My tour guide (let's call him Jim, since I didn't ask permission to publish his info) had been sentenced for life at age 17, but got out on parole partly because of what Homeboy Industries had to offer him. One of the first places Jim took me was the janitor's closet, "We all pretty much start here and work our way up," he told me. He's been at Homeboy a year, and because of the sociology classes he took while in jail and his passion for sharing his story he is now working with the youth outreach portion of the program. The tour started in the garden, where Jim shared Homeboy's roots and rough beginnings. It began as a charter high school, then a bakery, where the complexities to having a bunch of ex-gang members from competing gangs thrown together in one building revealed themselves in arguments and violence. The old bakery building burned down, but this led to a new and better facility, along with classes, counseling, group therapy, and countless other services to be built up around the training program.
Jim said, "When the rich have problems, they get counselors. When the poor have problems, they get probation officers and jail. Here, we are all rich; everyone gets counselors if they have issues they want to work through." And everyone gets everything, if they choose to take advantage of the plethora of resources that Homeboy offers. Everything I learned about was prefaced by the words, "Now you're really gonna trip on this," or "the real trip about this is"....and the tour really was a trip. Homeboy is doing almost everything you could think of in the job training/re-entry/reconciliation/non-profit/social enterprise/etc realm.
Check out their website or watch the video below if you're interested to know more about their programs, but one unique offering: tattoo removal. Free for anyone and everyone, prioritizing the neck up and elbow down. Why? You can have job training and re-entry services up the wazoo, but if the goal is to help someone get a job in the "real world".... Jim told me this story: One of Homeboy's trainees had tried and tried to get a job, and could not understand why he wasn't getting hired. Meanwhile, across his forehead the words "FUCK THE WORLD" screamed out the answer.... thus began their tattoo removal services. A first degree burn that's enough to make grown men cry (Jim gave me first-hand account of this), and two little star-shaped stress balls are the only tools provided to get them through it. That there, folks, is determination.
I'm hoping next time around I can meet G in person... but for now let's sit and listen to him together on camera:
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