Featured Speakers
Father Gregory Boyle
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Homeboy Industries
Los Angeles, CA
Father Gregory J. Boyle, S.J., best known as Fr. Greg by all who meet him – was born in Los Angeles, one of eight children. His father, a third-generation Irish-American, worked in the family-owned dairy in Los Angeles Country and his mother worked to keep track of her large family. As a youth, Fr. Greg and several of his siblings worked side by side with their father in the dairy. After graduating from Loyola High School in Los Angeles in 1972, he decided to become a Jesuit and was ordained a priest in 1984.
He received his BA in English from Gonzaga University, an MA in English from Loyola Marymount University; a Master of Divinity from the Weston School of Theology; and a Sacred Theology Masters degree from the Jesuit School of Theology.
Prior to 1986, Fr. Greg taught at Loyola High School and worked with the Christian Base Communities in Cochabamba, Bolivia. He was appointed as Pastor of Dolores Mission in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1986, where he served through 1992. He then served as Chaplain of the Islas Marias Penal Colony in Mexico and Folsom Prison, before returning to Los Angeles and Dolores Mission.
Homeboy Industries traces its roots to “Jobs For A Future” (JFF), a program created in 1988 by Fr. Greg at Dolores Mission parish. In an effort to address the escalating problems and unmet needs of gang-involved youth, Fr. Greg and the community developed positive alternatives, including establishing an elementary school, a daycare program and finding legitimate employment for young people. JFF’s success demonstrated the model followed today that many gang members are eager to leave the dangerous and destructive life on the “streets”.
In 1992, as a response to the civil unrest in Los Angeles, Fr. Greg launched the first business (under the organizational banner of JFF and Proyecto Pastoral, separated from Dolores Mission Church): Homeboy Bakery, with a mission to create an environment that provided training, work experience, and above all, the opportunity for rival gang members to work side by side. The success of the Bakery created the groundwork for additional businesses, thus prompting JFF to become and independent non-profit organization, Homeboy Industries, in 2001. Today, Homeboy Industries’ non-profit economic development enterprises include: Homeboy Bakery, Homeboy Silkscreen, Homeboy Maintenance, Homeboy/Homegirl Merchandise, and Homegirl Café.
As Executive Director of Homeboy Industries and an acknowledged expert on gangs and intervention approaches, Fr. Greg is a nationally renowned speaker. He has given commencement addresses at numerous prestigious universities, as well as spoken at Conferences for Teachers, Social Workers, Criminal Justice Workers and others, about the importance of adult attention, guidance and unconditional love in preventing youth from joining gangs. Fr. Greg and several “Homies” were featured speakers at the White House Conference on Youth in 2005, at the personal invitation of Mrs. George Bush. Fr. Greg is also a consultant to youth service and governmental agencies, policy makers and employers.
Fr. Greg was a member of the State Commission on Juvenile Justice, Crime and Delinquency Prevention and is currently a member of the National Leadership Council of the Iris Alliance Fund, and serves on the Advisory Boards for the Loyola Law School Center for Juvenile Law and Policy and the National Youth Gang Center. He has received numerous accolades and recognitions on behalf of Homeboy and for his work with former gang members, including: the California Peace Prize. On September 17, 2007, he received the “Humanitarian of the Year” Award from Bon Appetit magazine during their 10th Annual Awards Ceremony in New York. He also received the Caring Institute’s Caring People Award, and was most recently honored with the Civic Medal of Honor from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
This year, 2008, marks the 20th Anniversary of the work Fr. Greg began. Homeboy Industries, now located in downtown Los Angeles, is recognized as the largest gang intervention program in the country and has become a national model.
Mark Soler
Executive Director
Center for Children's Law and Policy
Washington, DC
Mark Soler is the Executive Director of the Center for Children's Law and Policy. From 1978 until February, 2006, Mark was Senior Staff Attorney, Executive Director, then President of the Youth Law Center, a national public interest law firm. At the Youth Law Center, he and his colleagues worked in more than 40 states on juvenile justice, child welfare, health, mental health, and education issues, and litigated successfully in l6 states on behalf of children whose rights have been violated in juvenile justice and child welfare systems. He has written more than 20 articles and book chapters on civil rights issues and the rights of children, and has taught at Boston College Law School, the Washington College of Law at American University, Boston University School of Law, the University of Nebraska Law School, and San Francisco State University. He has received awards for his work from the American Psychological Association, American Bar Association, Alliance for Juvenile Justice, and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Mark graduated from Yale University and Yale Law School.
Karen Countryman-Roswurm is a licensed master social worker with 12 years experience in serving young people. After her emancipation from State Rehabilitation Services custody at the age of 16, Karen began working for the Wichita Children’s Home Street Outreach Program. It was there she founded and coordinated the Women of Worth (W.O.W.) Program and the Adolescent Safety and Prevention Project. Both programs are aimed at reducing the risk of relationship violence and sexual exploitation among homeless, runaway, and throwaway youth (HRTY). In addition, Karen works with the Wichita Child Guidance Center and the local Exploited and Missing Children’s Unit to provide individual and group therapy to high-risk children and youth with an emphasis on sexually exploited HRTY. She is nationally recognized for her specialization in working with vulnerable teens involved in relationship violence and sexual exploitation. Currently, Karen is a Community Psychology Doctoral Student and a Graduate Research Associate with Wichita State University. Her current work includes the facilitation of a community-wide coalition (The Anti-Trafficking/Anti-Sexual Exploitation Roundtable) to prevent and reduce the risk of youth involved in sexual exploitation; organizing community directed and youth involved research to guide city responses to marginalized/vulnerable populations; and creating as well as evaluating youth leadership/empowerment projects.