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 

Our Team

Denise Mears

Founder & Executive Director

Denise Mears is the Founder and Executive Director of Project Protect Our Children. Denise began her work in the anti-human trafficking space in 2016, working with youth who had experienced commercial sexual exploitation in Houston. She found her passion for prevention after years of hearing different variations of the same story from youth survivors. Denise founded Project Protect Our Children in 2019 to fill glaring gaps in the anti-human trafficking space. She recognized that the battle against child sex trafficking, exploitation, and abuse requires more than just intervention—it requires a proactive, comprehensive, and holistic community approach to prevention. As the Executive Director, she launched Project Protect Our Children’s unique, innovative, impactful, and transformative programming to engage, educate, and empower communities to protect our most vulnerable population, our children.

Denise majored in business at Texas A&M, Corpus Christi, graduated from Rice University’s Leadership Institute for Nonprofit Executives, and completed Trust-Based Relational Intervention® Training through the Karen Purvis Institute of Child Development at Texas Christian University. She is a Texas Education Agency-certified provider of human trafficking training for school district board members, charter school board members, and school officers and a continuing professional education (CPE) provider for the State of Texas.

Denise is a past chair of the Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force’s PREVENT subcommittee. She is a member of the Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition, Montgomery County Coalition Against Human Trafficking, Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance of the Southern District of Texas, Texas Family Leadership Council, and the Texas Network of Youth Services.

Amy Jolley

Educational Director

Amy Jolley, a Houston, Texas native, developed a heart for service early on, influenced by her family’s values. Over 30 years ago, she began her journey in nonprofit work as a volunteer. Throughout her life, she has channeled her passion for helping children into various roles, including volunteering at The Children’s Assessment Center, a Crisis Pregnancy Center, The Children’s Museum, Texas Children’s Hospital, and Parent Teacher Associations.

Amy’s professional career is equally dedicated to youth. She started as an educator and, after earning her Master’s Degree in 2011, served as the Pregnancy and Parenting Coordinator for Humble ISD before becoming a school counselor. Her experiences working with youth in educational settings have given her unique insights into how trauma affects students.

As the Educational Director at Project Protect Our Children (PPOC), Amy is thrilled to merge her passion for children’s welfare with her educational expertise to expand the Youth Action Board nationwide. She firmly believes that everyone has a life purpose and sees students as crucial in raising awareness to prevent child human trafficking.

When not at work, Amy can be found spending time with her fiancé Neal and loved ones, listening to live music, or traveling. She’s trying desperately to learn to hit a golf ball, gets easily engrossed in a good book, and loves the color pink!

Julie Silby

Director of Grants and Development

Bio to follow

Sheila Whittle

Education Development Specialist

Sheila Whittle serves as the Education Development Specialist for Project Protect Our Children. In 2004, Sheila first heard about human trafficking while in college and made the decision to dedicate her life to fighting this atrocity. To that end, she has worked in the education and nonprofit fields since 2006, serving at-risk and vulnerable populations, especially youth. Before joining PPOC, she taught at Title 1 schools in both New Jersey and Texas, provided direct services to teen sex trafficking survivors in the Greater Houston Area, and worked with sex trafficking victims and sex workers exiting exploitation in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

During her time in the classroom, she witnessed the entire spectrum of at-risk factors in her students, including sexual abuse, poverty, cognitive disabilities, sexual identity, homelessness, neglect, etc. While working with teen survivors, she saw how those same at-risk factors directly contributed to their trafficking, exploitation, and abuse. One story, in particular, hit close to home; one survivor was being trafficked while attending a middle school in her district only a few miles from the middle school she taught at.

This reality pressed upon her the importance and urgency of bringing prevention education to ALL students, especially those with increased vulnerabilities. Sheila's experience and knowledge in both the classroom and the human trafficking field have equipped her to help fulfill the mission of Project Protect Our Children and serve as the Education Development Specialist.