Empower
Help Bridge (HB) Empower is a consulting and professional development organization founded by Dr. Chiquita Howard-Bostic (HB) that partners with educational institutions, nonprofits, government agencies, healthcare organizations, and community-based organizations to strengthen leadership, organizational effectiveness, and community well-being. HB Empower provides strategic planning, grant development and management, executive coaching, staff development, organizational climate assessments, policy and program evaluation, and customized training in leadership, diversity, equity and inclusion, trauma-informed care, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), substance use prevention, mindfulness, and resilience.
HB Artwork, also founded by Dr. HB, is a community-based expressive arts and wellness initiative. The program integrates visual arts, mindfulness, trauma-informed art therapy practices, and community engagement to promote healing, resilience, personal growth, and social connection across diverse populations.
Founder, Dr. Chiquita D. HB was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. She began serving the community at the age of fourteen as a Mayor Summer Youth Employee in City Hall. Within four years, she had volunteered at several community organizations as a grant writer and an advocate for marginalized youth and adults. By age 21, she was hired as the youngest executive director of human services in the City of Buffalo. In 2003, HB relocated to Virginia to extend her graduate-level education and pursue a career in academia.
For 20 years in West Virginia, Dr. HB founded HB Empower to provide leadership initiatives in at-risk communities. In Texas since 2025 now offering mental health and social justice art therapy treatments, HB Empower and HB Artwork teams have expanded executive and youth support and training to over 250 organizational teams around the world.
INSPIRING MINDS AND CREATING IMPACT!
Dr. HB received a Ph.D. in Sociology, teaching certificate in Women’s Studies, and a Race and Social Policy research certification at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She earned a master’s degree in urban planning and bachelor's degree in legal studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. HB is an Integrative Wellness Academy (IWA) certified life coach and a licensed qualified administrator of Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). Howard-Bostic is also a certified art therapist and mindfulness facilitator. HB is a former college vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion and director of institutional assessment. She has also served as an executive director of housing and human services and associate community planner in Buffalo, New York.
LEADING THROUGH ACTION!
Dr. HB has taught online and face-to-face courses in the academic disciplines of sociology, criminal justice studies, psychology, and communications (over 15 different academic courses). She promotes teaching methods that center learning. HB also inspires students to advance their professional skills and to obtain employment in the areas of criminal justice and social work.
EMPOWERING LEARNING AND DRIVING CHANGE!
Dr. HB's research has advanced the study of mental health-based therapy, social stratification, online teaching pedagogy, cross-cultural motivations for aggression, and emotive-based treatment for perpetrators and victims of mutually performed domestic violence. Dr. HB has presented research at Harvard University, two international forums at Oxford University, and at other prestigious forums around the US and abroad. She has received grants to support international research on gender and domestic violence. She has also presented ground-breaking, motivational, empowering research.
SHARING WORDS TO INSPIRE LEADERS!
Dr. HB has published several manuscripts including a book chapter titled, "Aggression and Violence in Teen Girls," in Black Girls and Adolescents: Facing Life Challenges. Another article, "Is Mutual Violent Combat (MVC) A Gender-Neutral Conceptualization of Intimate Partner Violence?" was published in Conference of the International Journal of Arts and Sciences. She also published "Women's Emotive Responses and Female-Perpetrated Intimate Partner Violence" in the Journal of International Criminal Justice Research. The manuscript "A Hybrid Learner-Centered Pedagogy" was published in the Journal of the East Coast Colleges Social Science Association. In addition, HB co-published The Handbook of General Sociology and three edited manuscripts with Brazilian research associates.
ENGAGING TO TRANSFORM COMMUNITIES!
Dr. HB facilitates art wellness and service-learning projects, community-based youth programs, and international learning initiatives. For over fifteen years, she has generated social change as a university administrator and a community developer. She has participated in international projects in Brazil, Liberia, Cuba, Jamaica, and Vancouver. She was a phenomenal mentor and troop leader for 12 years, receiving a Girls Scouts Women of Distinction Award.