Inland Empire youth advocate to receive California Peace Prize

Kismet Evans, who until recently worked with San Bernardino-based Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy, is scheduled to receive the California Peace Prize.

The California Wellness Foundation is scheduled to award the prize to Evans and two others Wednesday during a ceremony in Los Angeles.

"I am so humbly overwhelmed at receiving such an award as this," she said.

Evans, a former drug user who has been both incarcerated and homeless, said she began her advocacy work in 1999.

"A jail house prayer turned into a decade of kept promises," she said.

Evans, 47, lives in Riverside. Her current activities includes work with groups that she respectively founded and co-founded Men of Valor and Excellence and Inland Empire Veterans Stand Down.

She said the prize's $25,000 will be used to support her organizations.

Here's the announcement from the California Wellness Foundation.

"Kismet Evans has worked over the past decade to provide drug, alcohol, and violence- intervention counseling for youth and to increase public awareness of the trauma that incarceration has on families and communities. Most recently, she was a program manager for the Young Visionaries Youth Leadership Academy, where she worked to prevent violence and teen pregnancy through academics and job development among gang-affiliated and other youth at risk.

"In the 1990s, Evans was incarcerated for drug-related offenses and experienced periods of homelessness. After a year of outpatient drug treatment, she realized that she wanted to help others. She first worked at MFI Recovery Center, a co-ed residential treatment program in Woodcrest, California, and continued her work at Inland Valley Recovery Center, in a program for female parolees and their children. She founded Men of Valor and Excellence, a recovery transitional program, and co-founded Inland Empire Veterans Stand Down, a program that connects homeless veterans and their families to resources.

"Born in Fullerton, California, Evans graduated from California Paramedical Technical College, as salutatorian. She is a member of the Inland Empire Women's Business Center and Women's Circle of Success and she volunteers for the ASK Mentoring Outreach program. She has received accolades from policymakers and community leaders. Evans lives in Riverside, California.