How a donor fell in love with Homeboy Industries' cause.
DOWNTOWN EAST LA — A menacing man with a face riddled in scars and tattoos towers over a couple of white-collar workers in suits. They pull out their wallets, ready to hand over their money. Moments later the two exclaim how great this was to begin the day as they wave goodbye back to the tattooed man with a heart of gold.
“Any politician worth their salt has a meeting over at Homegirl cafe off of Alameda … you get to see the who’s who talking politics.” Prisoners, priests, politicians, and pastries. Jim Wisely describes all of these as he sets the scene explaining his experiences catching brunch at the Homeboy Industries bakery and explaining why he has supported us for so long.
Although he has never been a part of our organization or used our services, Wisley, a contractor for the California State Assembly Committee on Rules, has made annual $2,500 donations in continued support for the Homeboy cause. Outside donors are the essential life blood to keeping the lights on at Homeboy Industries, without their contributions we wouldn’t be where we are now. There are tons of great non-profits to support in the world, so why Homeboy Industries? For Wisley, he chose Homeboy Industries for three reasons, the founder, the clients, and his belief in being constructive.
A “big roly poly priest,” “a fixer,” “a guiding spirit.” These are the different titles Wisley now uses to describe Father Greg. What first caught Wisley’s attention about Father Greg was when he was involved in a legal battle with the Immigration and Naturalization Service over police misconduct involving raids for illegal immigrants on the Delores Mission Church. Wisely found this inspiring and soon afterwards Father Greg founded Homeboy Industries.
The aspect of Homeboy Industries that really sticks out to Wisley, is the people we support. “They’re [LA gang members] not hopeless … They’re human beings, you know, they’re just confused and they don’t have any resources and they’re hard to handle, but they usually have a heart of gold.” The community at Homeboy Industries is driven by the idea of kinship and helping others. Wisley has seen this for himself and read testimonials in the book, Barking to the Choir. He goes on to emphasize, “It’s just a daring thing to do. They [Homeboy Industries] stand out because their clients stand out.” Wisely emphasizes how impressive it is to diffuse and channel anger into the desire to help others.
The desire to help others is something deeply ingrained in Wisley’s core beliefs. Similar to Father Greg, as a catholic man himself Wisley was brought up with the ideals of helping others. When describing why he enjoys supporting Homegirl Cafe specifically, he says, “You get to start off your day feeling good about yourself with a bunch of ex-convicts.” Wisely explains that he believes people should spend their money constructively when you have more than they can spend.
