Nonprofit Organization Helps ‘Homeboys’ Trade Gangs for Jobs

A nonprofit group in Los Angeles has helped a number of local gang members give up their former lives by offering them steady employment in a growing business, reports The New York Times.

Homeboy Industries, founded by a priest 20 years ago, has expanded from a small tortilla plant into a $5-million-a-year business that runs a bakery, cafe, maintenance service, retail store, and silk-screen operation that prints designs on T-shirts for radio stations and college groups.

The ex-gang members receive not only steady employment but also therapy, career counseling, housing aid, and funds to remove tattoos, which are a marker of gang affiliation and can be dangerous to leave on. The men and women receive up to $10 an hour and health benefits after three months of steady work. Homeboy is looking to expand its operations, especially the bakery and silk-screen business.

Read a special package in The Chronicle about charities that run for-profit ventures.

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