The Man Behind 'Homeboy Industries'

WUNC | By Anita Rao,

Published August 3, 2016 at 11:55 AM EDT

Jesuit priest Father Greg Boyle talks about the evolution of Homeboy Industries

Note: This segment originally aired February 2, 2016.

In 1986, Jesuit priest Father Greg Boyle was appointed to a poor parish in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles.

At the time, that area had a major gang problem, and Father Greg decided to start a small job program to help provide positive alternatives for members of his community. More than two decades later, this program, now called Homeboy Industries, is one of the largest and most comprehensive gang intervention programs in the country.

Host FrankStasio talks with Fr. Greg Boyle about his life story and the evolution of the Homeboy Industries program.

The exterior of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles.

Anita Rao

Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.

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Frank Stasio

Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.

See stories by Frank Stasio