Yoal Kidane Ghebremeskel
Co-founder and Executive Director of Street Fraternity Denver, CO Award Year: 2021Yoal Kidane Ghebremeskel is actively engaged with the refugee and immigrant community in Colorado through his work with the African Community Center and the Piton Foundation. He is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Street Fraternity, a nonprofit youth center that serves as a place of brotherhood and personal growth for urban young men ages 14-25+ years of age who primarily live in the violent East Colfax Avenue neighborhood that runs through Denver and Aurora. Yoal traveled to England with the U.S. Departments of State and Justice, assisting with and further learning about global extreme violence issues. He is a member of the 2015 Denver Metro Chamber Foundation Leadership Denver Class and received the 2016 My Brother’s Keeper Award, the 2017 Martin Luther King, Jr. Business Award, and the 2017 Mayor’s Diversity and Inclusion Award.
Yoal is using a portion of his award to purchase land in rural Colorado for a retreat and convening space for Street Fraternity participants. They will share it with other organizations that work with young men from urban areas in CO.
Yoal plans to use a portion of his award post-pandemic for international travel expenses in order to send Street Fraternity staff to visit refugee camps in the countries from which their families immigrated.