Benjamin Hoffner-Brodsky

Davis, CA | 17

2017 Award Recipient

When Benjamin Hoffner-Brodsky was in tenth grade, a friend of his who was homeless committed suicide. In response to this loss, Ben leveraged his significant involvement with Youth Leadership Davis (YLD) to provide an outlet for informed, compassionate, and spiritual students to engage with their community. Since then, he has ensured a constant flow of trained interns help run and oversee the Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter’s (IRWS) operations, which manages more than 2,000 volunteers. Through the YLD program, high school students intern at non-sober shelters that provide the homeless with warm meals, a place to sleep, and other resources. Volunteers undergo rigorous training and a certification program. Ben is working on converting both YLD and IRWS into models so that other communities can start faith-based, volunteer-driven shelters.