Sherrie Sams............................................................. Founder and Executive Director, AFC Youth

d-mars.com Top 30 Influential Women of Houston

Sherrie Sams

Founder and Executive Director, Ambassadors for Christ Youth Ministries, Inc

eople have different drives and

Paspirations, which can either make them the leader or the follower. True leaders are also good followers and come from all occupations. They are able to build lasting relationships, forge bonds, and develop trust with the people they encounter. One of those people is Sherrie Sams, who manages to succeed in her craft and, at the same time, succeed in developing and mentoring the people around her. Her position as the Founder and Executive Director of Ambassadors for Christ Youth Ministries, Inc. allows her to sow seeds into the youth served as well as the staff she employs. Ambassadors For Christ Youth Ministries, Inc. (AFC) is a 501(c)(3) faith and community based nonprofit organization whose mission is to inspire excellence and promote leadership to children and youth through mentoring, music and the performing arts in order to provoke positive change and enrichment in the community. Sams graduated from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and afterwards, established a 12-year career as a Polymer Chemist. Ever since she could remember, Sams has possessed a deep love of music and the performing arts, and later discovered that this love would give her a platform in churches and schools to minister to youth experiencing issues of bullying, drugs, teen pregnancy, homelessness and abuse. She was so fueled by her passion that it gave an unquenchable drive to begin providing voluntary mentoring sessions to youth at an alternative school near her workplace during her lunch breaks. In 2006, through an undeniable prompting of the Holy Spirit, Sams founded Ambassadors For Christ. Since its inception, AFC has become a thriving, state of the art organization that has gained national attention through the Aetna Foundation and CNN. Under her leadership, AFC has touched the lives of more than 12,000 at-risk, underserved and underprivileged youth. With a total of three administrative offices in two States (Texas and Arkansas), AFC operates two male and female transitional living programs for homeless young adults who are over the age of 18, as well as a Basic Center emergency shelter for homeless youth under the age of 18. Additionally, AFC operates a drop in and resource center in one of north Houston’s most high crime infested areas, a domestic-victims of human trafficking (DVHT) program, a street outreach program, a young mother’s juvenile reentry program, a childhood obesity health and wellness program, a counseling and therapy program to help combat issues of mental health, trauma and substance abuse and a teen pregnancy prevention, HIV and STI awareness program. As AFC embarks upon its 13th year in October, Sams has plans to expand its services yet again, to incorporate social enterprise businesses and a young offenders’ 2nd chance reentry program. Beyond her professional work, Sams is an avid believer in discontinuing the poverty mentality that some of our youth have unfortunately inherited. She has an unparalleled passion to shift the mindsets of at-risk youth and instill in them positivity and fortitude. Sams currently resides in Houston, Texas, is married to Kenneth Sams, and has three children, ages 23, 21, and 4. As a mother of multi-generational children, she brings a unique perspective to the juggling act women face daily balancing motherhood and their professional lives.

Sherrie Sams Founder and Executive Director Ambassadors for Christ Youth Ministries, Inc www.afcyouth.org