Within the country's largest gang intervention program, young men and women learn job skills working side-by-side with their would-be rivals. That's because one of Homeboy Industries' founding principles is that it works with gang members.
Los Angeles-based Homeboy Industries provides academic, career and re-entry services to thousands of current and former gang members every day, founder and director Father Gregory Boyle explained to a group of Huffington Post editors and reporters on Monday.
The organization's opportunities and programs fill in gaps in government services, Boyle said. It has grown to include a charter school as well as social services and job training facilities. The nonprofit also has a bakery, farmers markets and a cafe that all employ gang members.
Boyle, a former Los Angeles pastor, said he had to bury 180 young people lost to violence in the 1980s, which prompted him to create the organization. He explained that the approach to re-entry services must go much deeper than the common perception of what causes gang violence.
"It's not about conflict, or else peacemaking would work," he said. "It's about despair -- not rational grievance. No shooter is hoping to kill; rather they are hoping to die."
Boyle said Homeboy has received recognition for its role in Los Angeles' declining gang-related homicide rate. But perhaps an even greater testament to its effectiveness is Will Lopez, a former gang member who found a new start through Homeboy. He sought out the help of Father Doyle, his neighborhood priest at the time, who assisted him in finding a job and a direction in life.
Lopez told The Huffington Post that he has worked in fields from maintenance to computer technology, but that he has developed a specific interest in speaking out against domestic violence. His father was murdered, and he wanted to make sure he would be involved in his own daughter's life.
"I made a commitment to my daughter that that wouldn't happen," he said.
Like the gang members it helps, Homeboy has had its share of hardships. After the Homeboy Bakery burned down in October 1999, the nonprofit relied on donors. (Disclosure: HuffPost Editor-in-Chief Arianna Huffington helped lead that effort.)
Father Boyle added that the organization ran out of money 18 months ago, due in part to the recession. The company laid off numerous employees and Boyle stopped taking paychecks.
"In the early days, you could always find jobs for the 'homies,'" Boyle said, noting that competition in the job market took a toll on the organization's efforts.
Homeboy has inspired 15 similar initiatives around the country, from San Francisco to Boston. The organization also has a successful food line found in major grocery stores, and it is working to spread the word about how its programs can work in other areas. Boyle sums it by saying the approach comes down to one mantra.
"Let's be smart on crime, rather than soft or hard on crime."
Learn about opportunities to get involved with Homeboy Industries here.
Russell Bishop contributed reporting.
Homeboy Industries, the country's largest gang intervention program, visits HuffPost.
Homeboy Industries, the country's largest gang intervention program, visits HuffPost.
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NOBEL laureate and eminent scientist Joseph Rotblat was a man of inexhaustible energy, optimism and dedication. In this new biography, author and radiation oncologist Andrew Brown faithfully captures his character. Keeper of the Nuclear Conscience chronicles Rotblat's journey from his beginnings in a prosperous Jewish family in Warsaw, Poland, before the first world war, to his rapid rise from electrician to internationally prominent nuclear physicist, and ultimately his committed opposition to nuclear weapons.
Editor?s note: Guest author Keith Teare is General Partner at his incubator Archimedes Labs and CEO of newly funded just.me. He was a co-founder of TechCrunch. Like millions of other people, I got an email from Google this morning. It was entitled ?Changes to Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service?. The first sentence describes the intent of the changes as shortening 60 policies into one, and improving their readability. Then there is a longer explanation captured in the graphic above. The email goes on to assert that Google has not changed its privacy policy and will not sell our personal information to third parties ? ?Our privacy policies remain unchanged?. So what is going on here? Facebook is the shiny object that Larry is focused on. This is a week where Sheryl Sandberg ? Chief Operating Officer at Facebook ? spoke at Hubert Burda?s DLD conference in Munich and stated that we were in the middle of 3 trends. First, a trend ?from anonymity to real identity?. Secondly, a trend from ?wisdom of crowds to wisdom of friends? and third, a trend ?from being receivers of information to broadcasters of information?. See the video below for the actual points she made. It was a thoughtful and at the same time a polemical speech, a speech with a strong point of view. In thinking about Google?s privacy policy changes it helps to listen to Sheryl?s remarks and reflect on the context. Facebook is saying that the Internet as a pure information retrieval mechanism is dead. That the ?readwrite? web that began as long ago as cheap web site hosting in 1998, has entirely replaced the read-only web. That the identifiable author has replaced the anonymous one. We are broadcasting and we are identifiable. That reading what friends say is now dominant in that world. Facebook envisages a future in which we all broadcast almost everything to almost everybody. Google?s problem. In that world, Google?s PageRank algorithm is seriously out of date. It promotes pages based on the number of links to it. Today, pages are no longer the unit of publishing. Far smaller items than a page dominate our senses. And those smaller messages are produced in huge quantity and in real time. So the signals that make something relevant have now changed. Facebook (and Twitter) have oodles of such signals. Google, until recently, had none. Google?s solution. The changes
Tibbetts Awards 2012
Nominations are now open for the 4th Annual Small Business Book Awards. They recognize business books of special interest to small businesses and entrepreneurs. Last year there were 106 books nominated and 41,000 votes cast by the community.
PA Tech Awards 2012
The Next Teen Tycoon Contest
2012 Small Business Strategy Award 
Connecticut Innovations TechStart Fund 
Office Depot?s Small Business Makeover Contest
The Amazing Entrepreneur
2012 Small Business Online Marketing Contest 
CoolCalifornia Small Business Award
the 2012 Brother Small Business Grant Program.
Verizon California Small Business Makeover Contest
Staples Give Your Small Business the Push it Needs Contest
Laura Leites is managing editor of SmallBizTechnology. In addition to writing about technology tools for SMBs, Laura manages the day-to-day operations of Smallbiztechnology.com. She also produces their live and virtual events, including the Taste of Technology Small Business Series. 
