Encouraging Work Is the Right Policy Response to AI

WASHINGTON, DC – “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.” So says Father Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries, the world’s largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program. In May, Boyle was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. His belief in the importance of work offers lessons for economic policymakers.

I learned of Boyle about 15 years ago, long after he had become an icon in Los Angeles and the social-justice community, while speaking with a Jesuit about the order’s charism “to see the world as their monastery.” I was deeply impressed by Boyle’s response to the heartbreaking gang violence he encountered as the pastor of the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles.

In 1988, Boyle founded Jobs for a Future (JFF) to help gang members who couldn’t secure employment due to their criminal history or tattoos. Members of his parish visited the factories surrounding the local housing projects and encouraged them to hire these young people. When no jobs were forthcoming, JFF started its own organizations to employ – and rehabilitate – gang members, building a childcare center and forming groups that performed landscaping and maintenance work, removed graffiti, and cleaned up neighborhoods.

These early efforts planted the seeds for Homeboy Industries, which was established in 1992 with a bakery across the street from the church. In the intervening years, it has grown to encompass nearly a dozen social enterprises, including Homegirl Café, an electronics-recycling business, and a catering company. These enterprises provide job training, but they also foster kinship and create safe communities.

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