Foundation picks its first group of civic winners. They ‘represent the best of Miami’
Ensuring a better tomorrow is part of what the Elevate Prize Foundation champions: young community changemakers who foster positive change and growth in their hometowns.
Elevate Cities, a new venture for the five-year-old foundation founded by philanthropist Joseph Deitch, chose Miami as its pilot city to honor three winning groups with its inaugural Elevate Miami Awards.
The awards were announced on Thursday, Give Miami Day.
The winners
The Elevate Miami Awards recipients each receive $25,000. They are:
- The Hive: A teen-led group studio exploring various artistic avenues, ranging from design and fashion to media and visual arts, to give young people the means to express themselves and build community.
- Health in the Hood: To deal with challenges like climate change, rising costs of living and extreme heat, this group turns vacant lots in Miami into thriving urban gardens to provide vegetables, offer shade, community and opportunity.
- Propelling Into Triumph (The PIT Center): A guiding force for young adults aging out of foster care.
“This first cohort of Elevate Miami Award recipients represents the very best of Miami,” said Kim Coupounas, CEO of Elevate Cities. . “They are builders of community — people and organizations who turn isolation into connection and hard realities into new possibilities. Our hope is that by elevating their stories and providing unrestricted support, we not only help them go further, but also remind everyone in Miami that there is so much good here worth seeing, supporting and celebrating.”
Picking the winners
Elevate Miami Impact Fellows from Miami Dade College helped evaluate finalists and select the winners after nominees were sought through a public callout on social media that generated nearly 2,500 responses. The students identified three major areas of need in Miami: housing, education, and climate.
These Miami Dade College student Changemakers are: Alejandro Fayad, Ian Rodríguez Galán, Diego Guiu, Sarahi Lovo, Madisson Orozco, Drew Raph-Lundeen, Darmonique Rivers and Malcolm Sims.
They hail from cities including Hialeah, Homestead and Miami and represent fields including nursing, applied AI and data analytics, political science and economics.
In addition to the students, the selection committee included representatives from Elevate Cities, The Miami Foundation and Radical Partners that funded the awards, with additional partnership including the Miami Herald and Miami Dade College and other supporters from South Florida.
The Elevate Miami Awards honor Miami-based changemakers and organizations making a tangible, positive difference in people’s lives — especially in ways that build connection, belonging and opportunity in their communities, according to Coupounas.
“These leaders are deeply embedded in the communities they serve. They see the needs firsthand, respond with both urgency and care, and build trust day by day,” she said. “They aren’t simply delivering services—they’re shaping the emotional and civic fabric of Miami.”
