Rev. Gregory Boyle is the founder and executive director of the Homeboy Industries. Boyle is a Los Angeles Native, who joined the Jesuits and was ordained to be a Catholic priest in 1984. He studied a bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy at Gonzaga University and obtained a master’s degree in English, Divinity, and Sacred Theology from Loyola Marymount University, Weston School of Theology, and Jesuit school of Theology at Berkeley respectively. Boyle worked with Christian communities in Cochabamba in Bolivia, served as the chaplain in Mexican corrective facility and California before joining the poorest Catholic Parish (Dolores mission church) in Los Angeles that had several gangs (“Father Greg,” n.d.).
It was during his service at Dolores that he pioneered the creation of positive opportunities for former gang members. He believed that gang violence resulted from the absence of hope. These efforts led to the formation of the Homeboy Industries. Homeboy Industries provide alternative school and day care programs and help the gang members to secure legitimate employment. The industries focus on providing hope, vocational training, and support to former gang members especially after leaving corrective facilities to make them positive contributing members of the society. The efforts aimed at reducing the rates of recidivism. Recidivism is not only costly to the state but also deprives the youths hope and a chance for living decently. In Los Angeles, two-thirds of released young criminals were rearrested with re-incarceration of about a third of them. About ten thousand previously gang members from across Los Angeles graduate from the Homeboy Industries annually. In particular, the Homeboy industry offer education, tattoo removal, treatment of substance abuse, other therapies and job placement (“Why we do it” n.d.). Boyle travels globally at the invitation of government agencies interested in the Homeboy Industries model due its success in helping freed prisoners reintegrate into the community.
Works cited
"Father Greg." Homeboy Industries. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 June 2016. Available at <http://www.homeboyindustries.org/fatherg/>
“Why we do it.” Homeboy Industries. N.p. n.d. Web. 22 June 2016. <http://www.homeboyindustries.org/why-we-do-it/>
