It was an exciting day for YLI when Youth Leader Joseph received the Volunteer of the year award out of 130 nominees representing the Central Valley!
Joseph was honored with this award in recognition of his community change work in the South East Neighborhood Transformation Team (SENTT) as Friday Night Live youth council leader and his volunteerism at his local church and Leavenworth Saturday Sports.
SENNT leads a coalition of youth, city officials, and community workers to change environmental factors that lead to unhealthy decisions. With SENTT, Joseph has been empowered to find solutions to the issues of negative advertising and the saturation of liquor outlets, which are one root cause of local violence and underage drinking.
To encourage Fresno city officials to implement policies that restrict liquor advertising, SENTT youth survey their community and gather research to inform their advocacy work. By changing environmental factors to encourage young people to make healthy decisions, SENTT shields residents from the negative advertising that low income communities are so often bombarded with.
We are so proud of Joseph!