SUCCESS STORIES

Alfredo Romero

Alfredo Romero has been working with The Beat Within for the past year-and-a-half. Throughout his time with The Beat Within, he has grown tremendously. When he first came through the doors of their office, he was a full-time gang member. He had been to juvenile hall a few times in both San Francisco's Juvenile Justice Center and San Mateo's Hillcrest Center. He sold drugs and was getting into fights, gangbanging and leading a lifestyle that was a dead end.

While incarcerated he went to a Beat Within workshop. He thought about change, but needed a push, a discipline that would help ground him. He wrote for The Beat and when he saw his writing published, he felt proud, and had a sense of accomplishment. He liked The Beat and one of the facilitators encouraged him to come down to their offices for a job when he was released.

He took the facilitator up on the offer, showed up and asked for work. He began volunteering and then went on to work ten hours a week doing general office work improving his skills in typing, filing, working in an office setting, setting and sticking to a schedule and basic computer knowledge. After six months, staff at The Beat saw that he had valuable knowledge and was a productive member of the team.

Alfredo has proved to be an excellent employee, helpful, dedicated to his colleagues, and possessing a strong work ethic. He is a role model for his peers. David Inocencio, Alfredo's boss, says "We've seen so much change occur in Alfredo's life and we hope that we will continue to watch him grow as time passes." Alfredo truly deserves to be honored as a Youth Creating Change recipient.

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