{"id":3389,"date":"2026-06-09T10:03:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:03:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=3389"},"modified":"2026-06-09T10:03:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T10:03:43","slug":"orlando-kidz-zone-celebrates-20-years-of-community-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=3389","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Kidz Zone celebrates 20 years of community impact"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There are dozens of college pennants pinned to the ceiling of Parramore\u2019s Grand Avenue Neighborhood Center. They showcase the many schools, including all the major Florida universities, where neighborhood children have gone.<\/p>\n

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The felt flags indicate how far the area, which once had a high school graduation rate of just 50%, has come due in part to a city program that brings mentorship and other support to children living in the city\u2019s most impoverished areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the beginning, the goal was simply to get kids off the street,\u201d said Joseph Caesar, longtime program supervisor for Orlando Kidz Zone.<\/p>\n

Orlando Kidz Zone launched in 2006 with the aim of diverting the paths of so many wayward kids that it would create a cultural shift. Modeled after the successful Harlem Children\u2019s Zone in New York, the program recently celebrated its 20-year anniversary. It has served 9,000 children, lifting the high school graduation rate for those children up to more than 90%. An early initiative of Mayor Buddy Dyer, Kidz Zone has been cited as a case study by Harvard researchers on ways municipalities can break cycles of intergenerational poverty.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had students that I met at age seven and eight and they\u2019ve gone through the program, and they\u2019re grown and they have kids,\u201d Caesar said. \u201cAnd so now we\u2019re really kind of seeing the generational work that we\u2019re doing because we\u2019re able to also impact their kids and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program started in the Parramore Heritage Neighborhood and has since expanded to zones in Holden Heights, Mercy Drive and Englewood, with an annual budget today of $2.3 million. The neighborhoods where the program is offered have seen an 81.2% drop in juvenile arrests, a 49.7% drop in teen births and a 68% drop in child abuse and neglect cases, according to the city.<\/p>\n

Kidz Zone takes a \u201ccradle to career\u201d approach, partnering with nonprofits and government agencies on initiatives that target children from birth through early adulthood. It gets children into preschools at no cost to their families so they can be better prepared for kindergarten, and offers after-school and summer activities so parents don\u2019t have to pay for childcare.<\/p>\n

Through a partnership with Orange County Public Schools, high schoolers in the program are assigned a student advocate who regularly meets with them, keeping them on track, connecting them to scholarships and other opportunities and helping them chart a post-high school path.<\/p>\n

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More than 90% of the children in the student advocate program were accepted into college, trade school or the military after graduating high school, according to program records.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s like a mentor, really. He comes into my class to see how I\u2019m doing, what my grades are like, what assignments I\u2019m missing, stuff like that,\u201d said Tyquan Hall, 15, who, like his 17-year-old brother Timothy Jorcius, enrolled in the Parramore Kidz Zone as a kindergartener.<\/p>\n

Jerry Williams Jr., one of the boys\u2019 mentors who has worked at Parramore Kidz Zone since 2019, takes on 25 high schoolers at a time, meeting with each of them once a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about everything. It\u2019s life skills. It\u2019s teaching them what adult life looks like,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI like to look at it like they get the plastic spoon, not the silver one, but the plastic one.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Both boys are on track to graduate from Jones High School. And both work part-time jobs, which Kidz Zone helped them find.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a single parent, you think, \u2018What if I didn\u2019t have this?\u2019,\u201d said Sheykia Hall, the boys\u2019 mother. \u201cBecause there\u2019s a lot of kids that probably go to the same school as my kids but live in a different area and they don\u2019t have this. So after school, they\u2019re trying to figure out, \u2018Where do they go? What can they do?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Kidz Zone operates out of community centers inside the designated neighborhoods. The program, and its center facilities, are open to children and young adults up until the age of 25 who live inside the zones. While at the centers, they can participate in an array of programming like reading groups, writing workshops, team sports, culinary instruction and pottery classes.<\/p>\n

