Founder of L.A. gang intervention program addresses crowd

March 30--GOSHEN -- You can't base an effective treatment on a misdiagnosis, the Jesuit priest who founded the world's largest gang rehabilitation program told a group of nearly 500 criminal justice and youth services professionals in Goshen Thursday.

The founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, Father Greg Boyle was the keynote speaker at the 10th Elkhart County Children's Summit, sponsored by the Elkhart County Juvenile Court. He told the crowd of lawyers, mental health professionals, teachers, law enforcement officers and child advocates about how he's been impacted by the thousands of young gang members whose lives he intervened in since 1988.

His program started with a bakery in 1992, established near a school for some of the tens of thousands of gang members in L.A. who had been kicked out of their own classes. It soon grew into a number of services, including workplace training, therapy and classes in parenting, domestic violence and coping with loss.

He highlighted the tattoo removal program, which started after he found a doctor to chip away at the profanity-laced forehead tattoo of a young man who was having trouble finding a job. They soon had a waiting list of 3,000 people and had to invest in their own dedicated clinic and laser machines, and now remove more tattoos than anyone on earth.

It's an example of having the humility to listen to people tell you what they need rather than the hubris of telling them what they need, Boyle said.

"If you listen to the people on the margins, they will tell you what they need," he said.

He invited the audience to examine why they work with children in the criminal justice system, remarking that keeping tally sheets and a list of success stories will only lead to burnout. He said they don't go to the margins of society to save the day but to make a connection with someone.

It's a need he saw in one kid who was dedicated to his gang and swore he would never get into the program, but who started coming after his life was changed by a short prison term followed by the revelation that his mom would die of cancer in six months. The kid soon got involved, earned his GED and started encouraging others to join, which lead him to seeing admiration in other people's eyes for the first time.

"I think saving lives is for the Coast Guard," Boyle said. "All any human being wants to be on the receiving end of is notice and attention."

He stressed the importance of understanding the kids who join gangs, who he said fit three profiles: They're despondent and don't care what they do or what happens to them; they're traumatized and wind up transmitting their pain to others; or they have some degree of mental illness. It's not excitement that draws them to it, they're just fleeing something else, he said.

"No one ever met a good treatment plan that was based on a poor diagnosis," he remarked. "You wanna get this diagnosis right."

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