“We need to unite as people – we are not that different from each other”. This was the message of kinship and peace delivered to a packed room of people in Oakland in early December. The speaker was Father Greg “G” Boyle, a priest, book author and founder of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program in the country. Father Boyle was speaking to the youth and leaders of the Homies Empowerment Program, which works with gang impacted/involved, primarily Latino, youth in Oakland. The program provides knowledge-of-self classes at Fremont and Castlemont High Schools, and brings youth from rival gangs together at weekly Homies Dinners at the Eastlake YMCA.
“Homeboy Industries has been able to broker peace between rival gangs and to bring their founder to Oakland showed the youth that peace is possible,” says César Cruz, co-founder of the Homies Empowerment Program, which is part of Urban Services YMCA East Bay.
Cruz says that Father Boyle stressed the importance of humanizing each other as groups. “Not to blame other people for society’s problems,” says Cruz. “It’s the rich that are fault or the immigrants that are fault – these are very simple, black and white conclusions but they are complex problems.”
Cruz says that there are a lot of amazing youth involved in this program, but he singles out Ricardo, a high school student. “He is surrounded by gangs, lives in a tough neighborhood and yet he has a greater than 4.0 grade average and is taking calculus in eleventh grade.” Ricardo calls Father Boyle a revolutionary. “He’s hella dope,” says Ricardo, whose words demonstrate the power and need of leaders like Boyle.
“To say that means it’s not about the color of your skin, it’s about the compassion in our heart and our willingness to help,” says Cruz. “A lot of our kids don’t have heroes anymore – they need to have heroes and people they aspire to be like. To have a living hero is really empowering.”
Homeboy Industries serves the needs of thousands of East Los Angeles gang members who are looking for a way to leave the streets – it’s a mission shared by the homies program. Cruz says that it is very powerful when young gang members first see rival gang members in the same room, united and working together. He says it’s the moment when they believe in the dream of peace.