The Overtown Youth Center (OYC) is a youth development program that provides comprehensive services to at-risk youth – from kindergarteners to 25-year-olds – and their families, all of whom live in some of the most underserved neighborhoods in South Florida.
Through its comprehensive model of educational, health, enrichment and exposure opportunities, the services OYC provides foster hope, promote lifelong learning, guide youth development, and strengthen family wellness.
Our main GOAL is to be an integral part of the community, by giving the youth and families in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood and surrounding areas – environments replete with risk factors – wide-ranging educational and exposure experiences that will lead them to lifelong success.
Our goal is to help children develop resilience, and we provide them with all the tools they will need to become competent, productive adult members of society.
The Overtown Youth Center was founded in 2003 by NBA Hall-of-Famer Alonzo Mourning and real estate developer Martin Z. Margulies. Its purpose was to create a safe haven for the children living in Overtown. For 17 years, OYC has been providing holistic programming to the youth it serves to help them rise above the living conditions in which they find themselves.
The Center has an excellent track record of accomplishing its stated goals. Among its proudest accomplishments is the fact that, since its inception, it has graduated 100% of its high-school seniors and it continues to send most of its graduates to colleges in Florida and other States.