Why 81 North Matters: The Story Behind EPIC Zone’s New Home

Every major fundraising campaign has a story behind the why. EPIC Zone’s story started years ago, long before we were asking for help to invest in our youth by helping us put in a kitchen, basketball court, or a sign out front.

EPIC Zone Origins

EPIC Zone Geneva opened its doors in 2016. But it didn’t start with a building of its own. In those early days, EPIC Zone operated out of a designated space inside the Geneva Boys & Girls Club, which served as an early partner and gave the program a place to begin serving teens before they had a place to call a home of their own.

The idea for a youth drop-in program actually came from the New York’s Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASIS), which was looking for clubhouse spaces already embedded within existing organizations to offer teens a safe, substance-free environment, whether they were in recovery or simply at risk. EPIC Zone was built to fill that need.

Youth-Led Model

EPIC Zone’s model has been shaped through listening to the community and adjusting based on feedback from the youth who attend. The original goal was to reach 140 kids ages 12-17. Since 2016, EPIC Zone has served well beyond that, with more than 700 youth and counting becoming members of a space built just for them, with the mission evolving to include all youth who need or want a space to belong.

Every day after school, up to 40 youth come to EPIC Zone for activities, meals, homework help, to hang with peers, or be with adults who are consistently there during the hours of the day when youth are most apt to experiment with risky behaviors.

A Home of Their Own

For years, EPIC Zone was located in a rental. But EPIC Zone Geneva outgrew its location, so the Ontario Cares team made the decision to purchase a building dedicated to our youth: 81 North Street.

“This new space represents the heart of what Ontario Cares stands for, which creates opportunities for connection, growth, and belonging,” said Gwen Van Laeken, executive director of Ontario Cares.

The new building also opened the door to a new partnership with FLX Unity Center, a hyperlocal Geneva nonprofit co-founded by Brianna Johnson-Whitfield and Allauna Overstreet-Gibson, focused on community connection and empowerment.

“The new facility will be an innovative community hub that provides a much-needed safe space for teens and young adults to vibe and grow intellectually and emotionally,” said Overstreet-Gibson, who also serves as EPIC Zone’s program coordinator.

Since the purchase of 81 North Street, FLX Unity Center has opened its doors for eight weeks of free summer programming for youth, from entrepreneurship camp and sailing lessons to culinary camp and more. After school and during late-summer afternoons, EPIC Zone Geneva remains a popular hangout, offering youth a space that meets them where they are. And all of it takes place at 81 North.

The youth center will soon host a Back-to-School Banger, offering free haircuts, clothing, and school supplies, and as school gets back into swing this September, the warmth of youth belonging will echo through its rooms and halls.

Why It Matters Now

While owning the space has given Geneva youth a place of their own, the building itself still needs work to grow into the home that FLX Unity Center and EPIC Zone’s kids deserve: a real kitchen where teens can learn to cook and share a meal together, a basketball court with a privacy fence where they can move, play, and stay safe while keeping neighbors happy, and signage that tells the neighborhood this space belongs to them.

Roughly 10 years after a grant helped a group of kids find a room inside another building, EPIC Zone finally has an address of its own. It’s more than an address or a space; it’s proof of what happens when a community listens to its youth and continues to show up for them.