Our Mission
Bridge to Skate is a 501(c)(3) public charity founded on a simple belief: every kid deserves the transformative power of skateboarding, the patience, perseverance, and discipline it builds, and the sense of community and belonging it creates. Through skateboarding, we create dynamic new paths to self-confidence, personal empowerment, and responsibility for each other and for the communities we call home.
The heart of our program is what skateboarding uniquely offers. For youth in foster care, at-risk homes, or navigating trauma, a sport built around self-paced learning, where progress depends on practice and not a coach deciding who sits on the bench, creates something rare: a safe space to try, fail, and grow on your own terms. Our largest demographic is at-risk and foster teens, historically the most difficult group for outreach. Through skateboarding, they are learning the tools they need to succeed in life.
Domestically, Bridge to Skate offers two free after-school programs in the Los Angeles area, monthly skateboard contests, and bi-monthly outings, all at no cost. Midweek, youth receive homework help, mental health assistance, and meals. We collaborate with organizations including the East Side Riders Bike Club, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to offer skateboard art clinics, learn-to-skate clinics, and a Youth Empowerment Program. What began around 2013 with a donated ramp from a professional skateboarder has grown into programs serving youth across Los Angeles County through county-wide pop-ups, adaptive events, and LGBTQ-inclusive programming.
Central to every program is the Bridge to Skate skate library, a carefully curated collection of skateboards, helmets, and protective gear ensuring no child is ever turned away for lack of equipment. What started with donated and borrowed decks has grown through relationships with brands and companies who share our mission, so that every kid who walks through the door has everything they need to participate.
Beyond Los Angeles, Bridge to Skate works across fifteen nations. Internationally, we have built two skateboard parks, a playground, an elementary school, and a secondary school in Honduras, and support three flourishing skateboard schools in Guatemala, Paraguay, and Colombia. We host contests and learn-to-skate clinics throughout the year outside the United States, bringing the program’s values to communities around the world.
Chantelle Heroux
Founder & Director
When Chantelle was 12 years old, a chance encounter offered her a gift that changed her life. The skateboard she received taught her patience, perseverance, and discipline. Because of that gift, she was welcomed into a supportive new family with whom she could share laughter and adventures. Skateboarding provided her with a growing confidence that inspired a lifelong commitment to philanthropy, and a vision for what community could look like when people genuinely show up for one another.
That vision became Bridge to Skate. What started around 2013 with a single donated ramp has grown under Chantelle’s leadership into a global movement, with after-school programs, international skate schools, and community partnerships that have touched the lives of countless young people. She has built the organization from the ground up, cultivating relationships with brands, community organizations, schools, and local agencies, and assembling the resources and programming that make Bridge to Skate’s work possible.
Chantelle’s approach is rooted in what she experienced firsthand: that skateboarding meets young people where they are. For kids navigating foster care, trauma, or instability, the sport offers something traditional programming often cannot. She has dedicated herself to making sure those kids have access, showing up for them with free programs, free equipment, and the kind of patient, consistent presence that changes lives.
Today, Chantelle continues to lead Bridge to Skate with the same spirit of the skate community that handed a skateboard to a 12-year-old girl and let her know she belonged. She is proof that a single generous act can ripple outward for decades, and she has made it her life’s work to keep that ripple going.