Compassion and Kinship: Fr Gregory Boyle at TEDxConejo 2012
Father Gregory Boyle, founder and executive director of
Homeboy Industries, is an acknowledged expert on gangs, intervention and re-entry and today serves on the
U.S. Attorney General's Defending
Childhood Task Force.
Born in
Los Angeles, one of eight children, Fr
. Greg worked in the family-owned dairy, loading milk trucks to earn his high school tuition. An enduring memory of that youthful time is when "
...these weathered old truckers would come up to me, put their arms around me and
point at my father in the distance, on the loading dock, and say, '
Your dad is a great man.'"
Lessons from that first job apply at Homeboy Industries today where
employees come to change for themselves and their children.
Homeboy Industries traces its roots to "
Jobs For A
Future" (
JFF), created in
1988 by
Boyle at
Dolores Mission. To address the escalating problems of gang-involved youth, he and the community developed an elementary school, day care program and sought legitimate employment for young people.
Boyle serves on the
National Gang Center Advisory Board (
Bureau of Justice Assistance and the
Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention). He is also a member of the Advisory Board for the
Loyola Law School Center for Juvenile Law and
Policy and previously served on the
California Commission on Juvenile Justice,
Crime and Delinquency Prevention.
The National Child Labor Committee recognized Fr.
Greg with the first
Nancy M. Daly Advocacy
Award for
Service to
Children and
Youth on
January 30,
2012.
Homeboy Industries, now located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, is recognized as a national and international model for youth seeking to move beyond gangs and achieve a life of hope.
homeboy-industries.org
ABOUT TEDx
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TEDxConejo
TEDxConejo, the
Conejo Valley's forum for ideas worth sharing, is produced in association with the
Conejo Valley Unified School District and the Conejo Schools
Foundation. TEDxConejo is developing into an exciting community of thinkers and doers, interested and interesting people of all ages and backgrounds. Each year hundreds gather for a day of stimulating short talks and engaging discussion.
The program is as diverse as the interests of the audience.
"
Together" is the general theme of TEDxConejo2012. It is a broad topic designed to explore the always fascinating, often inspiring, occasionally surprising and sometimes vexing interconnectedness of our world. Speakers and presenters from the arts and sciences, business and economics, public service and philanthropy, education and learning, psychology and medicine, entertainment and technology, and others, share ideas through signature talks delivered in 18 minutes or less
.
More information at tedxconejo.com