Decision Point
Youth Leadership Birmingham Gives Future Leaders Reasons to Come Home
Brian Hamilton is living proof that Youth Leadership Birmingham (YLB) inspires new generations of leaders to invest their dreams and energy in building a bright future for the region. It was YLB that cemented his decision to return to Alabama after attending college out of state, he says. “My experience solidified my commitment and belief that both my professional aspirations and my civic obligations could be best achieved and most impactful here at home in Birmingham,” he explains.
Now Brian and his wife, Leslie Hamilton, want today’s young people to discover the region’s possibilities while exploring their own. Recently the Hamiltons made a generous gift to help ensure that students across Jefferson County continue to have access to YLB’s transformative programming at no cost to them or their families.
Meeting role models
As a junior at A.H. Parker High School, Brian enjoyed learning about his wider community and its stakeholders, with a visit to Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and Economic Development Day proving to be especially influential. Early on, he got to meet leaders who sparked ideas about the kind of leader he wanted to be, as well as ways he could serve his hometown.
Participating in YLB — and later, Leadership Birmingham, where he became one of the youngest members in the program’s history at age 28 — provided lifelong lessons about “leveraging your personal/professional networks, technical expertise, advocacy, and capital to ensure this community and successive generations have the opportunity to reach their full potential,” Brian says. “[It] left an indelible impression that each of us has a role to play in ensuring our communities thrive and are resilient.”
Father and son
Last year Brian got a second dose of YLB when his son, Brayden, joined the Class of 2025. YLB motivated the Hoover High School sophomore “to think outside the box,” Leslie says. “It challenged his assumptions and solidified values taught at home. It exposed him to different parts of the community, different perspectives, and encouraged him to think critically about his role in the community at large.” Program days sparked meaningful family discussions on voting rights, the duties and obligations of being a citizen, community engagement, and the work of nonprofit organizations. They also talked about Birmingham-based careers and Brayden’s future opportunities, including his plans to study business with a concentration in accounting or finance after he graduates from high school.
Brayden’s year helped inspire the Hamiltons to give to YLB through their Donor Advised Fund at the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. “We saw the value the program added to him as a young person in today’s society with its unique challenges,” Leslie says. “We wanted to ensure that other young people benefited from this wonderful program.”
The Hamiltons encourage other local leaders to join them in supporting YLB and its student participants as they begin making crucial choices about their lives and careers. Birmingham ultimately reaps the rewards if those young people follow in Brian’s footsteps and make an impact here, he says. “YLB provides one of the most efficient and effective means to expose our best and brightest young people to Birmingham,” Brian explains. “It serves to recruit our future community and corporate leaders back to Birmingham and emphasizes that young professionals are critical to our future success as a city.”
Click here to contribute to Youth Leadership Birmingham programming and the Mimi Tynes Youth Leadership Fund.
This article was originally posted in the Leadership Birmingham Spring 2026 magazine. See the full magazine here.