The Rev. Greg Boyle, founder of Los Angeles-based Homeboy Industries, will speak at the Titan Student Union Tuesday, Feb. 14, about how love and kinship transform lives.
Homeboy Industries, founded in 1988, trains and supports more than 10,000 former gang members and previously incarcerated men and women each year. The rehabilitation and re-entry program offers job training and placement, education, therapy, tattoo removal, substance abuse treatment and legal assistance. The organization’s Homeboy Bakery, Homegirl Café & Catering, and Homeboy Silkscreen and Embroidery serve as models for more than 70 partner organizations across the globe.
Boyle, a Jesuit priest and executive director of the program, has received the Civic Medal of Honor and the California Peace Prize. He was named a Champion of Change in 2014 and received the 2016 Humanitarian of the Year Award from the James Beard Foundation.
The event — sponsored by the Religious Studies and Chicana and Chicano Studies departments, and the Religious Studies Student Association — begins with a 1 p.m. screening of the short film “Out of the Fire.” Boyle is set to speak at 1:30 p.m., followed by questions from the audience and a 2:30 p.m. signing of his book, “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion.”