LETTER FROM CEO

Dear Beloved Community,

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” Dr. Seuss

As I reflect on so many different moments over the last year, I feel fortunate to have memories that I will not only cherish forever, but memories that our, families, founders, staff, donors, partners, and volunteers will also cherish! Even during these unprecedented times of an economic crisis, educational disarray, mental health crisis, housing instability, and food insecurities, OYC and its entire team have remained steadfast in its persistent pursuit of meeting the needs of children, family and community.

Over this past year, we have worked diligently to help students readjust in the traditional educational setting; as well as offering a plethora of support services to help them stay on track. We have focused our efforts on strengthening the mind, body and soul of our children as many of them have had to endure personal challenges like never before.

Similarly, we have expanded our family services to assist our families and the communities we serve at large, to combat the daunting effects of social media on their children and the mental duress of inflation severely affecting housing, food and employment stability.

We are proud to have launched new partnerships in the areas of health, wellness, workforce readiness and housing assistance.

The memories we cherish this past year are those of beautiful children who eat, play and learn with happy faces; our resilient high school graduates and college graduates; those young adults who are grew up in our program and are now working in the agency; those adults who completed various workforce training programs; those who have secured employment opportunities; those who secured stable housing, the expansion of our girls programming to the City of Miramar and the transformations we witnessed in a short period of time; our girls who learned to swim or do make up for the very first time; and the joy seen on the faces of our partners, volunteers and donors and board members who continue to help us make a tremendous difference.

Administratively, we are excited to embark on new and improved opportunities for process innovation in the areas of client management, human resource, and finance. Additionally, we are excited to bring together our three brands- Overtown Youth Center, Honey Shine and Mourning Family Foundation in an intentional manner so that we may efficiently scale or work-- bringing highly quality program and family services to other communities. Despite construction challenges, which we have met head on, we continue to push forward in the building of our new facility which is scheduled to be complete by 2023.

It is because of an amazing eco-system that is comprised of each of you, that OYC Miami is able to advance Inspire, Empower, Enrich and Expose to our community constituents to optimize their ability to reach their full potential.

Tina Brown

“A proud product of Overtown who humbly serves, as CEO and on a personal mission to dispel ALL misperceptions of Black and Brown youth, families and adults from urban communities and to unleash these amazingly talented individuals to all the world….”