Father’s Day reminds me that fathers are more than anything teachers. Nothing stops a bullet like a job. “Jobs not jail” mottos for living are everywhere - on T-shirts and buildings, providing hope through job training. With industries like Homeboy’s and Homegirl’s bakery, tattoo removal, café, and health services, they teach a new lifestyle for former gang members and re-entry into the community for former prison inmates, stressing hope, kinship, and love.
Since 1988, Father Gregory Boyle has been a substitute father for young people looking for a place to land and be fathered. He founded Homeboys to provide that substitute home, complete with a father that provides hope, kinship and love. Later, Homegirls was established. Located at 130 San Bruno Street, east of China Town, near the San Antonio Winery, it’s a place where you can dine, shop for packaged bakery goods, t-shirts, tote bags, books and other things, or donate to help people on the mend. After college, I worked at the Scouts, designing programs and redirecting community resources to young people who needed direction. When I worked as a Scout professional, I was tasked with teaching ‘A New Attitude’ and ‘Alternative Lifestyle’ to attract young black and brown youth with things like camping, Scout badges and leadership. Homeboy Industries has taken it to a new level. Instead of training for badges, it teaches and trains for new lifestyles and jobs. This is training for the youth who the scouts missed, or who weren’t chosen to be Scouts. They were trained to survive in the streets as gang member’s. Homeboys and Homegirls and may be the design that you’ve been looking for. Happy Father’s Day! |
|
