Brenda L. Hillman, Founder, President & Executive Director
Youth Emporium is a 501 (c) 3 Tax Exempt Organization. We are providers of comprehensive services to diverse government agencies, organizations and groups domestically and challenging environments abroad. Our mission is to encourage, engage, educate and empower the youth culture of our society and place them in a state of readiness for global citizenship, achieve higher education goals and pursue careers in diverse segments of industry.
Often the young people we serve are impacted by their environment, have had challenges within the juvenile justice system, or are targeted by unknown predators whose intention it is to exploit them. Knowing there are issues facing our youth culture, makes the work we do so important and even vital to the survival of our future citizens.
We provide general services upon request that include Real life experiential learning programs; Mentoring and Tutoring; Community-Based Youth Empowerment Initiatives; Job Search, Counseling and Career Development Strategies; Youth Leadership Initiatives; sponsoring special events and programs featuring youth, and customized training, academic support and internship programs, or responding to emergency situations that impact's a child's ability to live a healthy, happy and peaceful existence. However, we view as one of our most important initiatives and service offerings, the education and training interventions in human trafficking.
When Youth Emporium was founded in 2008 by Brenda Hillman, its Executive Director, it provided the opportunity to bring attention to disturbing trends affecting our children. Whether it was human trafficking through the Voices for Safe Havens initiative, childhood obesity (Bike-a-Thon), or an awareness of contributions by Americans that looked like them (through created plays and performing arts programming), her vision was always to educate, engage and empower.
In order to effectively lead Youth Emporium she relies upon her education and Board of Directors. Brenda possesses a Bachelors in Communications, and a Masters in Public Service Leadership, with a Nonprofit Management concentration. She is currently a Doctoral candidate at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, where she will be defending her dissertation on Human Trafficking Education and Training Interventions for School Aged Children.
It is still critical that community influencers get involved. Over the years we have relied upon the participation of our elected officials, educators, parents and religious leaders, to support our efforts to protect and educate our children. Every effort made to engage our young people is a step toward saving them. It is Youth Emporium's greatest mission to save our children, for by saving our children we save ourselves.