“In the same way the [Connecticut] governor said, ‘A great evil visited this community today,’ well, actually, armed mental illness visited your community that day. This is what keeps us from addressing actual issues,” said Fr. Boyle, who has worked with gang members in Los Angeles since 1988 through his Homeboy Industries ministry, which is the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the U.S.

“When we take our views lower, we know we need to address guns and we need to address mental illness,” Fr. Boyle said. “The elephant in the room is mental health, which is something I see more and more with the gang population with whom I work.”

Fr. Boyle also told the National Catholic Reporter that the nation’s mental health care system is in desperate need of rehabilitation. According to Fr. Boyle, because of national, state and local government budget cuts made in recent years, today’s health care system is essentially the same as it was in 1850.

Fr. Boyle said mental health facilities have one bed for every 7,000 patients, and as a result the nation’s prisons, skid rows and homeless shelters are filled with the mentally ill.

“The largest mental health facility in the world is the Los Angeles county jail,” Fr. Boyle said. “These are examples that show we are not actually dealing with the real issues.”

Homeboy Industries helps former gang members learn skills to better their lives and provides jobs in its bakery, café and t-shirt store.

“G-DOG” was directed by Academy Award-winning documentarian Freida Mock and had its U.S. debut this past June at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Mock says she was inspired to make the film after seeing Fr. Boyle’s book “Tattoos on the Heart.” She remembers thinking, “A priest, kids, gangs and love? What’s this all about?”

The film, which is slated for theatrical release next year, introduces audiences to Fr. Boyle and the homies he helps. It also depicts a tough year for Homeboy Industries, with the possibility that the businesses will have to close because of challenging economic times.

Variety’s review said, “In an era with a paucity of real heroes, a genuine one emerges in “G-Dog”: the inexhaustible Jesuit priest Greg Boyle, whose Homeboy Industries has saved countless lives in Los Angeles’ gang-plagued neighborhoods.”

For more, visit the film’s website, www.gdogthemovie.com, where you can meet the cast and view clips.

“Life without Homeboy would be bleaker, meaner and more expensive in a society already too bleak, too mean and strapped for cash,” says Newton in his column.

Founded at the height of the gang violence that was ripping the city apart in 1992, Jesuit Father Greg Boyle, himself now an icon in the city, started Homeboy Industries  to help gang members leave their lives formed on the streets and in prisons and instead learn skills to improve their lives. Offering tattoo removal, counseling former “homies” in drug rehabilitation and mental health, and even providing jobs in its bakery, café and t-shirt store, Homeboy Industries is a haven for former gang members looking to turn their lives around. The ministry helps approximately 12,000 individuals each year learn life skills to lead them away from the streets.

With the economic downturn pulling back donations a few years ago, the concept of a Los Angeles without Homeboy Industries almost became a reality and Fr. Boyle had to canvas all of his contacts and benefactors to help stave off insolvency. Jobs for the homeboys and homegirls are still scare but the program does help keep these former gang members off the streets. “You want people to make the connection between public safety…and giving these people a chance,” Boyle says.

Read more about Homeboy Industries and what it and Fr. Boyle provide to Los Angeles in this column from the LA Times.

Founded in 1992 by charismatic Jesuit Father Greg Boyle during the height of the city’s gang wars, Homeboy Industries has become a model program that other cities, like Chattanooga, are trying to replicate.

Fr. Boyle’s innovative program was featured recently in a piece by The Economist. An excerpt appears below and you can read the full story on The Economist’s website.

It can take between three and 40 treatments to remove a prison tattoo, says Troy, a volunteer doctor at Homeboy Industries in central Los Angeles, as another former gang member takes a seat. Troy zaps the tattoos with a laser, breaking up the ink so that the immune system can destroy it. This is painful, and the laser’s sharp cracking sound reminds some patients of shooting or of the prison yard, explains Andre, who is 27, spent seven years in prison, and got his first tattoo when he was 11. But it is still good to get rid of tattoos. “We focus on the visible ones,” says Troy, “the ones that make you a target when you’re walking decades later with your son and somebody shoots you, or the ones that prevent you from getting a job.”

“We’re a trauma-informed family here,” says Jesuit Father Greg Boyle. Eventually, they experience an unfamiliar feeling that he calls the “no-matter-whatness”. They realize that the staff do not judge their past but are ready to help them build a better future.

Homeboy Industries also recently opened a new diner in Los Angeles’ City Hall. You can find out more about Homeboy Diner in this Ignatian News Network video:

Founded by Jesuit Father Greg Boyle during the height of the L.A.’s gang wars 23 years ago, Homeboy Industries’ businesses, which include a silk-screen shop, a bakery and an 86-seat restaurant, currently provide job opportunities and training for over 400 ex-gang members.

This summer, when Los Angeles’ City Hall  was looking for a vendor to move into an unoccupied cafe space on the second floor, a new venture, Homeboy Diner, was born.

Ignatian News Network was there for the opening of the cafe with Fr. Boyle and the diner’s new staff.

