Tomás Ramos realized there was a necessity for a brand new anti-poverty group in 2017, however he couldn’t begin his non-profit, the Oyate Group, till 2020 as a result of he didn’t have the assets.
Ramos needed the Oyate Group to help the mission of assuaging poverty, significantly within the Bronx. The group derived its identify from the Dakota language and its phrase for “the individuals.”
Jason Autar, Oyate Group’s chief working officer, spoke with the Amsterdam Information about how the group has thrived with the help of funds from foundations, donors, and even members of the Main League Baseball Gamers Affiliation.
AmNews: What packages are you sponsoring?
Jason Autar: One in all our hallmark packages is Past Rising, a paid internship program for undocumented highschool and college-aged college students in New York. This program began in 2022 as a pilot program with 20 younger individuals, we simply did it through the summer time of 2022 and 2023. We launched it once more in the summertime with 40 younger individuals, after which switched it to a school-year cohort. We shrunk it a little bit bit simply because the wants of that inhabitants are a little bit bit totally different, however just a bit bit: these younger individuals assume summer time youth employment, however these younger individuals are positioned in establishments akin to Fordham College, Lehman Faculty, Hostos Faculty, BronxNet, Academics Faculty at Columbia College, and NYU. We place these younger individuals primarily based on their pursuits and primarily based on what departments we predict would greatest match them on their journey. For each 30 hours that these younger individuals work, they get a $500 stipend. In the course of the summers, each Friday, they arrive to our workplaces, and we deal with workshops akin to psychological well being, monetary literacy, and entry to assets. We take them on journeys, excursions, simply totally different locations all through town basically. Our year-round cohort, we’ve it for about six months and we’re capable of work with them all through that point to essentially tailor this system to their wants.
One other one among our packages is the Brandon Hendricks Scholarship. We offer two younger individuals from the Bronx with $20,000 for as much as 4 years whereas they’re in faculty. When Tomás was this system director at Bronx River Group Heart, Brandon Hendricks was truly a participant of his, a standout one and a fantastic child. Brandon had a full trip, a full scholarship to go to St. John’s College, and his life was minimize quick as a result of gun violence. By the way, we’ve achieved that scholarship and we’ve been capable of actually increase on his legacy by offering alternatives for younger people who find themselves aspiring to go to school.
One other one among our packages is known as Rise Management, which targets sophomores and juniors in highschool. It’s a management program that has 4 totally different tracks and the younger individuals self-select into these tracks. The 4 tracks are arts, civic engagement, enterprise and entrepreneurship, and STEM. They arrive in as soon as every week. We incentivize this system by offering a $100 stipend in the event that they preserve wonderful attendance in addition to good standing in this system they usually work on totally different tasks all through the course of the yr. It’s project-based studying and every quarter they’ve a small venture which they current on, after which it culminates into a bigger venture towards the top of the yr. After that the juniors are capable of apply to go on a global journey through the summer time for 14 days. Final summer time, our younger individuals went to Palma in Costa Rica. We accomplice with a company known as International Glimpse the place they arrange the logistics of all the pieces they usually have the younger individuals work on totally different tasks whereas they’re there. There’s a cultural immersion side however we additionally put together them forward of time for what it’s like to go to these international locations and simply the work they’ll be doing. We have now testimonials, a few younger individuals truly indicated that it was life-changing for a few of them. We began that program final yr with 30 younger individuals. This yr we’ve expanded to 60 younger individuals.
AmNews: The place are you getting the funds for this? How did you first get funds?
J.A.: Two gamers particularly, Rafael Devers of the Boston Crimson Sox, and Luis Severino, previously of the New York Mets and the New York Yankees. They’ve funded us generously over the course of the previous two, three years.
Particularly, it was Rafael Devers. By our networks, we had been capable of assist him get three ambulances shipped to the province the place he’s from within the Dominican Republic, Samaná Province.
AmNews: And to be a part of your program, is there a profile of the youth that come into your programming?
J.A.: The whole lot that we do is application-based. We put out a name for purposes after which totally different committees learn for all our totally different programming areas. We don’t learn any of the purposes, simply to maintain it at 100%, , as democratic as doable. Our program coordinators, our program administrators, after which particularly for Brandon Hendricks, his mother, his coach, and his uncle truly learn by way of all of the purposes with the intention to be certain that it’s their course of all through.
AmNews: You’ve gotten this International Rising Scholarship –– when is that due?
J.A.: The International Rising Scholarship, properly we truly simply cemented that after we had been capable of work with State Senator Luis Sepúlveda’s workplace, the Dominican authorities, and Metropolis Faculty to begin this scholarship. We’re choosing two younger people who find themselves in public colleges within the Dominican Republic to sponsor their 4 years’ price of research to come back and truly stay right here within the metropolis. All through these 48 months, they’ll have 100% residency that’s paid by us, we’ll assist them with internships and simply present them entry to assets for these 4 years.
AmNews: Why are you doing this program for college students from the DR?
J.A.: I imply, why not, proper? There’s a big constituency of Dominican expats right here in New York; I feel they’re the biggest immigrant inhabitants right here. Offering entry to assets and having the provision for them to check right here can be life altering for a lot of of those households. For us, the entry was simpler as a result of the senators’ workplace already has a pre-existing relationship with the Dominican Republic by way of their authorities. So the infrastructure was there. It was a straightforward carry for us to offer that entry to make this occur. We’re all the time interested by methods of increasing our companies. …. We’re greater than and completely happy in exploring conversations with different international locations if doable as properly, so long as we don’t have to try this heavy lifting as a result of clearly we’re not authorities, however for us to accomplice with our associates in authorities, it simply makes it simpler for us to create this infrastructure for folks.
AmNews: Then your mission to alleviate poverty, it’s not simply Bronx-based?
J.A.: It’s citywide and for us, it’s how can we proceed to extend wherewithal, how can we proceed to extend our footprint, after which how can we proceed to extend entry to assets for everybody?
For extra info, go to OyateGroup.org.
