WAKE UP MIAMI is a community empowerment campaign. Its objective is two-fold: 1) To empower residents who live in the District 5 community to reclaim their neighborhoods 2) To change the negative public perception of inner city communities by creating a renewed interest in rebuilding impoverished neighborhoods to attract new homeowners, businesses and stakeholders to the community.

WAKE UP MIAMI calls for everyone to get involved by: empowering yourself, your family and your community. As Miami grows by leaps and bounds, WAKE UP MIAMI’ s purpose is to prepare our residents for this unprecedented growth, because our future depends on it.

WAKE UP MIAMI will encompass a targeted outreach campaign in four neighborhoods within District 5: Overtown, Liberty City, Wynwood and Little Haiti. It will include a series of community workshops that is geared towards empowering residents and potential stakeholders in the community.

Outreach/ Community Engagement:
A multi-layered outreach and marketing approach will focus on personal encounters from a grassroots level. The outreach plan consists of an aggressive door to door survey in Overtown, Liberty City, Wynwood and Little Haiti to collect data on how residents feel about their community. The surveys consist of key questions designed to gather information on residents’ concerns prior to implementing the forum. The preliminary surveys will help to ensure that each workshop appropriately addresses residents concerns.

The outreach plan also includes reaching out to local churches, neighborhood and homeowner associations, businesses and community-based organizations. Information on WAKE UP MIAMI will be distributed to these organizations. In addition, the City’s parks and Neighborhood Enhancement Team offices, which serve as a one-stop-shop resource center for services offered within the community, will provide an additional neighborhood outreach avenue.

Throughout the WAKE UP MIAMI campaign: banners ,door knockers, buttons, window signs and t-shirts with the WAKE UP MIAMI message will be distributed throughout District 5.


Reclaim and Rebuild Community Workshops:
An integral part of the campaign will include a series of community building and empowerment workshops. These workshops will take place in Overtown, Liberty City, Little Haiti and Wynwood. The workshops are designed to engage residents, businesses, stakeholders and representatives from the City of Miami in a meaningful dialogue about the future of their community. The spirit of the forums will be inspirational and informative, revolving around a genuine concern for each resident, each neighborhood and the opportunity to become active participants in the inevitable growth and progress facing District 5.Residents participating in the day-long workshop will define needs, issues and potential solutions to use in development of future programs, services and allocation of resources for the community.

Each workshop will feature a keynote speaker who will use the power of the spoken word to help instill a renewed sense of community pride to residents’ .The inaugural Overtown event featured legendary motivational speaker, Les Brown, who grew up in Miami’s Liberty City and graduated from Booker T. Washington High School. Les Brown has joined the WAKE UP MIAMI campaign by facilitating on-going monthly workshops to empower and train residents and business owners.

WAKE UP MIAMI is supported by the Dade Community Foundation, the Knight Foundation and the City of Miami Community Redevelopment Corporation. For more information about WAKE UP MIAMI, call (305) 250-5390


Calls to Action