The Exchanges

Q Angeles. You're such a legendary figure there. Um, you've been awarded the California Peace Prize and you know, I mean, you're a priest. At the end of the day, like, you're a priest. You still do mass, obviously socially distant for people who are incarcerated, but you're also an entrepreneur. Did you consider yourself as an entrepreneur when you founded this organization? Do you think of yourself that way now?

A My board would never co-sign on the notion that I know anything about business. So I don't really see it that way, but we were always responding. If tattoos had become an obstacle and gang members wanted them off, we started that. Even in terms of our businesses, they were all kind of haphazard. You know, there was no business plan. There was an abandoned bakery across the street from our school, our parochial school, And a movie producer named Ray Stark after the unrest in 92 wanted to help And I said, well, okay, I don't know. Buy this bakery. It has ovens. They don't work. You could fix them. We could put hairnets on enemy rival gang members. Well, that was the entirety of my business plan. So I think, I think everything else kind of operated in the same way. There was a couple from the parish who wanted to start Rodriguez silk screening. And I said, well, don't start a homeboy silk screening. And so that's how that was born. So, you know, it wasn't like, uh, some big master plan, you know, it was all kind of accidental. You know, we have the thing called the Global Homeboy Network, which is, uh, you know, 300 programs in the country and outside. Kind of, uh, modeled on our methodology, you know, and they all want to start a social enterprise, and, and they all want to do food, which I always say don't, but, you know, because food is hard.

AI assessment note: “So I don't really see it that way, but we were always responding.”

Q As you know very well, I mean, the pandemic has, has particularly hit Communities of color hard. A lot of Latino communities in Los Angeles have been hit harder than other communities. What's been happening with, with folks who've been through your program that are involved in, in Homeboy Industries? How have you been able to support or even maybe even protect them during this time?

A Well, like everybody, we were probably shut down for the first two months, maybe, but we've been open since then, where we've been designated by the mayor as an essential organization, so our protocols are quite strict. They take the temperature, there's a series of questions, everybody has to wear a mask, and everybody is distant, so the only thing we haven't done in our headquarters, we haven't yet figured out how to do tattoo removal, Because it's such a small space, and they haven't figured it out, but they will. But, you know, I've, I've done two double funerals from COVID, a homie and his father, and then a homie's mom and grandmother. And it's not every day that you do double funerals, you know, I mean, it's kind of a remarkable thing, and, and I just know countless folks who, because they're disproportionately impacted by the virus, because they're, you know, they're in these essential worker positions, and so the risk level gets higher.

AI assessment note: “designated by the mayor as an essential organization, so our protocols are quite strict”

Q Father Greg, I want to bring in some questions from our audience. This is from Rohan Shah via Facebook, and Rohan's in North Carolina, and asks, do you think some of the training programs that, that you're engaged in could actually begin in prison?

A Yeah, they could. I mean, prisons, you know, should shift from punishment to, to be more restorative, for sure. We've been invited in once, uh, there was a warden who was very progressive who wanted to give Homeboy Industries a whole pod of the prison, but we kind of feel like it's a little bit like rehab. You know, if you force people into rehab, it doesn't really work. So we always say, you know, walk through our doors and we gotcha. But you kind of have to walk through our doors. Our program is not for those who need it. It's only for those who want it. Certainly prisons could do better than they're doing. Instead of just warehousing, they could be helpful. But, ah, you know, there's something about, you know, kind of walking through the door and choosing that, that's, um, fuller and more whole.

AI assessment note: “Yeah, they could. I mean, prisons, you know, should shift from punishment”

Q ideas you had, and you talked about this in a TED talk you gave was, um, Was Homeboy Plumbing, a plumbing service, which was not successful. It did not work out, um, which is important. You've got to try things, and they may fail. How do you, how do you evaluate which social enterprises to pursue? Like, if you're thinking about a new idea now, what do you look for?

A Yeah, that was a tough one, because, you know, people come to us, and so two great guys who were starting their own business, you know, Lopez Plumbing, and they were graduates of Loyola Marymount University, so there was a kind of a, uh, Jesuit connection there, and so it was homeboy plumbing, you know, but who knew, uh, people didn't want gang members in their homes, you know, so it was not very successful, and it became a black hole, and so at some point the board went, oh no, no, no, we gotta stop this. So that happens, you know, you back into things, you know, people will say, this seems like a good idea, what's the worst that could happen? It could fail, you know, so, so big deal. I'm personally not very big on, let's plot this one out. You know, you go with your gut, but, you know, I'm not the CEO of Homeboy anymore, so I have a wonderful business person who has lots of experience. You know, his gut is better than mine, so we're always exploring new ventures because God knows the demand is high.

AI assessment note: “I'm personally not very big on, let's plot this one out. You know, you go with your gut”

Q your books. Hey, welcome back to How I Built This Resilience Edition, and I'm talking with Father Gregory Boyle. He's the founder of Homeboy Industries. With California releasing thousands of incarcerated people to prevent the spread of COVID-nineteen, I asked Father Greg how Homeboy Industries has been impacted. Are you finding, you know, just swelling numbers of people who are looking to become part of the organization and to work?

A That has not relaxed in any way at all. So we're, we're still inundated because they were kind of the only game in town, you know, where people come wanting to reimagine their lives. To say nothing of the fact that it looks like we'll be at 300 homicides in L.A., Come the end of the year, and we haven't had that since 2009, but it's a rise, and again, it's if, if our diagnosis is steady, which is, this is about a lethal absence of hope, and obviously, you know, the economy and the virus have impacted that hope or lack thereof. So, you know, we need to infuse hope where hope is foreign, and that will Go a long way to make the streets safer, but, uh, I've, I've buried a lot of homies, uh, killed during this time of pandemic, which, uh, wasn't so much true before it.

AI assessment note: “That has not relaxed in any way at all. So we're, we're still inundated”

Q I, I heard you talk about this concept of radical kinship. In a TED talk you gave, finding connection and common ground with strangers. How does that idea steer your leadership?

A Well, kinship is the whole goal. You know, if I could get sort of biblical here, you know, Jesus says that you may be one and that we belong to each other. So you want to create a, a community of beloved belonging. You know, the great John Lewis says, We all live in the same house. That's not an aspiration. It's not one day we might. Or some people live in the basement, and some people live on the third floor. No. We all live in the same house. So homeboy tries to be the front porch of the house everybody wants to live in, a place of radical kinship, of exquisite mutuality, where there is no us and them. That's the whole goal. Even in, in terms of our own country's belief, you know, a more perfect union. That's what it's about. So that's always the goal, and Homeboy is a solution, I guess, but it's also a sign. It, it doesn't want to point stuff out. It wants to point to something. It wants to point to What if we really believed that we belong to each other? And that's a game changer once we believe it.

AI assessment note: “Well, kinship is the whole goal. You know, if I could get sort of biblical”