By elevating others, we rise together.
To honor the legacy of Buddy LaRosa — the Cincinnati icon who built a beloved pizza institution and spent decades lifting up kids through boxing — the Buddy LaRosa Center for Youth is building something bigger: a 52,000-square-foot Class A collaborative campus. The former Elmwood School is being reborn as Cincinnati's premier hub for youth development and community engagement.
OUR MISSION
To provide a sustainable campus of collaborative, youth-focused partner organizations that deliver services designed to elevate youth and adults in a safe, supportive, and positive environment that fosters self-esteem, positive life skills, healthy habits, and opportunities for growth and success.
OUR VISION
To develop a sustainable community campus that welcomes vetted partner organizations into affordable, collaborative space in service of our mission while providing a gathering place for residents, families, and organizations throughout the surrounding community.
OUR PARTNERS
Our first tenant, Cincinnati Golden Gloves for Youth, is already operating within the facility. Guided by its mission to provide at-risk youth with a cost-free opportunity to participate in Olympic-style amateur boxing in a safe and supportive environment, the organization currently serves more than 50 youth each day while helping participants develop essential physical, social, and life skills.
A champion for Cincinnati’s kids.
Buddy LaRosa built more than a hometown pizza institution. For decades, he poured himself into Cincinnati's kids — most of all through the sport of boxing, giving young people a place to belong, to work hard, and to believe in themselves.
The Buddy LaRosa Center for Youth center carries that name forward, and with it a simple conviction: that every child deserves a safe place, a caring adult in their corner, and a real shot at a better future.
To honor his legacy, the Buddy LaRosa Center for Youth will be a lasting home where the people already doing this work can do more of it, together.
More than a building, it will be a place where organizations work side-by-side to empower young people, strengthen families, and create pathways to lifelong success. What began as one man in a boxing gym is becoming a campus, a network, and a community.
One Roof. Endless Opportunity.
The former Elmwood School is being transformed into Cincinnati's premier hub for youth development — a 52,000-square-foot, Class A collaborative campus. Bringing together vetted nonprofit partners under one roof, the Buddy LaRosa Center for Youth will expand access to mentorship, education, wellness, athletics, and life-changing opportunities for Cincinnati youth, adults, and families to thrive.