Yoal Ghebremeskel 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 was born and raised in Eritrea, East Africa. At the age of 12 he emigrated with his family to the United States through a Diversity Visa and Denver became 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 is a member of the 2015 Leadership Denver Class and 2020 CIVIC DNA Class of Metro Chamber Leadership Foundation. He received the 2016 My Brother’s Keeper Award, the 2017 Martin Luther King, Jr. Business Award, the 2017 Mayor’s Diversity and Inclusion Award, and 2018 Livingston Fellow with Bonfils Stanton Foundation. He traveled to England with the U.S. State and Justice Departments to assist with and learn about global extreme violence issues. He’s a 2020 recipient of The Black Voices for Black Justice Fund; a fund addressing structural and systemic racism in America by supporting Black leaders at the national and community level. He’s also 2021 awardee of Colorado Changemakers in the What’s Story Exhit? featuring those who have made an impact in the state and inspired by Colorado Governor’s Citizenship Medal.