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." 

It focuses on saving the lives of inner city children and young people, and keeping them out of prison.

The club meets once a week in a classroom environment for a mixture of reading, writing and dialogue. It's a place to get on track to college.

Mentors talk with young people, engaging them.

Now, there are 200 college graduates – all success stories.  

"I am so touched because they've survived.  They've thrived. They've got jobs, careers. It's just remarkable," said Deborah Estell, coordinator of the leadership academy.

Another success story is that of Marcus Byrd of Richmond. He’s starting Laney College in the fall.

"I've been shot at plenty of times, a whole bunch of commotion. Been in jail multiple times," said Byrd.  

But Byrd  says this club set him straight. He says he's learned not to give in to peer pressure.

"When I come in this room, when I come in this building, I feel like I can just be myself. Be whoever I  want to be and express myself and not be judged," said Byrd.  

Evangela Brewster recently graduated from Cal Poly Pomona  with an eye towards law school.

"If I don't do anything with it, it was for nothing. So I definitely want to give back to my community," said Brewster.  

Of  the 200 young people who have graduated from college, 60 of them are either working on or have received post graduate degrees.