April 30, 2003
BIRMINGHAM, AL — University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) graduate Layla Carter of Mobile was named a Daily Point of Light Award winner April 25 by The Daily Points of Light Foundation.
The Daily Points of Light Award honors individuals and volunteer groups that have made a commitment to volunteer service to help meet critical needs in their communities. It focuses on the goals for children and youth set by the President’s Summit for America’s Future. Each weekday, one volunteer or volunteer effort in the country receives a Daily Point of Light Award.
In 1998, Carter founded a mentoring program with her UAB peers for inner city at-risk youth, “Generation eXcel.” Carter says her “eyes were opened” while tutoring students in an after school program in an area public housing facility. The first girl she was assigned to mentor was a young woman who came from a neighborhood where violence, drugs and sexual promiscuity were the norm. She was an unruly, apathetic student, but Carter saw a special light in the young woman and recognized her need for a more structured and lengthy relationship. A friendship and successful mentoring relationship was born. Carter began to encourage and recruit her college peers on campus at UAB to mentor and serve youth in the area who were in need of positive role models.
The student group has expanded statewide and is partnered with Mentor Alabama, Central Alabama’s Promise and Mentor, the national mentoring partnership. With Carter at the helm, the student group provides the “Five Points of eXcellence” to Alabama’s youth. These points include: mentoring relationships with caring adults, safe places, healthy start, marketable skills and opportunities to serve. Carter has spoken to more than 30,000 people, including those in civic and community groups and students in elementary, middle and high schools as well as juvenile detention centers. Carter has served over 50,000 community service hours since 1998.
Carter’s passion for helping youth through mentoring is backed by her personal creed, “the future of Alabama’s and America’s youth lies in the hearts, hands and determination of each and every one of us.” Carter is a spokeswoman for Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor’s “Mentor Alabama” and is also an advocate for several other organizations that encourage positive impacts on the lives of children.
In 2002 the YWCA of Mobile honored Carter when they presented her with the “Young Woman of Achievement Award.” She was also nominated for the Volunteer Mobile “Heart of Gold” award for community service. Carter’s newest project is “Project eXpansion,” and she endeavors to get community leaders, business owners, parents and caring volunteers to develop the Town of Leeds into a “Community of Promise.”
The Daily Points of Light program dates back to the administration of former President George Bush Sr. It was reinstated on Jan. 1, 1998 by the Points of Light Foundation, the Corporation for National and Community Service with full funding from the Knights of Columbus. For more information, visit www.pointsoflight.org.