Homeboy Industries. is the home base for some very important programs, including Jobs For A Future, founded and run by Father Greg Boyle.
Jobs For A Future is a technical program which trains ex-gang members from East Los Angeles. The skills they receive offer them the chance to leave the streets and become stable, productive members of society. Working together with their prior enemies, the JFF meembers learn primary office and computer skills, have gang-related tattoos removed fi they choose, and learn the basics of participating in business operations.
The office is organized around the center clerical area where the ex-gang members learn computer and business skills. There is an organizational space on one side, with administration and offices around the perimeter. Pictures of graduates of the program, and those members who have died, are displayed on the walls around the office. Above the central clerical area is hung a four-part scrim which filters light from skylights above. In an area of consistent street violence and 'tagging' it should be noted that the JFF headquarters has remained unviolated since its competion in 2001.
The center was designed in collaboration with Dan Pitera of Detroit Collaborative Design Center and is the recipient of multiple awards, both nationally and internationally.
Total square footage: 2,000sf