For over 20 years, Homeboy Industries has provided education, job training, tattoo removal and many more services to L.A. gang members who have made a decision to leave gang life. This May, Father Greg Boyle, the organization's founder, announced that the fiscal crisis has resulted in a $5 million budget shortfall for Homeboy. Three-quarters of its staff were laid off. Donations have poured in, but not enough to save the anti-gang non-profit.

The city of Los Angeles can help. Guillermo Cespedes, L.A.'s "gang czar" oversees an estimated yearly budget of $26 million to spend on anti-gang efforts. Last year $500,000 of this budget went to Homeboy. This year, with the fiscal crisis, there are indications that the city may not give any money at all. Please ask Guillermo Cespedes to help Homeboy Industries to continue doing its important anti-gang work by allocating $5 million to Homeboy Industries. The work that this organization has been doing successfully for twenty years is exactly the sort of thing this money should be spent on.

More info:

Listen to an interview with Father Boyle on NPR's Fresh Air:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127010471

Homeboy's layoff announcement in the L.A. Times:
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/14/local/la-me-0514-homeboy-industries-20100514

Mayor Villaraigosa is "Saddened" by Homeboy's plight:
http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/city-news/mayor-homeboy-industries/

You can donate directly to Homeboy Industries, here:
http://www.homeboy-industries.org/donations.php