Ed Note: On May 1, 2019, the Fresno City Council held a special meeting to discuss and vote on the Responsible Neighborhood Market Ordinance (RNMO). Fresno has become one of the most liquor store saturated cities in the nation, and the ordinance is set to change that by putting a cap on the alcohol retailer licenses the city gives out and putting restrictions around the liquor stores being built near parks or schools. If any new store wants to sell beer, wine or liquor, it will have to purchase an existing license from stores in Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7. The ordinance was sponsored by Councilmembers Miguel Arias, Nelson Esparza and Luis Chavez, who worked alongside Youth Leadership Institute’s Friday Night Live youth to put this ordinance forward. The young people of YLI have been working on passing an ordinance similar to this for 7 years, and after 7 years, all their hard work has come to fruition as the ordinance unanimously passed 6-0.
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.
