The Richmond-Perrine Optimist Club, Inc. of Miami has served the youth, the poor, the elderly, the unemployed and disadvantaged in South Miami-Dade since 1971.  The Richmond-Perrine Optimist Club has provided a multitude of social services, from Pop Warner Football and Cheerleading, Youth Counseling and Guidance Programs, Work Experience and Job Opportunities, Paint-Up/Fix Up Services to homes of the elderly, Summer Camps, Community Gardens for Senior Citizens, Distribution of Surplus Food and Clothing to the needy, Tutoring Services, Employability Skills Training Classes, Oratorical Contests, Scholarships, and others.  The list of services and activities provided by the Richmond-Perrine Optimist Club seems endless.  The Agency has struggled against all odds in its continuing quest to help those that they could in the South Dade Area.  When very few people or organizations were concerned with the less fortunate and disadvantaged in South Dade, The Richmond-Perrine Optimist Club was there.  A long list of concerned people, too numerous to list here, at one time or another contributed to this civic and charitable effort.

The organization was founded in 1971 by a group of concerned residents of the Richmond Heights/Perrine area over the lack of organized sports and other activities for youth that were being provided to youth in other communities.  Out of this concern a group of dedicated residents came together and volunteered their time to form and nurture this organization.  The organization initially began as a sports development program, which branched out into all kinds of civic and social service activities in the South Miami-Dade Community.

In 1977, the Agency ventured into its first government sponsored social service program when it established the Perrine Crime Prevention Program.  The organization has since expanded in the social service arena, and has established programs in four minority communities in South Dade including: West Perrine, Goulds, Naranja, and Modello, in addition to having one of the best youth league athletic programs in all of Miami established in the Richmond Heights area.  Over the years we have served tens of thousands of needy individuals and families, and nothing gives our agency more pleasure than to see individuals that we have helped, in productive roles in this society. None of this would have been possible without the dedication and hours of work by the agency’s volunteers, staff and Board of Directors.  We have and will continue to serve South Miami-Dade County with a vigor and commitment that is unrivaled.  We love the community and the people that we serve, and we remain true to our mission statement which is “To establish programs and services in all poor and disadvantaged communities in South Dade in order to help those who are the most needy achieve a better quality of life.”