2018 Fellow
Meet Yoal
Yoal Kidane Ghebremeskel was born and raised in Eritrea, East Africa. At the age of 12 he emigrated with his family to the United States and Denver become his home. He was an English with a Second Language student and graduated from Denver’s South High School. Yoal received and fulfilled a full “Daniels Scholar” scholarship, which empowered him to attend and graduate with a B.A. from the Joseph Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Yoal has actively been engaged with the refugee and immigrant community in Colorado through his work with the African Community Center and the Piton Foundation. One of the reasons Yoal is so well known by former refugee youth and young adults, is his years of coaching, playing, and refereeing soccer.
Yoal co-founded the nonprofit youth center, Street Fraternity, in 2013 and has been its Executive Director since 2014. The Street Fraternity’s mission is to provide a place of brotherhood and personal growth for urban young men 14 – 25+ years of age who primarily live in the violent East Colfax Avenue neighborhoods of Aurora and Denver.
Yoal 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. He recently traveled to England with the U.S. State and Justice Departments to assist with and learn about global extreme violence issues.
Denver Post: How Livingston Fellow Yoal Ghebremeskel Helps Refugee Teens Through ‘Street Fraternity’
Recent Blog Posts: Yoal Ghebremeskel
Creating Brotherhood: Get to Know 2018 Livingston Fellow, Yoal Kidane Ghebremeskel
By Erica Boniface, Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Making a difference in people’s lives is never an easy task. But making a difference in the lives of young men that come from violence often takes patience, [...]