Meet Chelsea Lester of Creating Roles of Winners in Soceity – C.R.O.W.N.S

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsea Lester.

Chelsea, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My story, I can’t say I know where it began but I know I was born with a heart to serve. Growing up, I was so fascinated with entrepreneurship and knew I wanted to own something that provided solutions to a problem. I believe in middle school, I learned what a nonprofit was and from then I knew that was one way I was going to create solutions to societal problems. Growing my family endured some hardships but from the outside looking in no one would ever know. Those experience gave me perspective of how fortunate I was because my hardships, although painful, couldn’t compare to some of the communities I would serve in the future. My hardships also opened my eyes to a world that although I could sympathize I could never empathize with until my family experienced it. So this led to the creation of my Non Profit organization, C.R.O.W.N.S. C.R.O.W.N.S aims to create a winner in every situation despite the circumstances that some youth and families are faced with daily.

One thing I learned growing up was that in order to stay true to yourself in every situation you have to have a solid foundation of your truth, in accepting that the mistakes you make do not define you and not denying it due to shame. Luckily, my family instilled the foundation of Christ into me and my siblings and I think that’s how we became resilient through all circumstances because we knew that we belonged to God and that Jesus has came to redeem us and through all the good and bad God is with is. And through my organization we aim to teach this foundation to the youth we serve while also providing tangible resources to improve their lives. I always feel like if not me, then who. I have been so fortunate to prevail and I want to help more youth prevail so that they can grow and return to their roots and pour into and pull their peers and youth up out of the darkness and into the light. I just hope to bring lightness into everyone’s world!

Has it been a smooth road?
It has been a rocky road some of the obstacles I would say relationships, learning how to remain true to yourself when “love” someone. For me when I hurt people feelings it makes me doubt the validity of my feelings and I had to learn my feelings are just as valid and how to deliver how I feel without attacking the person I am speaking to. So communication has been a huge obstacle but I feel like I have learned and now am able to communicate from a pure place that doesn’t aim to make people feel the same hurt but more so to help them understand the why of my feelings. I would say money management was also a struggle, I was an emotional shopper so during college I was so all over the place and sad, happy, etc. so I overspent, ran up credit cards, etc. I had to learn the root cause of my excessive spending to nip that in the butt. I now see and know that financial freedom & financial literacy is essential in my purpose to serve and elevate my peers, youth, and families. Hmmm, and I was understanding my purpose and understanding how God moves and how God can use everything in my life good and bad to fulfill the calling over my life. I think also having the emotional intelligence to not only cope but deal with the negative things I have experience in life. And understanding the power of a positive perceptive.

We’d love to hear more about your organization.
My organization is Creating Roles of Winners in Society aka C.R.O.W.N.S. We specializing in serving communities by providing resources that promote them to be winners in all circumstances. We are known for our Back to School Bash in Acres Home. Through this event we have passed out over 800 backpacks and provided resources ranging from after school care, legal aid, health resources and so much more within our two years of hosting the event. The thing I am most proud of with my organization is being able to constantly provide resources to communities who need them and the support and reputation that we have developed from doing what we say we are going to do with genuine intentions. I think what sets us apart is that it’s not about us our primary concern is being whatever the community we serve needs and being transparent and honest of our why to truly help them become winners and realize that they were born winners.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I think Houston is a great city for community work. This city is so giving and willing to help execute a vision as long as you are honest about your intentions.