Harder Times Call for Homeboy

17

Author: Claire Diggins

If you’ve ever taken the Metro gold line to Chinatown, you may have noticed a large building across from the station. With huge glass windows and a giant “Homeboy Industries” sign, the complex takes up nearly the entire block and is hard to miss, but the organization inside has been largely ignored.

Homeboy Industries is a local non-profit organization that has successfully assisted at-risk and formerly gang-involved youth in becoming positive and productive members of their communities for years. According to Homeboy Industry’s website, there are over 1,100 known gangs in Los Angeles, contributing to the greatest prevalence of gang-related violence in the country. In this climate, the services provided by Homeboy are critically important.

Unfortunately, the economic downturn has taken quite a toll on Homeboy Industries; they may not be able to keep their doors open to those who need their assistance the most unless greater community and government support materializes quickly. In May, the organization was forced to lay off over three quarters of its staff. 300 people were laid off, including senior staff and administrators, according to an L.A. Times article. Thanks to a recent L.A. County grant, the organization has been able to rehire 205 of these employees, but if they do not raise more money soon they will not be able to sustain these positions.

The loss of such an institution, which was founded in 1988 by Father Gregory Boyle, would be a great disappointment and disservice to the community. Homeboy began as a program called “Jobs For a Future” in a warehouse across from Father Boyle’s parish in Boyle Heights, during the height of the city’s gang wars. The program offered alternatives to gang violence in one of Los Angeles’ roughest neighborhoods, creating jobs for difficult to place young people and teaching them the job skills necessary to make them employable. The program quickly grew as more and more youths began to take advantage of the opportunities Jobs For a Future provided.

In a matter of years Father Boyle’s program expanded into Homeboy Industries. Homeboy Industries officially became an independent non-profit and is now a national model for similarly-minded organizations in 2001. The expansion included the addition of a bakery and tortilla stand, and the eventual move to the current complex located at 130 W. Bruno Street.

Homeboy has had a visible impact on Los Angeles’ gang problem and has continued to grow to meet the needs of the community. Word of Father Boyle and Homeboy’s mission has spread quickly – since Homeboy opened, thousands of youths and adults have sought refuge there, utilizing the services provided at Homeboy to redirect their lives.

“There is not a gang member in Los Angeles who doesn’t know about Homeboy,” Homeboy Security Officer and former gang affiliate Vance Webster said. He explained that Homeboy is viewed as a beacon of hope within the community, where opportunities and otherwise unimaginable second chances become possible.

A second chance is exactly what Homeboy offers thousands of people every day. Youth seek their services out of need, and there find a community that fosters positivity and love. Homeboy provides job opportunities and training through Homegirl Café, Homeboy Bakery, Homeboy Merchandise, Homeboy Silkscreen and Homeboy Press, which releases a literary magazine.

These businesses all offer valuable job experience to those who might otherwise not be able to find employment, preparing them to enter the workforce. Everyone employed at Homeboy in these work-readiness positions is issued a Case Manager and takes classes or uses services as part of their workday. The services offered at Homeboy are all free and open to the public. They include tattoo removal, parenting classes, education, mental health counseling, twelve step programs, employment counseling, anger management courses, counseling for domestic violence, domestic violence intervention and legal services. These aid programs are constantly adapted to meet the needs of the community.

Webster shared his inspiring testimony and personal appreciation for Homeboy Industries and Father Boyle. At the age of 16, Webster was sentenced to 25 years to life imprisonment. He was charged with accessory to murder for witnessing a murder and not reporting it to the police. Webster spent 28 years in prison. Just two years ago he was released with the help of Father Boyle. Webster’s mother, a schoolteacher, heard about Homeboy Industries and met Father Boyle by chance at a conference. She shared her son’s testimony with him, and he vowed to get him out of jail.

Father Boyle began to write letters to Webster’s parole board, promising to act as his sponsor and mentor upon release, and guaranteeing that he’d provide Webster with the resources and treatment he would need to reintegrate into society in a healthy manner. This commitment, along with Webster’s personal commitment to change while in jail, led to his release. Webster had always demonstrated good behavior while in prison, participating in most of their rehabilitation programs, and even founding one of his own. While incarcerated at Old Folsom Prison in Represa, California, Webster co-founded the Youth Diversion Program, in which the prison invited local youth to spend a day with prisoners, eat lunch with them, hear their stories and see first hand what life in prison is like. By showing children the reality of life in jail, the goal of this program is to prevent young people from making poor decisions which could result in their own imprisonment.

