About Us
Project Protect Our Children is a 501c3 founded in 2019 by Denise M. Mears. Denise found her passion in anti-human trafficking, working with a Houston non-profit that provided direct services to teenage trafficking survivors.
Through her work in Houston, she realized that the average child didn’t have the ability to understand the level of deception a predator will go to, thus making them easily manipulated. Technology and the internet have made it easier for predators to engage, entice, and entrap our children both in the real world and the virtual one. It was evident to her that our children were falling victim to an evil they were unaware of. She realized that our youth need to be given the knowledge and skills to identify such situations.
Hearing the young girls’ stories of how they were manipulated and what they endured while being forced to work Houston’s streets ignited something in her. She realized that most communities were missing a vital resource in the fight to stop child sex trafficking and exploitation – preventative education. This realization planted the seeds for Project Protect Our Children’s mission.
Preventative education offers children the tools to protect themselves and helps communities recognize the signs of trafficking and exploitation. Awareness not only prevents victimization but also shines a light on those who remain hidden, controlled by their traffickers through psychological and emotional chains. Every child deserves the chance to be safe, and every victim deserves to be seen.
With this vision, Denise founded Project Protect Our Children to address the glaring gaps in education and prevention that allow child trafficking and exploitation to exist and grow. The organization is built on the belief that the battle against child trafficking, exploitation, and abuse requires more than just intervention—it requires an engaged community and a proactive, comprehensive approach to education and empowerment.
Faced with the most current statistics and armed with the skills and knowledge she had acquired, she felt called to provide preventative educational programs and awareness trainings at no cost.
Today, PPOC remains steadfast in its mission to protect children, educate communities, and empower the next generation of leaders to become part of the solution in the fight to end human trafficking.
Our Mission
We are dedicated to preventing child sex trafficking, exploitation and abuse through proactive community engagement, preventative educational programs, awareness and empowerment opportunities.
Our Vision
Our vision is a world where every childhood is free from predators, exploitation and abuse.
Our Mission Partners
We believe that fighting human trafficking is a collaborative effort.
As affiliates of the Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force and members of the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance of the Southern District of Texas, the Houston Rescue & Restore Coalition, the Montgomery County Coalition Against Human Trafficking and the Brazoria County United Front Coalition, we are working to combat Human Trafficking in our communities.
Our Board of Directors
We are proud to introduce the Project Protect Our Children Board of Directors and honored to have them by our side! Together we will make a difference. Together we will fight to end child sex trafficking, exploitation and abuse. Together we will work to protect our children.
Our Advisory Board
Edwin “Jack” Lamm III, Lamm & Smith, P.C
Denise Weatherford, New Caney Independent School District
Kelly White
Elizabeth Shaw, C12
Brett Mears, Palmer Logistics
Denise DeGeare, Independent Personal Technology Consultant