Catalyst Miami

HEAL = Housing Equity, Advocacy, and Leadership

The 7-week HEAL program provides participants with the groundwork to become affordable housing advocates, educators, leaders, and innovators in their communities and beyond. Participants will develop leadership skills and a deep understanding of the history of housing advocacy, cutting-edge solutions, and how to get involved locally.

Program graduates can apply for a Neighbors to Leaders Fellowship—mini-grants with continued mentorship—to support their own housing justice projects or initiatives.

Every year, we organize a three-day trip to Tallahassee, during which a delegation of community members, partners, and staff members meet with elected officials to discuss the issues of greatest concern to the communities we work with. Participants of Catalyst to the Capital (C2C) receive training, meet with legislators, and advocate for their communities.

The Neighbors to Leaders Fellowship provides assistance to such leaders who have gone through our leadership programs such as HEAL and CLEAR. Through this fellowship, participants gain access to financial resources, one-on-one technical support, and professional networks that advance the development of grassroots, community-based initiatives. This program allows our alumni to take the next step as they implement the training and skills they gained in our leadership programs to support their personal growth, strengthen our communities, and create a Miami-Dade in which we all thrive.

Including financial coaching, credit building & coaching, tax preparation, healthcare access, income supports enrollment, FAFSA assistance.

Small businesses are the bedrock of our local economy. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Catalyst Miami was one of three organizations to receive a grant from the City of Miami to support small businesses that had suffered economic losses. We began providing technical assistance to help businesses get back on their feet, and we will continue offering this service beyond the pandemic.

The Worker-Owned Enterprises Program equips participants with the tools to create employee-owned businesses called worker cooperatives. These businesses are owned and democratically run by the people who work there. Through cooperatives, the Program contributes to a new, more resilient economy that works for all by supporting living-wage jobs, creating business ownership opportunities, and developing wealth from the ground up.

The Building Prosperity Workforce Cohort aims to help people transition into full-time, living-wage jobs. Each cohort member is placed with some of Miami's top workforce programs offering employment training and opportunities. As they each go through their programs, they also meet monthly as a group to share their learnings and support each other—receiving $50 for each group meeting they attend.

Future Bound Miami is a Children's Savings Account (CSA) program that establishes a free, long-term savings account for kindergarten students, increasing their readiness for college or postsecondary education. By 2023, we seek to establish a CSA for all kindergarten students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS).

The Enable Project is a Catalyst-led coalition that trains nonprofits about inclusion of people with disabilities in their organizations and movements. The goals of this collaborative project are three-fold:

to assist persons with disabilities in securing public benefits to which they are entitled;
to increase civic engagement among people with disabilities so that their voice is heard in policy decisions that impact their lives; and
to increase the representation of people with disabilities in social justice movements.

During 2019, the Enable Project, in collaboration with Venture Café Miami and the Cambridge Innovation Center, hosted several meet-and-greets, events, and workshops. Training and presentations focused on topics designed to increase access and inclusion in civic engagement and social justice organizing in Miami-Dade County. We placed specific emphasis on the intersection of civic engagement and disability, building capacity around disability benefits service delivery, planning accessible events, and the intersection of domestic violence/sexual assault and disability.