates a fun interactive environment where children can explore new stories, ignite their imaginations and discover the joy of reading through unforgettable camp inspired activities. Families will gather in an indoor or outdoor setting (weather permitting) and set up tents, lawn chairs, blankets and even hammocks to create a cozy camping atmosphere. Throughout the event, children and their families will enjoy reading, scavenger hunts, storytelling, and shared reading time while enjoying classic campfire favorites such as hot dogs, s’mores, and hot chocolate.
The goal of Campout Literacy is to inspire a love of reading, improve literacy skills, reading scores, and strengthen family involvement in children’s education. By making reading fun, interactive and memorable, we hope to encourage lifelong learning while bringing families together. In a world that could always use more love and connection. Campout Literacy offers both. What better way to build stronger readers, stronger families, and stronger communities than by spending time camping reading and creating lasting memories. This could help solve low literacy rates, lack of family engagement, limited positive community activities, excessive screen time, family disconnection, and limited access to reading sources.
Team Esther’s Corner
Esther’s Corner is developing Light the Path to address the need for accessible, compassionate, and survivor-centered support for women and teenage girls impacted by abuse, sexual trauma, exploitation, and human trafficking in Lafayette and surrounding communities. Many survivors face barriers to accessing resources, navigating services, and finding safe supportive environments where they can begin rebuilding their lives. Light the Path seeks to bridge these gaps by bringing community resources, education, and survivor voices together through a meaningful conference designed to create connection, increase awareness, and provide practical tools for moving forward.
The Still I Rise: Light the Path Conference will feature survivor testimonies, community resource partners, educational opportunities, and information about services available to participants. Beyond the conference, Esther’s Corner will connect interested women with trauma-informed aftercare support that provides a safe and supportive environment for continued learning, open discussion, personal development, and healing. The project will also offer open share groups where participants can gather, share their experiences at their own comfort level, listen to others, and build supportive connections in a welcoming and nonjudgmental environment. Participants may receive educational materials, including books and workbooks, to reinforce the skills and concepts introduced through the program. This approach recognizes that meaningful support extends beyond a single event and that survivors benefit from continued opportunities for connection, reflection, and growth.
Through this initiative, Esther’s Corner seeks to strengthen community partnerships, increase access to resources, and establish a sustainable pathway of support for survivors. The project will include follow-up with participants to measure engagement, identify ongoing needs, and assess connections to community resources, aftercare support, and open share groups. Guided by our commitment to CONNECT, EQUIP, and EMPOWER, Light the Path strives to create a community where survivors are met with compassion, equipped with practical tools, and encouraged as they pursue safety, stability, and brighter futures.
Team QuadWorks
For many individuals with disabilities, the path to employment includes a significant gap between learning about work and having opportunities to practice the skills a workplace requires. QuadWorks is designed to close that gap by creating hands-on, workforce training for individuals with disabilities in Lafayette. Participants will develop practical, transferable employment skills including customer service, workplace communication, point-of-sale systems, teamwork, problem-solving, and understanding workplace expectations. Rather than teaching these skills only in a classroom setting, QuadWorks will provide opportunities to learn through practice, repetition, and real-world experiences.
QuadWorks will also serve as a community resource. Through partnerships with local businesses, schools, disability organizations, transition programs, therapy providers, and other community partners, the program will expand access to workforce preparation. The goal is to create a training model that helps people enter employment with greater experience, confidence, and readiness while also helping local employers build a stronger pipeline of prepared candidates with disabilities. The training prepares participants to walk into their first of day of employment training with skills and understanding of some of the systems and processes often found in retail and food-industry businesses. Participants will be required to participate in a certain number of hours and skill achievements to qualify for the QuadWorks Workforce Training Certificate.
Ultimately, QuadWorks is intended to be a launch pad into paid employment in the Acadiana area region.
Team Prop Swap
We are committed to bringing a community propagation station (Prop Swap) to Lafayette, La. A Prop Swap is an area where community members donate and pick out propagated crops. Propagated crops are crops in their infancy that can be planted to become well established plants. Our prop swap will offer both ornamental and food bearing crops.
Our primary mission is to help address food insecurities through educational experiences and free food prop crops. We also seek to encourage gardening for its creative, artistic, and emotional benefits. Our prop swap will offer an artistic and refreshing space for our community.