There are regular field trips to zoos, amusement parks, and Kennedy Space Center. There are also camping trips in state parks and college campus tours.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like summer camp, in a sense, but year-round,\u201d said Alexis Hicks, Youth Employment Coordinator for the city\u2019s Families, Parks and Recreation division.<\/p>\n

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The idea is to expose children to things that they might otherwise have missed out on and expand their interests in an enjoyable, less rigid environment than school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more of like a hangout. We can come be ourselves,\u201d said Seon Victor, 19, who enrolled in Parramore Kidz Zone as a second grader. \u201cIt\u2019s not really like school. We come here to bond with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program helped Victor discovered his love for writing. He recently completed his first novel and hopes to get the manuscript published.<\/p>\n

\u201cI created a whole world of like characters and people and a whole story that really is very, very dark but very amazing,\u201d Victor said with pride.<\/p>\n

Participating in the educational activities is not a requirement. Children are free to just hang out in rooms furnished with bean-bag chairs, video games, surround sound speakers, big screen televisions and plenty of snacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is their space. They get to do whatever they want, with limitations and supervision, obviously,\u201d Hicks, who is also an alumnus of Parramore Kidz Zone, said.<\/p>\n

The program also has parent advocates that meet monthly with families to connect them with additional services, like local food banks, mental health counseling and other support.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause what we found is, if you only work with the kids, you\u2019re not able to get to the real issues that the family is having,\u201d Caesar said. \u201cIndividual kids are not suffering from food insecurity. Individual kids are not necessarily suffering with low wages. That\u2019s kind of a family issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a career development program where children are taught employment skills and financial literacy and get to open their own bank accounts. The program partners with local businesses where children work through an 8-week paid internship program, earning $14 an hour for 15 hours a week.<\/p>\n

Jorcius interned at RTW Photography, a minority-owned visual production company in Orlando, where he discovered an interest in photography. Although he doesn\u2019t plan on pursuing a career in photography, he sees it as a potential \u201cside hustle\u201d down the road to supplement his income. He will graduate high school next summer and has yet to decide if he will go to college or pursue a trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of routes in mind right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jorcius\u2019 younger brother interned at Blue Swan Boulders, a rock-climbing gym in downtown Orlando.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fun. They taught me new things and I learned I needed to work on time management and get there on time,\u201d Tyquan Hall said.<\/p>\n

Victor\u00a0graduated from Jones High School this year and plans on studying international business at Valencia College in the fall on a scholarship from the Harris Rosen Foundation.<\/p>\n

After college, he hopes to land a job in the business world and earn enough money to help support his parents so they can retire. He is grateful for all the opportunities he was able to connect with through Kidz Zone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith my background, having the opportunity to go to college for no cost at all is something I know that others really want,\u201d he said. \u201cTo be in PKZ (Parramore Kidz Zone), to be honest with you, is probably the best experience anyone can truly have.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The program served 9,000 kids, slashed juvenile crime rates and boosted education in Parramore and other neighborhoods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nOrlando Kidz Zone celebrates 20 years of community impact - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=3389\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Orlando Kidz Zone celebrates 20 years of community impact - Orlando Relocation Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The program served 9,000 kids, slashed juvenile crime rates and boosted education in Parramore and other neighborhoods.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=3389\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Orlando Relocation Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-09T10:03:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/orlandorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=3389#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/orlandorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=3389\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/orlandorelocationreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/47d95744296542489ff5c4bd403450f8\"},\"headline\":\"Orlando Kidz Zone celebrates 20 years of community impact\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-09T10:03:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/orlandorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=3389\"},\"wordCount\":1329,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/orlandorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=3389#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/orlandorelocationreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/28d2292f4d5667ffc998d59b45a33ec4.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Education\",\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/orlandorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=3389#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/orlandorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=3389\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/orlandorelocationreport.com\\\/?p=3389\",\"name\":\"Orlando Kidz Zone celebrates 20 years of community impact - 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