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Our Mission, Purpose & HistoryAt the Ophelia Project and Boys Initiative of Tampa Bay, we are committed to creating a best practices model for communities who want to be on the forefront of meeting the specific social-emotional needs of girls and boys, in an integrated and innovative fashion. We believe in positive and successful youth development. Misson:To be the recognized expert on social-emotional learning for youth in Tampa Bay. Purpose:Transforming Youth from the Inside Out How it all began …2002The Ophelia Project-Tampa Bay started as a community initiative primarily focused on girls’ issues related to peer aggression and bullying and quickly expanded into all issues affecting girls’ social and emotional lives. 2006Because of repeated requests from our community, we started a brother project—The Boys Initiative of Tampa Bay, which is now serving boys in the Tampa Bay area. 2007We formed a new non-profit, OPBI, Inc. to serve as the legal umbrella for these partner projects. We are committed to engaging the community in issues relating to girls and boys and also formulate a model for other communities who care about the unique needs of girls and boys. 2008We celebrated our one year anniversary as OPBI Inc. on July 1, 2008. The Annual Report from our first fiscal year can be viewed here. Our Pilot program at Stewart Magnet Middle School expanded into 5 local middle schools and became known as RISE (Revealing Inner Strengths Through Empowerment). The first ever National Boys Council facilitator training was held in our training room for over 30 professionals working with youth. 2010The focus for 2010 is to fulfill our organizational mission to become the experts in social-emotional learning for youth in Tampa Bay. By partnering with stakeholders in our community we hope to help youth become socially, emotionally and academically skilled so that they are successful throughout their entire lives. We know that if we want to Transform Youth from the Inside Out we need to teach our kids how to deal with their internal thoughts, emotions and feelings that continually fuel all the behaviors we see expressed externally. By doing so, we can positively impact their decision-making skills and abilities that will help to reduce at-risk behaviors as well. To see an overview of OPBI, Inc. as a charitable organization, logon and visit www.guidestar.org. |
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“OPBI is an outstanding organization — their integrated approach to meeting the needs of both girls and boys is both thoughtful and effective. I wish every community had this kind of resource.”
“The programs that OPBI are providing in schools, with a focus on supporting boys and girls through their innovative gender-specific curricula, are absolutely critical to helping boys develop the skills they need to become successful men.” 
