Fr Pinosa, currently Director of the Salesian community of Ljubljana Kodeljevo and collaborator of the Salesian work for young people at risk, was honored with the "National Award for Contribution to the Promotion of the Youth Sector." The commission that granted the award, in the statement of motivation, declared:
Rafo Pinosa has spent his whole life working with young people, an activity he interprets as a mission. Thanks to his charisma, he enjoys an enormous influence on the creation and professionalization of youth organizations and on the networking of various organizations in the youth sector. In his work, he uses the preventive educational method introduced by Don Bosco, which has brought the culture of working with youth to a very high level. Through his efforts, he has helped many young people active in youth organizations to become responsible adults.
Of particular importance was the impact of Rafo Pinosa on social cohesion, which he achieved by working with disadvantaged children and adolescents in a culturally, religiously and ethnically diverse environment such as that of immigrants from the former Yugoslavia, and today adds assistance to the teaching and the accompaniment of individuals.
In his work, Rafo Pinosa has also actively participated in numerous national work organizations ... [In particular those dedicated to the themes of poverty and volunteering.]
Rafo Pinosa has also been active in the field of non-formal education. Today work with young people cannot be imagined without the acknowledgment of non-formal education, and this is also an important contribution to the development of work with young people. In his long career with young people, he has acted as a visionary, innovator, creator, initiator and motivator and was a driving force in every youth organization in which he worked or in which he is still active today.
Receiving the prize, Fr Pinosa gave thanks for the award, but above all expressed his joy for the youth-related discussion he witnessed at the National Conference, expressing that "as long as we discuss the challenges of young people, it is worth staying in this sector."
