Business Article: Why I Hire Former Convicts and Gang Members

Check out this article about John Shegerian who co-founded Homeboy Tortillas and Homeboy Industries, is the CEO of Electronic Recyclers International, Fresno, Calif., and serves on the California Governor’s Gang Advisory Committee, helping state legislators create policies to reduce gang violence.
http://www.bnet.com/blog/smb/why-i-hire-former-convicts-and-gang-members/2422?promo=857&tag=nl.e857

Excerpt:
"I think our hiring practices make our company stronger because they show that our management is sensitive to the human condition. We’re all one accident or one tragedy away from being in a tight spot. Business can be a battle, but when a company shows its DNA this way, it makes for a very tight-knit group and helps us work together.

There’s not a community in America that isn’t suffering from drug, gang, and recidivism problems. People coming out of those situations without structure are going to go back to what they know, whether that’s a gang or dealing marijuana or smoking crack. If every business owner hired just one person from the margins, it could make a world of difference within the community. Helping people get that second chance is our great opportunity and our great challenge."

thoughts?

what am I excited about?

Mike just asked me, “What am I excited about?”

A simple question, but a good question. Although there are the triumphs (like Alondra getting her license), these feel few and far between. So often I feel like I am aware of and sometimes overwhelmed by the numerous reasons to not be excited. Women telling me terrible stories of abuse; a mother telling me of her husband who's being held at Tacoma Detention Center; another who needs help paying utilities before they get cut off; farmworkers struggling to find housing, work, and pay rent…let alone all the other needs that surmount; illiterate non-English speaking people trying to navigate the court system; uninsured adults burdened by heafty medical bills…it goes on and on. To me it has become normal. People are struggling to survive, struggling to be cared for and care for their children. Numerous barriers to survival compound and blind the way forward.

As a person of much privilege, you would think this wouldn’t feel normal. I have never experienced physical, emotional, mental, or sexual abuse. I have never been unable to pay my bills, and as a child I knew I would be provided for by my parents…who were and are still in a loving relationship. Yet, my life isn’t normal, and over the past 5 years since I graduated from college and have been working among the poor and marginalized in society…this has become all the more apparent to me.

The challenges of life now seem insurmountable at times for those I am privileged to accompany day-to-day. Debts, abuse, poverty, addictions, generational issues, lack of social support…the list goes on and on.
So what am I excited about? It is good to stop and reflect.

I am excited that I get to be here, living into what God has invited me towards. I am incredibly passionate about participating in God’s work of SHALOM in places of violence—bringing change to systemic oppression that forces people off the land & into slavery; and healing & hope to individuals who experience physical oppression & abuse. I have wanted to work with women who have been abused as well as recent Latino immigrants…and I am doing both. I am grateful. However, the challenge to not be burdened remains heavy.

Last night at our Volunteer Advocacy training, I was feeling incredibly burdened by various stories I had been hearing. When it was my turn to be prayed for, people saw Jesus coming under the burdens with me and lifting them off of me. I pictured myself being crushed under the weight of a house-size stone block, and Jesus coming under it with me, taking the weight of it so I could either collapse or crawl out. I felt myself on the brink of collapsing and yet fearful of the fall. Can I really let go? Can I really be weak and not be the strong one? People always say I am strong. Yet sometimes I think I need permission to be weak.

So what do I love? what am excited about?
I LOVE sitting with people and hearing their stories, affirming who they are and calling them out to be more fully who they are. I love seeing people come alive, experiencing healing and love from those around them. I love seeing the light come back into people’s eyes. I love being a voice of hope and encouragement. I love seeing God do the impossible. I love people coming together, sharing resources, and moving forward as a community in loving and supporting one another.

This is what I am excited about.

alondra got her license!

(See previous entry about Alondra to know the background to this story).
It's been almost two years since her accident (Dec 28, 2008), and 3/4 of a year since her license was suspended. This week, I received a call from an overjoyed Alondra....
"Betania?"
"Si, como estas Alondra?"
"Ya me fui al departamento de licencia....y ahora tengo mi licencia!!!!" (I just went to the DOL and I now have my license!!!)

Not having a license has caused immense stress for Alondra, and her excitement poured through the phone. I can't count the times I have talked with her about the toll a suspended license has taken on her, both emotionally as well as the ways it has thrown her into a catch-22. She hasn't been able to renew her tabs at times & hasn't been able to sell her car in order to pay off her fines. Having a license is something I have taken for granted, and her struggle and desperation has once again made me realize how much I take for granted. It quite a cause to celebrate and we are very excited!

roadtripping to LA

My coworker recently suggested we read a book called Tattoos on the Heart, by Father Greg Boyle. Father 'G' as he's known in the projects of LA, has been working with gang members for over 20 years. Out of his ministry has developed 'Homeboy Industries', an incredibly impressive organization that is thriving in LA's Chinatown (www.homeboy-industries.org). It's true, the businesses have taken flight (see below for more info). However it's not just the businesses that have taken flight, but truly those who have come to work there--in the best way. Homies from rival gangs work alongside each other in these industries, breaking down the gang walls and entering into relationship.

