BATON ROUGE- Baton Rouge hosted grandparents from across the state for the 28th annual "Grandparents raising Grandchildren" conference Friday morning.

According to organization president Kathy Coleman, more than 51,000 children in Louisiana are cared for by someone other than a parent.

"Our mission is to bring resources to the parents that are raising children that are not their own," Coleman said. 

This year, one of the guest speakers at the conference was Constable Terrica Williams, who has her own personal experience to share.

"I am a product of a grandparent raising grandchildren. Of course, my mom passed when I was in high school, and when she passed my grandmama took me and my sister in and she made sure that we were raised the proper way," Williams said. 

More than 300 people attended the conference, as well as 47 different organizations participating in the resource fair.

"We've got diaper distributions, food distributions, we connect ourselves with [Louisiana] 211, so many people. My community cares and all of these community partners that are here, just phenomenal," Colman said.

There were even breakout sessions that focused on a wide range of topics as they relate to raising children in today's society.

Williams said her message to grandparents raising grandchildren was not to give up.

"As I spoke to the grandparents and I told them, don't give up on the grandkids because I know sometimes it can be a little challenging, sometimes children, especially this day in time," Williams said. "Young kids are mostly the ones that are committing the crime, so what we try to do is bring them in, love them, nurture them and make sure that they come away from that. So we need the right grandparents to help us to continue to do what we do in our community."

To learn more about how to get involved, visit their website.