Gregory Boyle, founder and director of Homeboy Industries/Jobs for a Future, will speak at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 24. His lecture, Tattoos on the Heart: Empowering Those for Whom Hope is Foreign, is free and open to the public.
A Jesuit priest, Boyle served for six years as pastor of the Dolores Mission Church, in a parish comprised of the largest public housing developments west of the Mississippi, with the highest concentration of gang activity in the Los Angeles. Established in 1988, Homeboy Industries/Jobs for a Future is a nationally recognized employment referral center for at-risk youth and economic development organization, founded on the guiding principle that "Nothing stops a bullet like a job."
Among its services, Jobs for a Future provides employment opportunities, counseling, and free tattoo removal for at-risk youth.
Boyle received a bachelor's degree from Gonzaga University, a master's degree from Loyola Marymount University, and an STM degree from the Jesuit School of Theology. In addition to a former teaching post at Loyola High School, he served as chaplain of the Isles Marias Penal Colony in Mexico and Folsom Prison. His Athenaeum address is sponsored by the Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College.
More on Boyle: http://www.claremontmckenna.edu/mmca/temp_fn.asp?volumeFN=20&issueFN=08&typeFN=f