Today we’d like to introduce you to Mikelange Olbel.
Mikelange (Mike) Olbel is a native of Pompano Beach, Florida and the youngest of five sons whose parents migrated from Haiti to the United States in search of opportunities and a better quality of life. Mike spent his childhood watching his parents work several low-paying jobs to make ends meet. He became inspired by their work ethic and optimism in the face of financial hardships. Motivated by his parents’ strength, Mike sought to break the cycle of poverty and crime that plagued his family, committing to the promise of education as the surest path to a life of success and purpose.
A proud graduate of Pompano Beach High School, Mike attended the University of Dubuque in Dubuque, Iowa, where he graduated Cum Laude with a degree in Sociology & Criminal Justice, becoming the first person to graduate from college in his family. Driven by four years of stellar academic performance, Mike pursued graduate work at Iowa State University, receiving top honors in Business Administration and Public Administration & Psychology. Upon completion of his studies, Mike immediately began pursuing his life’s purpose: youth development. He passionately served as a youth worker and mentor until boldly stepping out on his own to explore entrepreneurship, using his expertise to focus on the social and emotional development of at-risk youth in South Florida.
After many years of social services efforts, Mike founded Team Saving Our Youth Incorporated (Team SOY), a nonprofit organization aimed at early childhood education, eradicating juvenile delinquency through the development of positive decision making and life skills in youth ages 5-22. Under Mike’s leadership, Team SOY has transformed the lives of over 2,000 youth and equipped them with the confidence to take ownership over their lives.
As the Executive Director of Community Based Connections, Inc (CBCI), Mike continues to foster nurturing relationships between youth, parents, and the community, ensuring a supportive environment for children to thrive and while also creating a lasting impact for future generations. Mike’s success with CBCI has afforded him opportunities to serve the South Florida community as a member of several influential committees and advisory boards, such as the Juvenile Justice Circuit Advisory Board for Florida’s 17th Judicial Circuit (Broward County); Educational Committees; Community Fatherhood Initiative; and Racial Equity. A recipient of several community awards and recognition, Mike has proven to be a dedicated and tireless leader who has poured over a million dollars into education and juvenile prevention.
As a CEO, Education advocate and Entrepreneur, Mike has grabbed the attention of leaders across the Florida and the United States. He is highly sought after to assist communities in reaching early education, intervention, and crime prevention goals. As a result, Mike has been celebrated in the media as an innovative and passionate community leader, committed to the transformation of South Florida’s most forgotten communities. Despite such success, Mike continues to maintain close ties to his community, volunteering for great local and international causes, participating in holiday and back-to-school give-a-ways, and maintaining active involvement in his local church.
Mike is the loving husband of police officer Kristen Olbel and proud father of Mikelange Olbel II and Guilia Olbel. A true family of service.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Whenever your saving lives, breaking generation poverty and empowering the people it will never be easy. Just the idea of starting a business was challenging because banks would not provide me a line of credit, even after showing net profits. Not to mention the cycle of oppression that’s created in the system that stops the poor man to rise out of poverty.
However, I don’t allow challenges stop me from achieve goals of the people. Most importantly, I see challenges as opportunities to make doubters into believers. Today, I am able to obtain a line of credit for any of my businesses. In addition, I am now at the table assisting in creating the best policies tho serve the underprivileged.
We’d love to hear more about your organization.
Community-Based Connections, Inc. (CBCI) is a nonprofit human services organization founded upon 20 years of expertise in delivering youth development, family strengthening, and community empowerment services in Broward County. CBCI focuses on hard to serve populations and work with some of the most marginalized communities in Broward County. Our mission is to expand the available options for helping children to be socially and academically successful despite the many challenges they face and regardless of the many negative influences around them.
Founded by Brian C. Johnson and led by Executive Director, Mikelange Olbel, CBCI has a strong history of developing, implementing, and evaluating programs that provide the following:
• Positive youth development from the cradle to college.
• Family strengthening and support services to enhance capacity of families to promote positive youth development.
• Community empowerment activities that increase capacity of communities to support positive youth development.
Under Mikelange Olbel’s leadership CBCI has consistently yielded the following results across its spectrum of youth and family services:
• 100% of parents maintained low levels and/or decreased high levels of parenting stress.
• 97% of families improved family functioning.
• 100% of families with no verified abuse findings six months post-program completion.
• 92% of families served participated in all program activities.
• 97% of families with no verified abuse findings 12 months post-program completion.
• 70% of youth whom improved in school attendance or maintained zero absences.
• 100% of youth who showed improvement in school behavioral evaluations or maintained zero external suspensions.
• 98% of youth at risk of juvenile delinquency remained crime-free while in the program.
• 98% of youth at risk of juvenile delinquency remained crime-free while six months post-discharge.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
CBCI is widely recognized for our unique levels of success with diverse/under-served populations. This is attributed to our natural presence in diverse communities, extensive familiarity with community culture, and our commitment to cultural competence training – giving our staff expansive capabilities in delivering culturally competent services to diverse populations. In delivering services to diverse populations, cultural awareness and sensitivity are important to ensure that the uniqueness of the target population is well understood and respected. However, in seeking to successfully serve culturally diverse populations, we advocate practicing cultural competence whereby the uniqueness of our target populations can also be utilized as strengths in the serving process.
This includes cultural uniqueness associated with race, gender, ethnicity, language, religion, family culture, and neighborhood culture. We strive for the highest levels of cultural competence at both the organizational and individual levels in our program. To maintain an ongoing process of organizational learning around cultural competence, we conduct cultural self-assessments; we manage our services in a manner that is responsive to the uniqueness of our targeted populations; we promote organizational values that emphasize cultural competence; and we adapt our policies, structure, values and services to ensure that we are effectively serving the culturally diverse populations targeted. Lastly, we strive to ensure that our program personnel reflects the ethnic composition of the persons we serve.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1021 NW 6th Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311 - Website: http://communitybasedconnections.com/
- Phone: 954-908-5249
- Email: info@communitybasedconnections.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/cbconnections
- Facebook: facebook.com/Community-Based-Connections-Inc-234981290518791/
- Twitter: twitter.com/cbconnectionsFL
Image Credit:
Tiffanie Bailey, T. Bailey Images, LLC
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