070. Gregory Boyle: Transforming gang members in Los Angeles

Father Greg Boyle

Gregory Boyle joined the Jesuit Order more than three decades ago. He was sent to the Dolores Mission in Los Angeles, which, at that time, was the poorest parish in the city and had the highest concentration of gang activity in the world. Father Greg witnessed the devastating impact of gang violence on his community during the so-called “decade of death” that began in the late 1980s and peaked at 1000 gang-related killings in 1992.  In the face of law enforcement tactics and criminal justice policies of suppression and mass incarceration as the means to end gang violence, he and the community members adopted what was a radical approach at the time: Treat gang members as human beings. Where others only saw criminals, Father Greg saw people in need of help.

At first, he tried to bring about ceasefire and peace among the warring gangs and that was a failure. He realized that peacemaking required conflict, and that there was no conflict in gang violence. There was violence, but there was no conflict.

Gang violence is about a lethal absence of hope. It is about kids who can’t imagine a future for themselves. It is about kids who weren’t seeking anything when they joined a gang. It is about the fact that they’re always fleeing something — always, without exception. Many of them have been abandoned or they come from a single-parent home. There are drugs and violence and incarceration in these kids’ families. It is about kids who’ve ceased to care.

Father Greg realized that he should infuse young people with hope, when it seems that hope is foreign. He popularized the radical notion that even the most demonized individuals can thrive when given a second chance. He began training the gang members (called homeboys and homegirls) in productive vocations. In the beginning he partnered with local Los Angeles businesses, encouraging them to hire homeboys and homegirls. Social enterprise has been at the heart of his work for over 30 years.

Eventually, Homeboy Industries was established as a nonprofit and began creating and operating its own job training businesses. Now, Homeboy Industries has grown from a single bakery to almost a dozen social enterprises including Electronics Recycling, Bakery, Merchandise, Café, Catering, Silkscreen & Embroidery, Diner at L.A. City Hall, Farmer’s Market, and Grocery. The enterprises provide both a vital training ground for clients as well as revenue streams to support the mission. Expansion of the businesses proves that people can transcend their pasts and become valuable, empowered employees and business leaders. In addition to Homeboy Industries, Father Greg’s work with young men and women also includes free services like life counseling and tattoo removal.

What began in 1988 as a way of improving the lives of former gang members in East Los Angeles has evolved into the largest gang intervention, rehab and re-entry program in the world. Each year they welcome thousands of people who come to them seeking to transform their lives. Whether joining their 18-month employment and re-entry program or seeking discrete services such as tattoo removal or substance abuse resources, their clients are embraced by a community of kinship and offered a variety of free wraparound services to facilitate healing and growth. In addition to serving almost 7000 members of the immediate Los Angeles community in 2018, their flagship 18-month employment and re-entry program was offered to over 400 men and women.

Over the past 30 years, the tide of gang activity in Los Angeles has turned, the field of re-entry services has broadened, and public safety has become more enlightened in ways that would not have been possible without the advocacy of Homeboy Industries. The healing and re-entry is often not achieved in a straight line—it can take years, with detours along the way. But the impact is evident in each life transformed, and as those lives impact their families and communities, they create a positive ripple effect not only around the city of Los Angeles, but in communities around the world.

Homeboy Industries went worldwide in 2014 when it launched The Global Homeboy Network (GHN). Since then, over 400 organizations from around the world have visited their Los Angeles campus to engage with them. This  global network continues to expand each year. In the summer of 2019, Homeboy Industries hosted individuals devoted to supporting marginalized populations in Los Angeles to learn from Homeboy Industries’ model and to share best practices. What began in 1988 as a way of improving the lives of former gang members in East Los Angeles has today become a blueprint for over 400 organizations around the world, from Alabama and Idaho, to Guatemala and Scotland.

Afterword: Fr. Greg Boyle first became known to a wide audience in the 1990s, when a book was written about him called G-Dog and the Homeboys. In 2010, he wrote his own very moving memoir, Tattoos on the Heart, and later a follow-up, Barking to the Choir. He has received many awards. In 2020, Homeboy Industries was awarded the $2.5 million Conrad N Hilton Foundation Humanitarian Award. Father Greg has been battling leukemia for many years, but his dedication and sense of humor are as great as ever.

For this story, I have drawn heavily from the Homeboys website and Father Greg’s interview with Krista Tippett.