Fuel Their Flight
Launch Therapy has been a miracle of the actual. We began serving a few children with disabilities inside a Livingston Parish Catholic church in 2015. Demand for behavior and speech therapy was so great that we outgrew three more locations.
Time to hit the afterburners.
With a waitlist of more than 250, our nonprofit is raising $4.5 million to build a new center on Veterans Boulevard in Denham Springs.
We thank our family, friends and businesses for dragging this dream into reality. We ask you to join our Launch family.
We’ll open in 2025, upon our 10th anniversary. See you at the celebration.
Scroll down to see our plans below!
Five Reasons to Help Our Kids Soar
5. Growing Need: Launch will double our space to 13,000 square feet, allowing us to serve hundreds of more children each year.
4. Local Access: The center will eliminate barriers of distance and transportation for more families, ensuring that every child will receive the therapy they need and deserve
3. Early Intervention: By diagnosing and starting therapy as early as possible, Launch therapists stimulate the birth of neural pathways, setting the foundation for a lifetime of learning and progress.
2. Minding the Gaps: Through diligent fundraising and advocacy, we overcome treatment limits too often imposed by private insurance and Medicaid.
1. Holistic Support: Our staff navigates complex Medicaid and other federal systems, drawing down additional financial assistance for necessary services.
“Launch said ‘he’s done the fighting and he needs people to come in and fight with him.’”
Meet the Spark
Chantelle Varnado
Chantelle Varnado and daughter, Addison Varnado
Dr. Chantelle Varnado is single-minded and persistent. Attending elementary school in Denham Springs, she decided to become a speech therapist. “It was the first thing I wanted to do, and I never deviated from it.”
After earning a doctorate from LSU, she began thinking about what’s next. One fitful night, Chantelle began to pray, hoping divine guidance would illuminate the path ahead. When the sun rose the next morning, she knew her mission: to start a nonprofit for children with disabilities. Before her husband fixed his first cup of coffee, Chantelle had named the nonprofit Launch Therapy and chosen a logo: a rocket ship.
Less than a decade later, Launch serves more than 400 children with disabilities, and has a waitlist of more than 250. With her staff, family and friends on the ride, Varnado will build a new center on Veterans Boulevard to grow with the needs of Livingston Parish children who deserve a chance to surpass their perceived limitations.
New Mission Control
Eight years in, Launch has outgrown four locations. Working with Coleman Partners, we have designed a therapy center that will become a model for the state, with plenty of room to grow along with Livingston Parish. We’ll expand from 15 to 26 therapists and serve 910 patients per year, up from 400 now.
