In the late 1980s, a young social worker in Watts kept hearing she had to meet a priest in Boyle Heights. She didn't like priests. She didn't like religion. But she finally made the call.
What happened in that first meeting, and in the decades that followed, changed how Dr. Jorja Leap saw gangs, research, and her own life.
In this episode of The Homeboy Way, Tom Vozzo, former CEO of Homeboy Industries, sits down with Jorja, a UCLA professor, longtime friend of Father Greg Boyle, and a self-described "Homeboy elder." She takes us back to a time when there was no Homeboy, when a city was afraid, and when almost no one believed in the people Greg did. She shares what she discovered by simply showing up, why funders and government kept Homeboy at arm's length, and what she'd tell any nonprofit fighting for support.
She also gets personal about how Homeboy became her chosen family, a woman who has stayed in her heart for years, and the one time she and Fr. Greg really fought.
Key Takeaways
Violence is multifaceted, so the response has to be too.
Jorja compares gang violence to cancer: cutting out the tumor never worked on its own. She says no single approach, and no "typical" gang member, exists.
Relationships were the intervention.
Her early research at Homeboy found that no specific strategy explained the results. Community, transferable skills, and seeing other former gang members succeed gave people the confidence to believe they could change too.
Relapse is part of the process, not a failure.
Jorja prefers "relapse" to "recidivism" and describes people as "struggling," not failing. She advises nonprofits to put a comma in place of the period: "We have an 18-month program, and very few people make it through the first time."
Bring in a researcher early, but don't let a rigid funder rewrite your mission.
She urges nonprofits to partner with a university researcher early and often. She and Tom also criticize control groups that deny services to people in need, and she argues that if a funder insists on one, "you don't want their money."
Homeboy never gives up on anyone.
Jorja describes a woman she has watched at Homeboy since 2008 who is still struggling and still trying. To her, that is what Homeboy stands for: hope, not just success.
In This Episode:
[00:00] Introduction
[01:32] Meeting Father Greg before Homeboy existed
[03:37] The "super predator" myth
[06:40] Why violence is multifaceted
[11:40] Pitching Fr. Greg on research
[14:48] Relapse, not recidivism
[18:07] What the research found: relationships
[21:05] The study's results
[23:06] Why foundations hesitated
[26:37] LA County, the "bad boyfriend"
[30:28] Advice for nonprofits
[31:40] The trouble with control groups
[35:19] Explaining an 18-month program
[36:28] How Homeboy changed Jorja
[41:20] Being Fr. Greg’s friend
[43:24] Closing
Notable Quotes
"The effectiveness was based on relationships." - Jorja Leap [00:18:18]
"Homeboy never gives up on anyone." - Jorja Leap [00:39:50]
"Greg Boyle has taught me in the purest sense, the meaning of unconditional love." - Jorja [42:32]
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