Youth Empowerment

Youth Empowerment is a frontline grassroots community organization that has risen from humble beginnings. The City Heights neighborhood, San Diego’s most diverse community with the highest rates of poverty and interpersonal violence, raised Youth Empowerment’s founders, husband and wife Arthur and Gaby Soriano, and their life-long friend Robert Ontiveros. In 2015, following 24 years of incarceration, Arthur returned with a newfound vision and conviction to heal and transform. With this in mind, Arthur started connecting with other former gang members he knew who were also looking to change their ways. The couple and Mr. Ontiveros began holding weekly barbecues at Teralta Park and established a sense of family and credibility that helped the youth see a life beyond the confines of their neighborhood. These grassroots beginnings would build the model that would eventually become Youth Empowerment. Since then, Youth Empowerment has been a thriving grassroots organization with programs that serve San Diego’s justice-involved and high-needs families and communities. Six years later, Youth Empowerment is a leader of the Community Mentors, also known as Credible Messengers, movement and has received local and national recognition for its efforts. This movement has proven that those who have exited the justice system and transformed their lives are the most credible messengers when working with justice-impacted youth, adults, and families. In 2019, after twenty-five years of incarceration and determined to heal the community she once harmed, Niki Martinez joined the team and has accelerated Youth Empowerment’s programming growth and partnerships. She, along with all lived experience mentors, are committed to standing with those who are returning to the community as they embrace their path of healing and transformation.