Webster praised Homeboy, where he is both employed and receiving therapeutic counseling, for helping him get back on his feet. “Thank God for places like Homeboy that gives me the resources to survive. The state just threw me out and said ‘survive.'” Webster explained that it is easier to train people to be productive citizens than to sustain them through state funding in jail.

Webster provides a first hand account of what a better solution places like Homeboy can be, by changing lives and making individuals positive, tax paying citizens who contribute to society.

“In prison,” Webster explained, “you have to learn how to function in an unusual and cruel way. You cannot think in there. The idea in jail isn’t to change people. Prison does not create a healthy environment for change; prison taught me to see everyone as a threat.”

Since his release, Webster has not only made a positive change at Homeboy, but around the community as well. As a representative for Homeboy Industries, he has spoken out against gang violence at political events, fundraisers and school events, in front of congressmen and women, celebrities and even the Los Angeles chief of police.

Webster is an incredibly moving individual and his positive spirit is contagious. At Homeboy I was enveloped by a sense of community and kindness. Even outside the complex on the street I felt supported and aware of a sense of friendship among the employees taking a break outside. They immediately offered me help and directed me where I needed to go. Once I entered these supportive vibes were heightened, and upon meeting Vance, they were solidified.

The Homeboy website describes the center as “a therapeutic community where those ready to move beyond gangs voluntarily seek our help,” and just from my brief exposure to the organization, it was strikingly clear that they’re providing just that.

Everyone was helping each other out with their different tasks, maintaining a positive atmosphere and checking each other’s behavior. Libby Mislan ’10 interned at Homeboy for their literary magazine, Homeboy Review, and felt fully incorporated into this restorative community as an intern.

“Homeboy Industries is definitely a community. I’ve worked in nonprofit environments where ‘community’ is just rhetoric, but Homeboy is the least contrived community I’ve encountered in a non-profit ever, hands down. It’s very self aware, honest and open,” she sai
d.

Everyone involved in Homeboy Industries is truly dedicated to transitioning their lives into something positive, and fostering an atmosphere where they can support each other to make the changes necessary to do that.

Webster said he encourages his colleagues to take the energy they formally put into negative actions, and convert into something productive. “We take the love and respect we cultivate here, and feed off it in the community.”

Homeboy Industries is providing a valuable service to all of Los Angeles, by directly assisting those who seek their services, and indirectly easing the burden gang violence places on our community and our state budget. It is unacceptable that this organization may have to shut their doors to the people who need their assistance most. According to the L.A. Times, this September the L.A. County Board of Supervisors granted them 1.3 million dollars, but Webster said that with 9 million dollars in annual operation costs, this grant will only keep them operational through the end of the year. Considering the violence and trauma that gangs leave the city with, Los Angeles would benefit from greater state funding for this organization, as opposed to the 12 million dollars Los Angeles County just spent to refurbish the Hollywood sign.

In addition to the staff cuts, Homeboy has had to cut several programs. One of the programs they have discontinued is the maintenance department, which worked towards disinfecting streets and cleaning the alleys, clearly a program with a ripple of positive effects for the community. “We’re hopeful,” says Webster, “but we’re also worried that financially we just won’t be able to meet the needs of those who seek out our services.”

Homeboy is currently running a “virtual car wash” online to raise money for the organization, and their goal is to receive a $10 dollar donation from one million people. The virtual car wash is a fundraising campaign founded on the idea that in many communities when someone or something is in need, a car wash is held to help them out. Homeboy is in need of some help from the community, and they are hopeful that they can receive the funds they need to stay open. Webster did not have any information on how the campaign has done so far, but it has gotten a fair amount of press.

They will use the funds to rehire the rest of their staff and sustain the programs they offer to their ever-growing community. We live in an area where gang violence is a real issue, and it is important that we support each other and work towards a more unified L.A. Helping an organization like Homeboy survive is a tangible means of doing this and enables positive change within our community.

At the end of our interview, Webster shared with me that once he began his correspondence with Father Boyle from prison he plastered a large photo of the beach on his wall, telling anyone who would listen that he would see it again one day. Upon his release he made it to the beach and said, “The only thing that is different about the picture now is that I am in it.” It was the power of belief and the power of revitalization that got Webster through his sentence and back into society, and that is what Homeboy is all about: change.

Visit homeboy-industries.org to make a donation, or check out their stores in person and buy a delicious cookie and support the cause. Homeboy Industries 130 W. Bruno St. Los Angeles, CA 90012 Open M-F 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

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