Front Yard Bikes

OUR MISSION
Our Mission is creating a safe space for youth to realize their intrinsic worth, while we help them learn, grow, and build!

The heart of our organization is motivated by compassion for kids from low-income families that are willing to work for a better community. We hope to impact the youth of Baton Rouge one bike at a time, one heart at a time, because the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow.

Front Yard Bikes (FYB) began as a community bike shop with a simple focus of teaching participants of all ages how to fix and maintain bikes. However, through organic growth and fueled by the eagerness of our youth to build new skills, FYB has evolved into a transformative force, teaching youth mechanics and workforce skills, while promoting inclusivity, mentorship, recreation, and academic achievement. We do this through safe, free, after-school and summer programming. Our youth are taught responsibility and become peer leaders as they are faced with ethical and moral questions in their day-to-day lives.

OUR HISTORY
While he was a student at LSU, Dustin Lafont was constantly working on bicycles on the front lawn of his house in South Baton Rouge. One day, a young boy showed up and asked for help fixing his bike. Then he brought friend who also needed help, who also had a friend who needed help. Soon there were a dozen kids meeting in Dustin’s front yard twice a week to learn how to fix and maintain their bikes. Since that first kid on the front lawn in 2010, Front Yard Bikes has grown to 2 locations and served over 400 youth in the South Baton Rouge.
Dustin’s belief that God will provide has been his primary motivation for meeting weekly with the kids of South Baton Rouge for the past 6 years. “These kids deserve the opportunity to learn, grow and ride in a safe place. God willing we can make that a reality."

A COMMON GOAL
OUR BADGES OF HONOR
It’s an honor to serve the best youth in Baton Rouge, and we wanted to find a way to honor them. Youth that display exemplary effort/knowledge in different areas earn badges to add to their aprons. Youth progress from red to yellow to green as they move throughout our program and become leaders in the shop.