Anti-Poverty Nonprofit Oyate Group Celebrates Its Five-Year Anniversary

The milestone marks a renewed commitment to supporting underserved communities in New York City and beyond

NEW YORK, June 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Oyate Group, a New York City-based nonprofit with a mission to alleviate poverty through sustainable and holistic solutions, celebrates the five-year anniversary of its founding today. Since June 2020, Oyate Group has served as a driver of change in New York City and around the world, including in the Dominican Republic.

"Looking back on our five years of service, it has been an honor to see the direct impact that Oyate Group's work has had on our local and global communities," said Oyate Group Founder, President and CEO Tomas Ramos. "Each life impacted, each scholarship disbursed, each plate of food handed out, each small business supported is a testament to the importance of this work."

Tomas Ramos founded Oyate Group at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to address the gaps in critical resources and services for underserved communities in New York City, starting with the Bronx. The Bronx had the highest death and hospitalization rates among all boroughs and saw many small businesses struggle to stay open amidst financial hardship. Oyate Group intervened with the Bronx Rising Initiative, which vaccinated 40,000 Bronxites deemed "unreachable," increased ICU bed capacity in the Bronx by 120%, provided PPE to local hospitals, disbursed over $200,000 in grant funding to small businesses and established the $20,000 Brandon Hendricks Scholarship for college-bound Bronx high schoolers. Oyate Group's efforts to protect the Bronx community during the COVID-19 pandemic through on-the-ground, grassroots outreach and vaccinations were a central focus of the award-winning documentary "Chasing the Cure," directed by independent filmmaker and community leader Cyrille Njikeng.

Five years later, Oyate Group has expanded its programming to target cycles of generational poverty through a three-pronged approach: education, resource allocation and sustainable community empowerment. Oyate Group has launched programs such as Beyond Rising, a paid internship program for undocumented youth in New York City; Rising Restauranteur program, awarding microgrants to BIPOC restaurateurs across the city; Taste of Mott Haven, which invested critical funds into Mott Haven small businesses and generated over $1.6 million in local economic impact; and Rise Leadership, a leadership program that connects high school students in the Bronx with the experiences they need to become empowered leaders.

Since 2020, Oyate Group's expansion has achieved monumental results, including:

• Over 700 small businesses supported
• Over $1.2 million in grants and funding facilitated
• Over 2,500 youth served in New York City annually, with 93% of program graduates pursuing higher education or workforce training
• Over 20,000 Thanksgiving turkeys distributed across New York City

The nonprofit continues its dedication to community-driven change and holistic solutions to systemic problems, led by Ramos and an executive leadership team devoted to creating a more equitable world. This dedication has earned Oyate Group and its team recognition over the years. Notable awards and honors for the organization and leadership include:

Oyate Group

• New York Women's Chamber of Commerce's Small Business Champion Award (2025)
• American Business Awards Gold Stevie Award (2022)

Tomas Ramos, Oyate Group Founder, CEO and President 

• City & State's Bronx Power 100 (2025, 2024, 2023)
• City & State's Power of Diversity: Latino 100 (2024)
• City & State's Above & Beyond: Social Services (2024)
• President's Lifetime Achievement Award (2024)
• Crain's New York Business Hispanic Leaders and Executive List (2022, 2021)
• Negocios Now NYC Latinos 40 under 40 (2022)

Jason Autar, Oyate Group Chief Operating Officer

• Crain's New York Business Notable Black Leaders (2022)
• Diversity Journal's Black Leaders Worth Watching (2021)

Lymarie Francisco, Oyate Group Senior Director of Operations and Outreach

• City & State's Responsible 100 (2024)

Augustina Warton, Oyate Group Director of Programs 

• City & State's Bronx Power 100 (2025)
• City & State's Nonprofit Trailblazers (2025)

"Our team is the beating heart of everything we do at Oyate Group," said Ramos. "From our leadership to our volunteers, for five years we've all worked under the same understanding: that we rise together, or not at all."

Media interested in learning more about Oyate Group and its programs should contact Emiliano Garcia at [email protected] or (917) 446-7571.

About Oyate Group
Oyate Group is a nonprofit organization with a mission to alleviate poverty through sustainable and holistic solutions that empower underserved communities on a local and global level. Oyate Group's programs and initiatives focus on youth development, small business and community empowerment, food accessibility, gun violence prevention and more. Oyate Group is nationally recognized for vaccinating over 40,000 New Yorkers at the height of the pandemic, creating the first-of-its-kind paid internship program for undocumented college and high school students in New York City and establishing an annual $20,000 scholarship for Bronx youth headed to college in honor of a local rising basketball star and college-bound student who died to gun violence. Oyate Group's community-responsive approach extends internationally, with on-the-ground programs and initiatives for communities in the Dominican Republic stricken by poverty and natural disasters. For more information, visit OyateGroup.org, and follow Oyate Group on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Contact: Emiliano Garcia
Phone: (917) 446-7571
Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE Oyate Group