Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34) welcomes Fr. Greg Boyle and other representatives of Homeboy Industries to our nation’s capital during an advocacy trip to urge lawmakers to support efforts to help at-risk youth and former gang members lead crime-free and productive lives.

Father Boyle is the founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries, which assists at-risk and former gang-involved youth to become positive and contributing members of society through job placement, training and education.  Under Father Boyle’s leadership, Homeboy Industries has grown into a nationally recognized program that has served members of more than half of the 1,100 known gangs in Los Angeles County. 

Homeboy Industries traces its roots to “Jobs For A Future” (JFF), a program created in 1988 by Fr. Greg at Dolores Mission parish. In an effort to address the escalating problems and unmet needs of gang-involved youth, Fr. Greg and the community developed positive alternatives, including establishing an elementary school, a day care program and finding legitimate employment for young people. JFF’s success demonstrated the model followed today that many gang members are eager to leave the dangerous and destructive life on the “streets.”

In 1992, as a response to the civil unrest in Los Angeles, Fr. Greg launched the first business (under the organizational banner of JFF and Proyecto Pastoral, and separated from Dolores Mission Church): Homeboy Bakery with a mission to create an environment that provided training, work experience, and above all, the opportunity for rival gang members to work side by side. The success of the Bakery created the groundwork for additional businesses, thus prompting JFF to become an independent non-profit organization, Homeboy Industries, in 2001. Today Homeboy Industries’ nonprofit economic development enterprises include Homeboy Bakery, Homeboy Silkscreen, Homeboy Maintenance, Homeboy/HomegirlMerchandise, and HomegirlCafé.  Homeboy Industries, now located in Downtown Los Angeles, is recognized as the largest gang intervention program in the county, and has become a national model.
 

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