TERRY GROSS, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. My guest, Father Greg Boyle, has worked with former gang members in LA for over 30 years. He's the founder of Homeboy Industries, which was created to help former gang members and people transitioning out of prison create stable lives and stay out of gangs. Instead of Father Greg trying to convince business owners to hire young people who are at risk, he created jobs for them through Homeboy Industries.
Homeboy is a series of businesses including a restaurant, a bakery, cafe, farmers markets created with the purpose of hiring these young people so they can have on-the-job training. The employers come from rival gangs so they have to put aside their distrust and hatred of each other. Homeboy also provides other job training and social service programs. It's now the largest gang intervention and re-entry program in the U.S.
Back in the '80s and '90s, Father Greg spent a lot of time on the streets. He's witnessed shootings, he's buried over 200 young people and he's kept on with the work in spite of being diagnosed with a chronic form of leukemia about 15 years ago. He started working with gangs in 1986 when he became the pastor of the Dolores Mission Church in East LA, which was then the city's poorest Catholic parish. He's just written his second book, called, "Barking To The Choir: The Power Of Radical Kinship."
Father Greg Boyle, welcome back to FRESH AIR. It's great to have you back on the show.
[To read the transcript from this interview, go to https://www.npr.org/2017/11/13...e-with-jobs-and-love]
Photo: Thanksgiving at Homeboy Industries 2012
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