Today we’d like to introduce you to Emmanuel Freeman.
Hi Emmanuel, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Young People in Action was Initially envisioned and incorporated in 1992 by Samuel Frazier. It was relaunched in 2015 under the leadership of Jonathan Zeigler and Emmanuel Freeman and has since experienced explosive growth. In August 2025, Jonathan Zeigler transitioned to emeritus status and placed the Executive Director role in the capable hands of Emmanuel. Jonathan continues to support the mission from the wings and is YPIA’s greatest champion.
I, Emmanuel Freeman, have been mentoring and mentored since I was a young. So, I have always known the value of investing in future generations. Following college, I started a mentoring organization in the Bay Area, called Bloodline, which mentored over 100 young men. My work would then lead me to mentoring young professional entertainers (ages 9-18) for The Actors Fund, as well as inner city youth through USC’s Kinder to College program.
In 2015, through conversation with Jonathan Zeigler, we decided that we could make greater impact through the creation of innovative programs designed with evidence-based principles. So we began the process of creating a foundation for Young People in Action’s, Triple “P” Program and Level Up Mentoring Program. Over the next decade, we would partner with organizations in 3 states and establish our headquarters in Houston.
In my time with Young People in Action, I have served as the Chief Operating Officer and President of the Board of Trustees. Jonathan would lead as Executive Director during the same period. In August of 2025, Jonathan stepped down from the Executive Director role to focus on family life, and asked me to continue as Interim Executive Director of YPIA. The transition to this role has been both challenging and rewarding as I was required to expand my efforts to support multiple locations.
I’ve enjoyed working with the mentors and staff and I look forward to continuing the tradition of growth into the future.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road has been anything but easy. There were many years where the funding for mentoring was not there and Jonathan and I spent a lot of time and our money keeping the programs going. In the early days. we didn’t have the resources to have consistent mentoring for our youth and to have quality mentor training for our volunteers. We used a lot of our own money and sweat equity to change as many lives as we could. We also had to learn the business skills and requirements that were needed to sustain a national organization. So we learned as much as we could while working to sustain our lives. And while we enjoyed the work, we knew that we could not grow that way. It would take about 7 years before we could gain enough financial support to hire Credible Messenger Mentors and administrative support.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Young People in Action is a mentoring nonprofit that empowers under-resourced youth to lead their communities through personal transformation. Our innovative programming engages our Triple “P” Pillars (parents, principals, and pastors) throughout the process to ensure that our values and core principles are embedded. We are set apart by trained Credible Messengers, multi-layered mentoring services (group/one-on-one, digital/in-person, prevention/intervention, etc), research-based approaches, and strong program evaluation rigor. We are most proud of the reduction in recidivism that we’ve had (from over 30% to 14%) and the increases in attendance and grades (100% for the 2024-25 school year).
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
We are seeing the reduction in financial support for programs that are designed to reduce inequities. A lot of mentoring organizations do not have the same funding that they once had to sustain and increase their growth. So in the next few years, I see that these organizations will have to increase partnerships and share resources to survive. It will also be important that organizations build technological capacities which will allow them to do more with less.
Pricing:
- Free
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.the-ypia.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.ypia
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheYPIA
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/young-people-in-action
- Other: https://www.the-ypia.org/donate