You may be wondering why i know so much about this organization all of a sudden. well, my coworker Chris suggested the TN staff read it, and after my roommate picked my newly ordered copy up and went through 1/2 of it in a day's sitting, I was all the more prompted to read it. Phenomenal. I recommend it to all. It's re-converting me as a lover of God and belief in the power of love..and GOD as LOVE...to transform lives. (For more on the book, see other blog entry). Only a couple of chapters into it, and my decision was made...I was joining some friends from Tierra Nueva on a week-long road trip to San Fran and LA. I needed inspiration, revitalized vision for ministry among the marginalized. I wanted to visit similar-hearted ministries in other cities along with my fellow friends and coworkers...and together grow in vision and heart for the people we work with.

(the crew +1 and our van)

So, in the beginning of September we jumped in a donated 15-passenger van and header down I-5. I was hoping for change, but I didn't expect to come back with such renewed hope and inspiration, as well as connection to my brothers and sisters. After a brief stay in Vancouver, WA, we headed down to San Francisco's Mission District and InnerChange's Casa San Dimas. There we were welcomed into a community of people who work with gangs and those in and out of juvenile hall.

InnerChange's Mission statement:

"We are communities of missionaries living in poor, marginalized neighborhoods around the world – places most people want to avoid or ignore. We seek to live out the good news of Jesus among the poor, both with words and deeds." FOR more info on InnerChange: http://www.crmleaders.org/ministries/innerchange

(this is one of many amazing murals in the Mission District of San Fran,
with myself, Teddy & Ryan)

There is much to say about our 3 days with this community, however to try for brevity, I would say these are the gems:

• the joy of being amongst a similar hearted ministry was not only encouraging and inspiring, but helped me realize there are more of us out there!
• the director's stories will forever be with me, two journeys--Jose from El Salvador, Celida from Mexico--intertwining in San Francisco as a beautiful couple that is adopting the shunned and family-less youth getting out of Juvenile Hall. Former rivals are now rapping together about the love of God surrounded by a new community. Love is winning these kids over and transforming their lives. "If we are trying to be successful, we are not able to love", says Jose.
• the value of accompaniment, friendship, having someone coming alongside is not to be underestimated. We live in a world longing for connection, to be known, to be heard, to be loved. Too often we overlook the importance of simply being with.
  

After InnerChange, we headed down to LA, the 7 of us and two new companions: a traveler kid who's rode freight trains across the US 6 times since this January...and his pitbull. A guitar, drums, and a van-load of singers enlivened the journey south. Homeboy Industries was the final stop. After lunch at Homegirl Cafe where we enjoyed incredible service & food, we were given a tour of the building:

• the Homeboy Bakery where the lead chef all 'tatted-up' offered us steaming pain au chocolat fresh out of the oven (they supply delicious french pastries and artisan breads for the cafe as well as local stores such as Trader Joe's)
• the Homeboy Merchandise store with hip clothing designed and produced by the homies as a part of Homeboy Silkscreen & Embrodiery (which has over 2,000 clients (PS YOU too can order custom shirts, pens and more with silkscreen or embroidery for your team, your school, and your business. Contact Homeboy Silkscreen & Embroidery at 213-623-7955:).
• Father G's office whose glass walls are in direct line with with front doors
  
• the offices of 9 Case Manager, 3 Mental Health Therapist, a full-time lawyer, the Domestic Violence specialist
• the high quality computer lab
• the tattoo removal lab
• the Solar Panel Installation Training room
• and other classrooms where people gather throughout the day, ranging from Grief & Loss, Driver's Training, Parenting classes, GED, & Substance Abuse.

My social working self walked around the building with my mouth dropped. They have meetings called 'Secure Base', where the case manager, therapist, mentor, drug/alcohol counselors together meet with each employee (homie) once a month. Its a social workers dream.

The day we were there, people kept apologize for being 'out of it'. That morning one of their employees, an 18-year old who came early every morning to wash the windows and do maintenance, had been shot 3 times in the head. He was in critical condition and Father G was with him at the hospital. The 'stories' from Tattoos on the Heart, are real. They are not just stories, they are lives, humans, being pulled down by violence that doesn't let go.
oh LORD have mercy.

a final quote that's in: Tattoos on the Heart:
"our truest measures of compassion lies not in our service of those on the margins, but in our willingness to see ourselves in kinship with them"--Pema Chodron

I am incredibly grateful for the way this trip, and Father G's book, is directing and enhancing my own compassion,
my yearning for change,
and my desire to be in kinship with my those whom society has placed on the margins.

By the incredible LOVE of the Triune God...may these margins be erased.

tattoos on the heart excerpts

check this out:
"to love the enemy and to find some spaciousness for the victimizers as well as the victim, resembles more the expansive compassion of God. That's why you do it. To be in the world who God is.
Here is what we seek: a compassion that can stand in awe at what the poor have to carry, rather than stand in judgment of how they carry it... (p.67).

...compassion isn't just about feeling the pain of others, its about letting them in, bring them in towards yourself. If we love what God loves, then, in compassion, margins get erased...

...compassion is not a relationship between the Healer and the Wounded. It is a covenant between equals. Compassion is always at its most authentic, about a shift from the cramped world of the self-preoccupation into a more expansive place of fellowship, of true kinship" (p.77)

Story Guild 2010

STORYGUILD SUMMER 2010

"O Lord, Hear our Cry!" A presentation by the Summer Story Guild
Sunday, September 12, 2010, 4:30 p.m.
Our Summer Story Guild just completed a 10-week season of entering the stories of the prophet Moses and the Prophet of prophets, Jesus. We have spent these weeks entering the stories through theater, dance, song, and art. The below is a photo from the final production.