Founder, Homeboy Industries

Boyle, a 69-year-old Jesuit priest, born and raised in Los Angeles, is
behind the world’s largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation and prison
reentry programs, with its operations near Chinatown (and adjacent
to the Homegirl Cafe). It was while working at Dolores Mission in the
Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles that he started addressing
the neighborhood gang problems in 1988 with community
activism. His first organization, Jobs for a Future, became Homeboy
Industries in the wake of the 1992 L.A. riots, with the motto “Jobs Not
Jails.” He is also the author of several New York Times’ bestsellers.

YEARS ON THE LA500: 1