KTVU: Omega Boys’ Club celebrates 28 years of keeping kids off streets

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KTVU) – A program in San Francisco designed to help low income inner city children celebrates a milestone this weekend.

The Omega Boys’ Club in the Potrero Hill neighborhood  has 200 college graduates.

It serves youngsters – both boys and girls – from cities all over the Bay Area.

“Twenty-eight years of being alive and free and educated. Let’s raise our glasses to that,” said co-founder Joe Marshall as he toasted years of success with champagne and apple cider.

The room was filled with young people who’ve gone through the program and are either going off the college in the fall, in college currently, or have already graduated.

They come from neighborhoods plagued by violence and crime.

“The police was knocking on my family’s door maybe when I was twelve years old, probably even younger than that, asking for my dad,” said Evangela Brewster.

She says growing up, her father was in and out of jail, and that the Omega Boys Club offered her a safe and comfortable place away from the violence in her Bayview neighborhood.

The theme of the program is “Alive and Free.”

Click to Watch Video