“Fr. Boyle has compiled an admirable record of community service through his innovative work with gang-involved youth in Los Angeles. His work is a living example and inspiration of the Ignatian ideal of service,” said Jesuit Father Scott R. Pilarz, president of the University of Scranton.

In 1988, Boyle created Jobs For a Future (JFF) in an effort to address the escalating problems and unmet needs of gang-involved youth. Four years later, he launched Homeboy Bakery, which provided training, work experience and, above all, the opportunity for rival gang members to work side-by-side. The success of the bakery led him to establish additional businesses, and JFF became Homeboy Industries, an independent nonprofit organization, in 2001.

The Arrupe Award is named in honor of the late Jesuit Father Pedro Arrupe, the superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983. The University of Scranton instituted the award in 1995 to further its namesake’s vision by recognizing men and women for outstanding contributions in a wide variety of Ignatian-inspired ministries. For more information, visit the University of Scranton’s website.

“Fr. Boyle has compiled an admirable record of community service through his innovative work with gang-involved youth in Los Angeles. His work is a living example and inspiration of the Ignatian ideal of service,” said Jesuit Father Scott R. Pilarz, president of the University of Scranton.

In 1988, Boyle created Jobs For a Future (JFF) in an effort to address the escalating problems and unmet needs of gang-involved youth. Four years later, he launched Homeboy Bakery, which provided training, work experience and, above all, the opportunity for rival gang members to work side-by-side. The success of the bakery led him to establish additional businesses, and JFF became Homeboy Industries, an independent nonprofit organization, in 2001.

The Arrupe Award is named in honor of the late Jesuit Father Pedro Arrupe, the superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1965 to 1983. The University of Scranton instituted the award in 1995 to further its namesake’s vision by recognizing men and women for outstanding contributions in a wide variety of Ignatian-inspired ministries. For more information, visit the University of Scranton’s website.

Jesuit Father Greg Boyle received the 2011 Loaves & Fishes Award for Faith in Action, presented by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco in March for his nearly 25 years of building what is now the nation’s largest gang intervention and re-entry program, Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles.

Fr. Boyle said he has never met anyone who was seeking something when he joined a gang. “They are always fleeing from something,” he said on March 4 at St. Ignatius Church in San Francisco. “There are no exceptions.”

Boyle’s career choice of working with the poor and the marginalized took shape when he joined the Society of Jesus and was confirmed when he worked in Bolivia after his ordination. He was then assigned to Dolores Mission Church in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, ground zero for gangs in a challenged area.

In 1988, Boyle started a “Jobs for a Future” program at Dolores Mission, and, in 1992 he launched a business to employ former gang members, Homeboy Bakery. Today businesses include Homeboy Silkscreen, Homeboy Maintenance and Homegirl Café.

He said, “Hope is the antidote. The best delivery system of hope to kids who are struggling, especially younger ones, is a loving, caring adult who pays attention to them. That’s the way it works.” For more on Boyle, visit Catholic San Francisco.

Jesuit Father Greg Boyle’s Homeboy Industries, an outreach program for gang members in Los Angeles, recently partnered with Ralphs grocery store chain to sell Homeboy chips and salsa. The products were the hottest-selling snack item at the 256 Ralphs deli sections across Southern California in early February.

Fr. Boyle said he was inspired by the late actor Paul Newman, whose “Newman’s Own” products funded nonprofit organizations. The products launched at Ralphs last month as part of an effort to revive Homeboy’s hard-hit finances.

“The aim is to expand the brand so that Homeboy becomes a household name and then a household idea,” said Boyle.

Proceeds go to funding Homeboy services such as tattoo removal and counseling.

“If we can increase revenue, we could fundraise less,” Boyle said.

Last year, Homeboy laid off about 330 people and nearly shut its doors when it couldn’t raise the $5 million needed to operate. Because of donations, “things have stabilized. We’ve brought back senior staff, about 100 jobs,” he said.

Read the full story on Boyle’s latest Homeboy venture at the Los Angeles Times.

Jesuit Father Greg Boyle’s Homeboy Industries, an outreach program for gang members in Los Angeles, recently partnered with Ralphs grocery store chain to sell Homeboy chips and salsa. The products were the hottest-selling snack item at the 256 Ralphs deli sections across Southern California in early February.

Fr. Boyle said he was inspired by the late actor Paul Newman, whose “Newman’s Own” products funded nonprofit organizations. The products launched at Ralphs last month as part of an effort to revive Homeboy’s hard-hit finances.

“The aim is to expand the brand so that Homeboy becomes a household name and then a household idea,” said Boyle.

Proceeds go to funding Homeboy services such as tattoo removal and counseling.

“If we can increase revenue, we could fundraise less,” Boyle said.

Last year, Homeboy laid off about 330 people and nearly shut its doors when it couldn’t raise the $5 million needed to operate. Because of donations, “things have stabilized. We’ve brought back senior staff, about 100 jobs,” he said.

Read the full story on Boyle’s latest Homeboy venture at the Los Angeles Times.