Purpose Prize

Marc Freedman Portrait

The Latest from CoGenerate

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

Want to Recruit Younger People? Look Within

Denise Webb, 20, is a CoGenerate Senior Fellow. She’s a student at Berry College and a seasoned activist, working with organizations including United Way, Partnership for Southern Equity and The Sunrise Movement. She is the co-author of Why Aren’t We Doing This!...

What Young Leaders Want — And Don’t Want — From Older Allies

What Young Leaders Want — And Don’t Want — From Older Allies

We know from our nationally representative study with NORC at the University of Chicago in 2022 that 76% of Gen Z and 70% of Millennial respondents wish they had more opportunities to work across generations for change.  In a new report, What Young Leaders Want — And...

*

Eva Leivas-Andino

YES Institute in Miami
Purpose Prize Fellow 2011

Leivas-Andino reaches out to Spanish-speaking families about the need to protect youths from harassment and violence.

Twenty-one years ago, Eva Leivas-Andino, a political refugee from Cuba, was devastated when her son Paolo came out as gay. Terrified of what her family and friends would say she kept her son’s sexual orientation secret.

On a visit to New York eight years later, Paolo took her to see a play about playwright Oscar Wilde, who was tried and convicted for being gay in 19th century England. Paolo, after the play, opened up to Leivas-Andino about how painful it had been to grow up without his parents’ support or understanding.

Faced with his pain, Leivas-Andino decided it was time to “transform people’s hearts.” A friend introduced her to Project YES, now YES Institute, whose mission is to prevent suicide and ensure the healthy development of all youths through education about communication and gender.

An insecure volunteer at first, today Leivas-Andino is the Miami-based organization’s chief financial officer and director of programs in Spanish, working in partnership with religious communities, schools, social service agencies, hospitals and police departments throughout the country and Latin America. YES Institute reached more than 4,000 people in 2010 alone.

Now, Leivas-Andino tells her friends, “Get out of your living rooms, find your passion and go out and change the world one day at a time.”