In The News

OYC was excited to host its first overnight Family Camping Trip Experience in September. This experience was made possible through the funding support of The Children’s Trust. The concept of the camping trip experience evolved based on data collected through surveys and family focus groups...

The Jason Taylor Foundation invited 10 students from OYC to attend their 17th Annual Cool Gear for the School Year. During the event students joined Jason Taylor and his team of friends and colleagues at Old Navy, and each was provided a personal shopper and a...

Swire Properties Inc will continue its commitment to the community and sustainable development with the launch of Home Grown, a multi-dimensional platform created to showcase the developer’s present and future commitments in the community. Through Home Grown, Swire Properties will create meaningful partnerships and charitable contributions...

MIAMI (WSVN) - Local radio station 99 JAMZ is helping fill a community need, and doing so in a fun way. The station’s annual Back to School Backpack Tour is back on the road, just in time to help South Florida students in need of supplies...

MIAMI – A group of high school students gasped when Michelle Obama walked into Miami's Overtown Youth Center. The former first lady visit was hours before her Friday night appearance at the BB&T Center in Sunrise to promote her memoir. During her promotional tour of "Becoming," she has...

High school students Hilairee Lubin and Andres Arcia are working this summer for an accounting firm. They got their jobs as part of a program that links youths ages 16 to 19, many from the Overtown area, with work opportunities with summer employers. Hilairee, a rising junior at Booker T. Washington High School, works with the accounting team. The daughter of an accountant, she did not think she would like following in her mother’s footsteps until she started working at Gerson Preston.
MIAMI (WSVN) - Gun violence was the main topic of an annual event at the Overtown Youth Center that aims to help young men in the community. Jamari Wright, one of the young participants at Friday’s Save Our Sons program, said the event helps build relationships. “It makes me feel safe because I always can count on someone,” he said, “because they know me, and I know them.”
The power to inspire others to excel is in each of us. As Mother Teresa famously said, “Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.” At the seventh annual Save Our Sons Youth Summit, young men spent a day acquiring skills in how to excel and better themselves through workshops, activities, an inspirational speaker, and communication with male mentors and role models. They learned how to tie a necktie while talking about their interests at a workshop called “The Ties that Bond Us.” Every young man also received the gift of a tie.
Beneath the scar tissue of the giant gash through the heart of Miami known as Interstate 95 are a series of dark and dreary underpasses. These intimidating, wasted spaces, suitable only for trolls, could connect neighborhoods instead of dividing them if only they were enlivened with color and light. Marcelo Ertorteguy and Sara Valente see four underpasses at Northwest 20th, 29th, 32nd and 35th streets as giant canvases for outdoor art, perfectly suited for a transformation from gun-metal gray walls into murals and abstract paintings. “Massive infrastructure tends to build barriers between people,” Valente said. “We want to make it an experience for pedestrians and drivers when they pass through the space. Right now it’s a scary tunnel to be avoided.”
MIAMI, FL — AT&T recently delivered a surprise check for $25,000 to the Overtown Youth Center’s 4th Annual Save Our Sons (SOS) Youth Summit. “AT&T believes it is critical for students to have access to the tools and support systems they need to graduate high school, and succeed in college and they enter the workforce,” said Cristal Cole, AT&T Florida external affairs. “We are proud to support community programming provided by organizations like the Overtown Youth Center, who help foster a safe environment where children can dream big and access the resources they need to be successful in life.” (Sign up for our free Daily Newsletters and Breaking News Alerts for the Miami Patch.)
With the help of teaching artists, the students utilized a non-traditional, but very familiar material - plastic yard signage. Typically utilized for political campaigns and advertisements, these young artists created visual messages inspired by public art and spaces. ​​

STAFF REPORT— JUNE 8, 2017 Left to right: Javier Alberto Soto, President of The Miami Foundation; Tina Brown, Executive Director of Overtown Youth Center; Yance Torres, Development Director of Overtown Youth Center and Stephen Marino, Board Chair of Overtown Youth Center at the foundation’s 50th...

Ford Foundation leader Xavier de Souza Briggs was the featured speaker at the Miami Foundation event. HOLLY PRETSKY / WLRN The Miami Foundation announced a round of grants to five organizations Friday. The grants were part of the foundation's 50th anniversary celebration. It's investing $1 million...

Legal professionals from all across South Florida faced off at the 3rd annual Zo’s Hoop-Law Madness Tournament, held Saturday, March 11. PHOTO COURTESY OF MC GREGOR LAPIERRE Staff Report MIAMI – Hundreds of legal professionals returned for the third year in a row to face off on a...

The “Sharks” had a tough choice among the four social ventures. Would they choose Master Honey that empowers low-income women to start their own micro-beekeeping businesses? Or perhaps prefer Miami is Kind’s concept to create jobs for young people on the autism spectrum baking cookies...

BY ADRIANNE RICHARDSON schoolscenemia@gmail.com The American Dream was just a fairy tale to Pethrona Sims. Every day, she and her four children would come home to their apartment in the heart of Liberty City and come face-to-face with shootings, gang violence and sometimes death. “I didn’t want my boys...

List of host committee members
OYC Grand Opening April 13, 2024. A Platinum Affair. Click or tap for more info and tickets