Empowered Youth U.S.A.

https://empoweredyouthusa.org/about-us/

Empowered Youth was founded in 2006 as a mentoring program inside the Miami-Dade Detention Center, and since then have worked hard to provide support, resources and opportunities to inner-city young men from every neighborhood in Miami.

In 2008, Empowered Youth moved the program out of the Miami-Dade Detention Center and launched the Empowered Youth Neighborhood Diversion Program in Liberty City as a non-profit. The goal was to provide a safe and neutral place for young men born into violence and poverty to heal and redirect their lives.

Young men who had been involved in the system were most often court-referred to Empowered Youth, where they were provided wrap-around services that included mentoring, a life skills/character development curriculum, and community partners who provided the spectrum of mental health and addiction services.

In working with inner-city young men, it became clear that there were two drivers of juvenile crime: poverty and single-parent homes. Empowered Youth provides support and guidance through the Empowered Youth Neighborhood program; and in 2010 launched a Culinary Career Track to provide training and job opportunities to students to address the overwhelming issue of poverty with the goal of teaching students how to fish. Photos by Greg Clark.