“Seeing my best friend die, seeing other family members dying because of this gang life, you know, that’s what opened me, opened my eyes.”
The bakery is part of Homeboy Industries, a safe place for former gang members and prisoners to prepare themselves for a job in the real world. They take part in an 18-month-long program that includes job training, education, advice on careers and even tattoo removal.
Father Gregory Boyle, a Catholic clergyman, created Homeboy Industries. He says former gang members find they have much in common after they enter the program.
“Everybody wants to feed their kids and pay their rent honestly and nobly. Everybody just wants their mom to be proud of them and their kids not to be ashamed. So that’s your common interest.”
Father Boyle launched the program 25 years ago. At the time, he was working in a neighborhood with the highest level of gang activity in the world. He says many young people wanted to leave gang life, but it was hard to get support from the community.
“Convincing employers to hire them, that’s hard. Convincing people to give us money to fund this place, that’s hard. Convincing law enforcement and others not to demonize anybody, that was hard.”
Father Boyle says the community eventually discovered that sending gang members to prison did not stop the violence. What helped was giving former gang members education, training, and mental health care. Last year, 8,000 former gang members came to Homeboy Industries for help. Father Boyle says 70 percent of those in the program do not return to prison.
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25