Over the span of five months, young people in Fresno came together to design, sketch and paint a massive mural for Louie Kee Market (1041 Tulare St in West Fresno), a family-owned business with more than 87 years of history and service to the residents of West Fresno. Under the creative guidance of muralist and artist Josue Rojas, the youth designed a mural depicting the pride of the local community and its young people.
The Know Youth Media, The Muralistics, Youth for Christ and the Youth Engagement Team of Building Healthy Communities are just a few of the youth groups along with many community members that worked together to create the new mural.
The mural is part of a long-term project to promote healthy and positive youth participation in the community, and is made possible by a grant from Building Healthy Communities, an initiative of the California Endowment.
In 2006, over 25 youth began participating in weekly after-school writing workshops where they congregated in the hallway of a two-story building in West Fresno and learned the essentials of creating media and telling their stories. The group evolved over the next five years and is now proudly recognized as The kNOw Youth Media.
Through our program, we create opportunities for our youth participants, who in turn create long-term positive change in their communities. Our approach weaves youth development and youth media innovation to produce our biannual youth publication, multimedia projects, and community forums.
The kNOw began as a project of New America Media, which was the country’s first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations. In 2018 The kNOw became a project of Youth Leadership Institute.
