Forward Together Lecture features founder of program to train and employ former gang members

By Dale Johnson Posted: March 15, 2017 9:30 a.m.

Father Gregory Boyle is the guest speaker for the Forward Together Lecture.
Father Gregory Boyle is the guest speaker for the Forward Together Lecture. Photo courtesy Father Gregory Boyle

This year’s Forward Together Lecture features the founder of a program in Los Angeles to provide jobs and get people out of street gangs.

The title of Jesuit Father Gregory J. Boyle’s lecture is Barking to the Choir: Now Entering the Kinship of God.

Father Boyle is the founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles. Father Boyle was pastor of Dolores Mission Church in Los Angeles from 1986 to 1992. At the time, it was the poorest Catholic parish in the city and was located between two large public housing projects and the territories of numerous gangs. By 1988, he and parish and community members started what would eventually become Homeboy Industries. It’s now the largest and most successful gang intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world. Homeboy trains and employs former gang members in a range of social enterprises, as well as provides critical services to over 10,000 people who walk through its doors every year seeking a better life.

Father Boyle is the author of the 2010 New York Times-bestseller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. He is the subject of a 2012 documentary, G-Dog. He has received the California Peace Prize and been inducted into the California Hall of Fame. In 2014, the White House named Father Boyle a Champion of Change. He was named 2016 Humanitarian of the Year by the James Beard Foundation, the national culinary-arts organization.

The Forward Together Lecture was established in 2009 by the presidents of the University of Regina, Campion College, First Nations University of Canada and Luther College to highlight the four institutions' joint commitment to inclusiveness, understanding, social justice, and human rights. Past lecturers include Chilean photojournalist Carlos Reyes-Manzo, Canadian singer/songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Palestinian physician and peace advocate Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish.

Event:  Forward Together Lecture
Date:  Thursday, March 16, 2017
Time:  7:30 p.m.
Venue:  Education Auditorium, U of R

Complimentary parking is available in Lots 7M and 8M.