Champions of Hope

Champions of Hope
2917-G S. Woodley Street
Arlington, VA 22206
tel: 703-856-2253
oneteam@championsofhope.org

Champions of Hope is a global team of youth dedicated to tackling personal, community, and global challenges through service. We believe that youth who have a purpose in life can succeed no matter what their circumstances. Through service, youth develop the strength and determination to overcome personal hardships, world tragedies, violence, poverty, and neglect. Service is not just about doing good deeds. It is also about becoming a better, stronger person, who is more aware of the problems around them every day, and who knows from personal experience that they can do something to solve these problems.

Champions of Hope founder Melissa Martin was the worst student in her 9th grade class, failing every course. When Melissa was 15 years old, she volunteered at a homeless shelter for battered women and children. The volunteer experience was a stark contrast to her experience in school. Melissa was well loved at the shelter. The children crowded the door to greet her when she arrived. She was able to help 20 homeless children by planning afternoon recreational activities. Melissa arrived every day with a sense of purpose, and left every day with a feeling of accomplishment.

These feelings carried over into the rest of her life, as she turned her grades and her life around. She now campaigns to engage millions of disadvantaged youth in community service, so that they can undergo the same transformation. The strength and values she has developed through service have enabled her to achieve the following:

Motivational presentations to over 50,000 youth nationwide
Co-founder of Camden’s Promise Charter School, a 6th through 8th grade school in Camden, NJ, in the poorest neighborhood in America. Now in its year of operation;
Founder of the Youth Investment Project, a successful three-year initiative to engage children of prisoners, juvenile delinquents, homeless children, and disabled youth in a community service immersion program. The goal of the program was to give children in crisis an opportunity to gain important life skills through service-learning activities
Founder of the Day of Hope, an event that engaged over 10,000 youth in community service on the one-year anniversary of the Columbine massacre. Patrick Ireland, a teenager wounded at Columbine, led the “call to service”
Recipient of the White House Building Healthy Communities and Healthy Youth Award, the CBS Everyday Hero Award, the Walt Disney World Dreamers and Doers Award, and the National Caring Award. She was also inducted into the Frederick Douglas Museum on Capital Hill and was named “One of the Six Leading Social Entrepreneurs in America,” by Youth Service America. Her work has been featured in Parade Magazine, the Denver Post, Washington Times, CNN, Good Morning America, the Indianapolis Star, Orlando Sentinel, and several other media outlets
Graduate of the University of Denver College of Law