by Martin McHugh

Start-ups. Spin offs. Venture cap. Burn rate. R&D. Ramping up. You hear buzzwords such as these wherever people are engaged in business. There is one spot in East Los Angeles, however, where the word ministry also has a place in the commercial lexicon.

Dolores Mission, a Jesuit ministry in a predominately Latino neighborhood in East L.A., is the poorest parish in the archdiocese. Poverty there is as much a part of the economic landscape as housing projects are of the physical environment. Gang activity weaves its way through daily life there. You would be hard pressed to find anyone whose life has not been affected by turf wars, drive-by shootings, or drugs. Many youth in the area are considered "high risk," likely to suffer from or take part in gang violence and end up in the hospital, doing time, or worse.

But Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, who has been at Dolores Mission and working in its community outreach program, Proyecto Pastoral, for ten years, knows of a lure for these youth stronger than that of the easy money the drug trade offers: that of honest work. Boyle has met so many for whom dollars earned from painting or cleaning or hauling are all the sweeter for being earned honestly, with dignity. He has dedicated a phenomenal amount of effort to capitalizing on this knowledge and pointing out to others in the neighborhood the possibility of having a future "out of the life," out of the world of gangs and violence.

Jobs for a Future

One of Proyecto Pastoral's programs is Jobs For A Future (JFAF), an employment referral center. "Finding people looking for work is never a problem. Jobs For A Future is pretty well known around here," says Boyle. "Those who come through the doors are young men and women between 13 and 25, many with a gang past, and most whom we consider to be high risk." Some who come have just been released from one of the fourteen detention centers where Boyle works as a chaplain; they know ahead of time where to go to get help turning their lives around.

Call Backs

Dramatic jumps in production and sales at Homeboy Bakery have translated into more job opportunities for those wanting to leave gang life.

JFAF gets jobs for them at a variety of places, including many factories, Macy's, United Parcel Service, and production companies in "the business," as the movie industry is referred to in L.A.

"It's the best," says Boyle, "when you get a call from a company who wants another employee ‘just like Carlos, who you sent us last week.' " Call-backs like that are not the only source of placements. Two full-time staffers work the phones, making cold calls, explaining their service to prospective employers and asking them to keep JFAF in mind for their needs. As well, some personnel departments call to ask JFAF to fill a position; there are even some employment agencies who ask JFAF to find someone for a position they are unable to fill.

Developing this job referral network took time and effort, but it works. JFAF has been placing people in positions at a rate of 250 per year, and "We'll go over that number this year," says Norma Gillette, job development supervisor.

JFAF's work with clients starts with counseling, mentoring, and even free tattoo removal, but it does not stop once a client is hired. "We do a lot of follow-up, maintaining contact with both employer and employee," says Boyle. JFAF might call up a new hire who they learn has not shown up to work for a couple of days. "He might tell us, ‘Yeah. I broke up with my lady,' Boyle says, "and then you help him deal with that. It's a matter of helping him keep the chaos in his life at bay."

Creating Jobs

A growing part of Proyecto Pastoral's activities has been in actually creating jobs as well as finding them. Homeboy Industries, founded in 1992, is an umbrella "corporation" for a growing number of affiliated works. One of them, Homeboy Bakery, started a few years ago to give work to former gang members, many from rival gangs. But the tortillas they were making and marketing ran into stiff competition, so much so that the business foundered and actually closed shop for a while.

A $160,000 grant from radio station KPWR's foundation, "Knowledge is Power," got the bakery back on its feet; a partnership agreement with Frisco Baking Co., which needed more production to fill its orders for French and Italian bread from L.A. restaurants, gave Homeboy Bakery a fresh start.

Cara Gould, who taught at the Dolores Mission Alternative School while a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, now supervises Homeboy Bakery, one twenty-pound bag of flour and one block of yeast at a time. But those bags and blocks add up during daily production runs.

"Not too long ago we were producing 600 loaves a day. That went up to 1,500 loaves a day," says Cara. "Now we're at 3,000. And we're expecting to get new equipment that will allow us to double that production."

