Tomas Ramos is the founder, CEO and president of Oyate Group, a New York-based nonprofit organization with the mission to alleviate poverty. Driven by his belief that residents of the community he loves deserve to not just survive but thrive, he is committed to finding sustainable solutions to the challenges they face.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Tomas shifted his focus from his campaign for New York’s 15th congressional district to supporting New York’s hardest-hit borough by facilitating donations to increase ICU bed capacity and provide PPE for local hospitals. Tomas then launched Oyate Group to fight poverty, uplift local youth, support small businesses, provide access to life-saving healthcare, combat food insecurity and more. Tomas’s successful approach has been covered in numerous local, national and international news outlets, including The New York Times, Crain’s New York Business, WNYC, PIX11 and CBS New York.
Prior to founding Oyate Group, Tomas began his community organizing career as the program director for Children’s Arts and Science Workshops at the Bronx River Community Center, bringing with him a background in youth education and hospitality. While working at the community center, Tomas fought to secure funding for the first technology center in New York City public housing and won numerous awards and grants for local community centers and families living in low-income housing.
He also worked to develop financial literacy, civic engagement and college and job readiness programming for residents; planned and organized a conference to empower young men and boys of color, focusing on the negative impact of toxic masculinity and was appointed to New York State’s My Brother’s Keeper planning committee, which resulted in the creation of a Young Men’s Initiative mentoring program at the Bronx River Community Center.
He has worked with restorative justice agencies to facilitate a diversion program that enables low-level offenders to avoid the legal system and provides them with needed support. He was also a pioneer plaintiff of NYC’s Fair Chance Act, being one of the first individuals to sue a large corporation for discrimination.
A first-generation Dominican American, Tomas was born in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. In the late 1980s, while his father was incarcerated, Tomas and his mother relocated to Pennsylvania due to the effects of the crack cocaine epidemic and the war on drugs on his neighborhood. Upon his father’s release, the family moved to the Dominican Republic, where his parents remain to this day. Tomas later returned to the United States with his siblings and went on to finish high school and graduate from Temple University, where his passion for progressive ideas and social justice deepened.
AWARDS
- Recipient of the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2024)
- City & State NY’s 2024 Bronx Power 100
- City & State NY’s 2023 Bronx Power 100
- Crain’s Hispanic Leaders and Executive List (2021 & 2022)
- The Dominican Bar Association 2021 Community Trailblazer Award
- Hostos Community College 2022 Community Service Award
- Negocios Now NYC Latinos 40 under 40 Class of 2022
- VIP Community Services Community Builder Award 2022
- Dominican Women’s Development Center Outstanding Innovative Leader Award 2022