Greg Boyle

Homeboy Industries founder Father Greg Boyle has spent 30 years working in LA with gang members and young people transitioning out of prison. His new book is Barking to the Choir.

For 20 years, the Rev. Gregory Boyle has run Homeboy Industries, an anti-gang program that employs and is run by ex-gang members in Los Angeles. Boyle recently had to lay off most of his staff because of financial problems. He recounts the decades he's helped ex-gang members turn their lives around in a new memoir, Tattoos on the Heart.

Boyle is a Jesuit priest who has worked with gangs in East Los Angeles since 1986. He was originally supposed to work with the Dolores Mission there for a six-year term, but when the time came to leave, the community revolted, and he was allowed to stay. He's received national acclaim for his work helping the people he works with to find jobs and quality schooling.