Pedro Bernal
Credible Messenger, Navigator, Organizer
510-806-5687
Pedro Bernal is from San Pablo, CA, and is proud of his Latin heritage. He graduated high school yet was deeply impacted by drugs, gun violence, and losing loved ones. Pedro experienced lots of trauma and lost many people to gun violence while attending high school, and he would find himself making decisions that ended up getting him locked up out of state in Clark County after high school. After incarceration, Pedro realized jail was nowhere for him. He knew he needed to figure out what the next step was.Â
In early 2022, Carlos Fernandez, a Richard Boyd Fellowship (RBF) alumni with Safe Return Project, recommended Pedro for the program after dealing with a charge in the courts he applied for the RBF program. He realized organizing was for him when he shadowed Carlos Fernandez and learned to work with youth and help them with their everyday struggles living in an impoverished area. Pedro dedicated himself to the year-long RBF program and graduated in June 2023. He also signed up for the Collective Impact Institute (CII), from which he completed the CII program in August 2022. Â
In June 2023, He was offered the position of Credible Messenger/ Organizer/ Navigator at SRP. He works closely with youth, mentoring, developing, and building relationships through one-to-one interactions. Pedro is also involved in our weekly Young Latinx Men's Support Group Program, joins SRP team members at outreach events, and assists participants in navigating programs, where each day, he takes away something new and gains a new perspective by hearing and learning how everything, large or small, impacts people's lives. He hopes to help at-risk youths and help eliminate police brutality and profiling in his community.
In his free time, Pedro likes to spend it with his family, dog, and community.