September 15, 2016
VCU hosts author and humanitarian, Gregory Boyle, Sept. 27
VCU collaborates with Sacred Heart Center for National Hispanic Heritage Month
CONTACT: V. Renee Russell
VCU Global Education Office
Phone: (804) 828-3636
vrrussell@vcu.edu
RICHMOND, Va. (Sept. 15, 2016)—Gregory J. Boyle, S.J., founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, California will highlight National Hispanic Heritage Month at Virginia Commonwealth University, in collaboration with Sacred Heart Center.
Boyle will speak at 7 p.m. on Sept. 27, 2016 at Sacred Heart Center, 1400 Perry St., Richmond, VA 23224. The event is free and open to the public. A second lecture will be held in Spanish on Sept. 28, 2016 at the same time and location.
Founded in 1988, Homeboy Industries provide training and support to formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated men and women in the greater Los Angeles area. The organization is the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world.
Homeboy Industries offers employment, legal and mental health services, as well as tattoo removal and training programs to its clientele. The organization’s social enterprises consist of job skills training in the culinary art through catering services, a bakery, and Homegirl Café, where young men and women are placed in what is often their first “real job,” learning to work side by side with their former enemies and gaining fundamental job skills in a supportive environment.
Boyle is the author of the New York Times-bestseller, “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion” which has been honored by the Southern California Indie Booksellers Association, Pen USA, Publishers Weekly and Goodreads Choice Awards. He has received the Civic Medal of Honor and the California Peace Prize. In 2011, he was inducted into the California Hall of Fame.
Boyle is also the subject of Academy Award winner Freida Lee Mock’s 2012 documentary, G-Dog. In 2014, the White House named Boyle a Champion of Change. He received the 2016 Humanitarian of the Year Award from the James Beard Foundation, a national culinary-arts organization.
Boyle’s appearance is sponsored by the VCU Global Education Office, Division of Community Engagement, Division for Inclusive Excellence and Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, in collaboration with the Sacred Heart Center, a non-profit community center which serves Richmond’s Hispanic community.