With funding, we can build a community propagation swap area that is beautiful and functional. We will encourage community and youth engagement through events, such as a quarterly plant pot painting event; swap meets, and other events. The Gifted Garden will bring people together. Our theme is simple: Take a Plant, Leave a Plant, Grow our Community.
Team STEAM on the MOVE
As an educator with over 23 years of experience, I see firsthand students who face a variety of academic and socioeconomic challenges. Just this past summer, I led a STEM camp and witnessed children with a tremendous amount of creativity, curiosity and potential. However, not every child has the same access to technology, hands-on learning experiences, STEAM programs, transportation and/or extracurricular opportunities outside of school. I believe that a child’s access to opportunities should not be determined by their neighborhood or their family’s ability to pay for or travel to enrichment programs. “STEAM: On the Move”, would address this access gap by bringing the opportunity directly to the children. The project would use a “Mobile STEAM Cart” filled with hands-on materials for engaging activities in robotics, coding, engineering, science experiments, invention, mathematics and problem-solving. The program could visit recreational centers, apartment communities, libraries, schools, churches, neighborhood events and other community locations throughout Lafayette. Children would participate in short, engaging STEAM challenges where they are encouraged to build, experiment, create, collaborate and solve problems. Rather than simply learning STEAM concepts from a textbook, which the schools have gotten away from, they would have the opportunity to experience STEAM by actually doing it. In short, a Mobile STEAM Cart brings hands-on learning directly into the community, giving children opportunities to explore, create and problem-solve in ways a traditional classroom cannot always provide. It makes STEAM accessible to more children—turning curiosity into confidence, creativity, and future possibilities.
Team 5th Quarter
The 5th Quarter: Where the Game Ends and Life Begins is a four-week youth community project designed to use the power of basketball to create meaningful opportunities for young people beyond the court. Basketball naturally brings young people together, gives them a place to belong, and creates opportunities to learn teamwork, discipline, communication, and perseverance. The 5th Quarter takes those lessons one step further by intentionally connecting them to life. Each session will combine basketball development with a leadership or life-skills lesson, a hands-on activity, and conversations with positive role models from the community. Participants will explore topics such as communication, accountability, resilience, decision-making, leadership, goal-setting, and their future.
The experience will also expose young people to adults and careers they may not encounter in their everyday lives. Local athletes, entrepreneurs, educators, veterans, business and community leaders, and other professionals will share their experiences and have authentic conversations with participants about overcoming challenges, making good decisions, discovering their strengths, and preparing for their future. Participants will also have opportunities to create and document their experience through youth-focused media activities, allowing them to develop communication, storytelling, interviewing, and other creative skills while giving their voices a place in the project.
The goal of The 5th Quarter is not simply to give young people something to do after school. It is to give them a place to belong, be challenged, be heard, meet people who can broaden their perspective, and see possibilities for their future. By bringing together basketball, mentorship, leadership development, and community connection, this project creates an experience where young people can leave with more than improved basketball skills—they leave with new relationships, new skills, new goals, and a stronger belief in what they can become.
The game ends. Life begins. We want young people to be ready for their 5th Quarter.
Team Countdown to Calm
Our idea is to host a “New Year’s Noon” holiday celebration for the Autism community, their families, caregivers, and friends. Rather than asking individuals with autism and their families to navigate a traditional New Year celebration late at night, we will bring the excitement of a countdown to the daytime. Guests will be able to participate in a festive countdown celebration at noon in a welcoming, inclusive, and sensory-friendly environment.The event will be designed with the diverse sensory needs of the Autism community in mind. At events hosted by the Autism Society of Acadiana, we provide sensory relief stations where guests can take a break from the activity of the celebration. These stations include subtle lighting, comfortable seating, sound-proof headphones, fidgets, and other sensory-friendly items. These resources allow individuals to participate at their own comfort level and provide a safe, quiet space when the sights, sounds, or activity of the event become overwhelming.
A “New Year’s Noon” celebration gives individuals with Autism an opportunity to experience the joy and excitement of a New Year’s countdown in a way that is accessible to them. It also gives parents, caregivers, siblings, and friends the opportunity to celebrate together in an environment where their loved one’s needs are understood and supported. Our goal is to create a celebration where families do not have to choose between participating in their community and protecting their loved one from sensory overload. By making the celebration intentionally inclusive, we can help reduce isolation, create meaningful social opportunities, and show families that they are valued members of our community. This event will demonstrate that community celebrations can be both festive and accessible, allowing more people to celebrate, connect, and create positive memories together.