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| Homeboy Industries Tortilla Strips sold at the local grocery store! |
Homeboy Industries "assists at-risk and formerly gang involved youth to become positive and contributing members of society through job placement, training, and education."
Homeboy Industries started as a job placement program in the roughest neighborhoods in LA and has grown to offer multiple free services to individuals to assist them in redirecting their lives. Counseling, education and skill development, legal services, job training, job placement, tatoo removal, counseling, substance abuse and addiction assistance, are among the services they provide. In addition, Homeboy Industries runs four businesses: Homeboy Bakery, Homeboy Silkscreen and Embroidery, Homeboy/Homegirl Merchandise, and Homegirl Cafe. These business serve as training programs for individuals and once individuals complete their program they become eligible for jobs within these successful businesses.
Why do they do this? "By offering multi-level solutions, Homeboy Industries recognizes that moving beyond gang life is a process, and that re-directing lives in a positive direction strengthens not only the individual, but also that person's family, providing a more constructive, healthy environment for their children, and, by extension, to the community at large."
Here are some startling facts from the Homeboy website:
- In East Los Angeles, over 53% of adults never completed high school
- In October 2010, Education Week labeled Los Angeles the "dropout epicenter" of the nation
- Los Angeles County is home to 34% of California's poor, with a poverty rate of 16.1%
- 75% of youth gang homicides in California occur in Los Angeles County
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