Ocean Reef Community Foundation awards $60,000 to Miami Youth for Christ’s City Life KIX Program
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Youth for Christ Miami and Broward has announced that the Ocean Reef Community Foundation (ORCF) has awarded $60,000 in support of City Life: KIX — a generous investment designated specifically for KIX’s Indigenous Leaders Program.
This milestone marks the 14th consecutive year ORCF has partnered with City Life KIX, bringing the foundation’s total giving to KIX to $497,100.
This year’s gift strengthens the Indigenous Leaders Program — a leadership “pipeline” built to help young people grow from program participants into trained leaders who serve and mentor the next generation of children in their own neighborhood.
At its core, the Indigenous Leaders Program is designed to develop homegrown leadership in West Homestead — students who learn life skills, strengthen character, and gain real responsibility through mentorship, service projects, and leadership development experiences.
Participants progress through stages of leadership, including Leadership Academy, student leadership, and paid Leaders-in-Training roles that build workplace readiness and financial literacy. Along the way, youth lead community events, support younger children in KIX Club, and learn what it means to serve with consistency, humility, and courage.
The program’s impact is visible year after year in the way students rise up to guide others — often returning to KIX as adults to invest in the same community that raised them.
Stacy Morales, the founder of City Life KIX over 30 years ago, was an elementary school teacher when she knew that the children of West Homestead needed something unique and fun. KIX began as an after-school tutoring and mentoring program for grades three through six and now has grown to serve ages 5 to 19.
“What is encouraging to me is not only are we meeting many needs of children, but we are also seeing young adult leaders rise up to, in turn, guide and nurture the very same groups of youth they were once a part of,” Morales said.
One powerful example of that long-term impact is Venia, a KIX alum whose story represents what the Indigenous Leaders Program is built to accomplish. Now 22 years old, Venia came from a home where her support system was strained, yet she completed her Associate of Arts degree in political science at Miami Dade College and graduated from the University of North Florida with a bachelor’s degree in 2025.
Venia started coming to KIX when she was 5 years old because her mom wanted her to have an after-school program where she could get help with homework. As she got older, she kept going, because of the people she met. KIX gave her healthy role models whom she could come to for advice.
In middle school, staff recognized her leadership potential and invited her to volunteer with KIX Club. Once she started, her love of helping others grew. During high school and her first two years of college, she worked at KIX as one of the Indigenous Leaders. Venia continues to influence the next generation of youth at KIX as an adult indigenous leader.
When asked why she worked and volunteered at KIX, Venia said, “I feel like I have a support system at KIX, and I’m not sure what I would do without that. I know that I am making a difference in the lives of children at KIX because I am giving them the support that they need to succeed, that I didn’t have at home.”
ORCF’s $60,000 grant will ensure that more students like Venia have access to the mentoring, training, and leadership opportunities that shape not only academic outcomes, but identity, purpose, and the ability to lead in healthy ways.
About Youth for Christ Miami and Broward
Youth for Christ Miami and Broward, with headquarters in Kendall, is a 78-year-old nonprofit organization serving more than 7,000 at-risk youth annually across Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Through five ministries — Campus Life (school-based mentoring clubs), City Life: KIX (afterschool tutoring and mentoring), Catalyst: Hip-Hop (creative arts and mentorship rooted in hip-hop culture), Juvenile Justice Ministry (mentoring and rehabilitative life skills for justice-involved youth), and Rebalance (a prevention program using trauma-informed coaching to build resilience and healthy decision-making) — Youth for Christ provides safe, relational environments where young people can grow and encounter the hope of the Gospel.
For more information visit miamiyfc.com.
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