Doubling production will mean more employment for people who need it. "Right now we have eight full-time employees, most of them coming from gang backgrounds," says Cara. "I'd characterize all of them as coming from high-risk backgrounds. We look for people willing to put aside former gang differences and concentrate on redirecting their lives, and we've gotten them from Jobs For A Future."

Homeboy Silk-Screen

Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, flanked by Homeboy employees, has a reputation in East L.A. as a job finder and creator for youth at risk.

"Homeboy Silk-Screen did about $500,000 in business last year; right now we're $140,000 ahead of where we were last year at this time," says Ruben Rodriguez, a former Homeboy Bakery employee. He and his wife, Cristina, have been in partnership with Homeboy Industries and running the operation from its start more than two years ago.

Homeboy Silk-Screen prints and ships T-shirts for radio stations, schools, and record labels, including Rhino, A&M, and Geffen. "Everyone from mom-and-pop stores to some of the major players in the entertainment world are our customers," says Ruben. He and Cristina oversee a staff of fourteen. "They've all come to us from Jobs For A Future."

It was a $50,000 grant from radio station KPWR that got Homeboy Silk-Screen going. Ruben and Cristina supplied the motivation: "Fr. Greg's message is simple: ‘Jobs, not Jail.' We've seen it work," says Ruben.

Homeboy Merchandising

Another branch of Homeboy Industries, Homeboy Merchandising, sells mugs, golf shirts, sweatshirts, caps, and other items, all sporting the Homeboy logo (at the top of p. 17). The $6,000 a month that Homeboy Merchandising's sales generate translates into full-time employment for William Yniguez and Ricky Olvera; they are assisted by a staff of part-timers who run booths selling Homeboy products when Boyle speaks to a variety of groups in the L.A. area or at such events as the recent Latino Book and Film Festival. All the profits go to expand the line of goods Homeboy Merchandising offers and to hire new people.

Homeboy Production Cleaning Service

The bakery, the merchandising branch, and the silkscreen business are self-sustaining. With hard work the same will happen with Homeboy Industries' newest partnership, Homeboy Production Cleaning Service.

"I worked with a movie location cleaning service for over three years, and then I talked with Homeboy Industries about striking out on my own," says Robert Olvera, who heads this startup.

Homeboy Industries got Robert's dream on its feet with a loan of a couple grand for a business license, an insurance bond, a business bank account, and equipment, including floor buffers. He contracts with movie and TV producers to clean sets prior to filming. "We'll buff a hospital hallway before a shoot; we'll even make it dirty if that's what the scene calls for," says Robert. When contracts do come his way, he makes a call to JFAF to round up a crew of three or four for the work, which may take a day or stretch out through a week.

The Future

"Finding people looking for work is never a problem. Jobs For A Future is pretty well known around here," says Fr. Boyle, whose staff has been linking employers and employees at a rate of over 250 per year.

Boyle and his work on behalf of L.A.'s Latino youth have been the subject of a book and numerous newspaper and magazine articles as well as segments on 60 Minutes and the Today show. That type of national publicity never hurts, but Boyle concentrates more on the local scene; that is where he finds jobs and clients.

"He's busy two or three times a week speaking at conferences, talking to groups of teachers and social workers, letting them know what Homeboy does," says Norma Gillette. Boyle does not ask for donations at these talks, but they come, along with names of further job contacts on both sides of the fence, those looking for work and those looking for employees.

"What if everyone worked for full employment instead of full incarceration?" asks Boyle. "Jobs For a Future and Homeboy Industries are intervention programs aimed at youth, and I want these programs to be as symbolic as they are actual; I want to send a message to legislators and government officials that we either have to deal with the problem of urban violence or we're going to end up warehousing the consequences."

"The whole point is to put a face, a human face, on gang members," concludes Boyle, for whom the word ministry carries a lot of meaning.

[See also the related story: Off the Streets. ]

Martin McHugh, with Company since 1988, has been editor for the past three years. He and his wife, Dorinda, and sons Alex and Damon, live in Chicago.