Established in 1993, as a volunteer-based community safe-haven for children during the critical out of school hours. The Optimist Club has had a long-term collaborative partnership with the City of Miami, as its exclusive community provider at the Theodore Gibson Park (located within the heart of Overtown, Miami).
In its 28-year history, The Optimist Club of Overtown has successfully pivoted its hallmark, sports enthusiast programming, to include academic advisement, ensuring students are on track for on-time grade promotion, high school graduation, while preparing them to successfully navigate their post-secondary life experiences. Utilizing our strength-based case management model to heal and empower youth to becoming leaders through academics, athletics and the arts by focusing on their unique gifts and talents.
Students join the Overtown Optimist Club, as early as four years of age, and continue through high school graduation and beyond.
The Overtown Optimist Club Health and Wellness initiative has a two-pronged objective. The seminal objective of the Club has been to create and sustain a safe haven for students and families living within and attending schools in Overtown, during the critical out-of-school hours. Our health and wellness inclusion strategy is to provide high-quality, year-round academic and exposure enrichment for students between the ages of 4 – 18. The Optimist Club has a philosophy to help kids of all ages develop healthy behaviors that lead to lifelong habits across the lifespan. It’s crucial that we design community-based ecosystems which provide kids with the tools for a healthy future.
The Overtown Optimist Club has a vision of increasing student and family access to affordable, inclusive, high-quality youth development programming.
We embrace and encourage inclusion in all things – access, quality and opportunity. Our philosophy believes that children of all abilities have a right to equal access to and meaningful participation in education, enrichment, character education, wellness and social emotional development.
Creating and sustaining a safe haven for students and families living within and attending schools in Overtown, during the critical out-of-school hours.
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