First Serve Miami

First Serve Miami (fsm) is a community-based organization located in Miami, Florida that was established in 1974 to support the development of youth through academics and athletics (tennis). As a 501c3 not-for profit organization, fsm has impacted the lives of well over 40,000 Miami youth at moore park and other community parks throughout south Florida. Fsm has been a successful organization because of its ongoing partnership with the city of Miami's parks and recreation department, and sponsors, such as the children's trust, united states tennis association foundation and Florida section (ustaf & usta-fl), the garner foundation, Miami open. Our support also includes many south Florida and miami-based influential individuals including gerald moore, esq, manuel medina, alan rosenthal, esq, dr. john uribe, jeffrey binder, and fred stolle. With the aforementioned support, fsm has created and implemented impactful skills development programs at moore park for Miami's underserved youth from ages five (5) through eighteen (18) years old. Since 1999, we have utilized the ashe-buchholz tennis center at moore park to teach youth life skills, tennis, literacy, and nutrition, as well as provided training in drug abuse, gang violence, teamwork, and conflict resolution/crisis de-escalation. Through our elite program, adopt-a-player that began in 2008, fsm has helped fifty-seven (57) of fifty-eight (58) high school graduates obtain full or partial scholarships to attend colleges and universities such as st. thomas university, Miami dade college, wingate university, vanderbilt university, Texas university, Florida international university and boston college. In addition, fsm partnered with ustaf and usta-fl in september 2021 and implemented the south Florida youth tennis program (sfytp). Sfytp was created to officially operate in Miami dade and broward counties' existing afterschool programming operating in underserved communities. Since the inception of september 2021 to today, fsm has impacted over 1,500 youth by introducing them to tennis for the First time.