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casestudy2.docxCase Study #2: Use the following case and apply Catholic social theory to it.
Each student will produce a paper consisting of at least 4 pages (1,000 words). The papers will be typed in double space, 1.25" margins and 12 pt Times New Roman font. This paper should apply more than one of the themes of Catholic social thought to the case.
• In this paper, students should focus on applying more than one of the themes of Catholic social thought as these apply to the case. • The purpose of this paper is to deepen one's inquiry into the subject matter by using a broader thematic palette when analyzing a case study. • This is not a superficial opinion papers, i.e.,what one liked or didn't like about a particular case, or a simple statement of how one would resolve the case. • This paper should focus first on demonstrating knowledge of ethical theories and principles. • The paper should then thoroughly apply those theories or principles to the specific case demonstrating the ways in which they are alike or different from one another. • You are not being graded on your opinion, or what you liked or didn't like about a particular case, so spending a great deal of time and space addressing these issues is not going to improve your grade. • Students should especially avoid sharing their opinions when these are inconsistent with, or contradict the conclusions that logically flow from the ethical comparison. • Students should avoid attempting to compare more than two theories or principles learned in the class. This will only result in a superficial comparison. • This paper should reflect a serious grappling with the challenging issues raised by these ethical dilemmas.
Case: Homeboy Industries
Los Angeles, California, has long been known as the Gang Capital of the World. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, there are approximately 45,000 people in Los Angeles who are members of more than 450 gangs. Gang activity has devastating consequences for the neighborhoods, businesses, schools, members, and nonmembers in the areas where they flourish: the rates of robberies, rapes, homicides, unemployment, high school dropouts, and poverty are all very high. Children see little opportunity or options in the midst of a violent neighborhood and opt for gang life to offer themselves protection, income, and some semblance of community.
An area of Los Angeles called Boyle Heights had more gang members as a percentage of the population in the 1980s than anywhere else in the United States. In the mid-1980s, Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., asked to work in an impoverished area and was assigned by his Jesuit superior to work in that neighborhood at the Dolores Mission Church. The church was the poorest parish in the archdiocese of Los Angeles and was located in the midst of the largest public housing grouping in the western half of the United States.
While pastor of the Dolores Mission, Fr. Greg and the leaders of the parish decided to open up the doors of the parish grounds to keep young people off the streets and learn what their needs were. Fr. Greg presided over many funerals of young people he knew, befriended many in prison where he regularly said Mass, and sat with the women of the parish who cried when their own or others’ children were murdered or incarcerated. As he got to know the gang members and their families and neighbors, he realized that many obstacles faced those who wanted to leave gang life and start anew. Finding work was impossible in a neighborhood where few businesses existed and leaving the neighborhood did not seem to be an option. Banks would not lend to someone wanting to start a business in the area and people from outside the neighborhood were afraid to come anywhere near.
Antigang initiatives throughout Los Angeles focused on a heavy police presence, increased incarceration rates, “3 strikes and you’re out,” and other heavy-handed penalties. Fr. Greg came to understand that there were no alternatives for many of the children, other than gangs. Fr. Greg tried to figure out how to help with employment. One of the most basic issues faced by many of the gang members was that they were heavily tattooed, including on their face, neck, and entire forearms, and often had many gang symbols visible. Teens could not be in school with these tattoos, and employers would not offer a job to someone with them. To alleviate this issue, the Dolores Mission created a tattoo-removal clinic. Today they have thirty volunteer doctors who remove an average of 745 tattoos every month for free.
The only businesses with job possibilities in the area were factories. The Dolores Mission decided to start a Jobs for a Future initiative. Hundreds of women passed out fliers to the foremen of factories located near the parish, trying to get interviews for people in the neighborhood. When nothing materialized from those attempts, Dolores Mission developed jobs in the area and worked hard to fund the salaries itself. Although the parish was not in a financial situation to fully fund the businesses within its regular budget, surprise donations or other contributions would always materialize at the last second so the enterprise could stay afloat. Fr. Greg found that a job opportunity was 80 percent of what the people in the neighborhood needed in order to make better decisions about their future.
A wealthy Hollywood director called Fr. Greg to brainstorm many different ways that he could invest in initiatives to help the gang members get off the streets. Fr. Greg says that he had to “respectfully dismiss” all of the ideas that the director came up with. When the exasperated director finally asked Fr. Greg if there was anything that could be done, Fr. Greg asked him to buy an old, closed bakery, so they could start a business called The Homeboy Bakery.
In spite of a fire that had originally burned the place down, bomb threats, death threats, and hate mail,51 the bakery survives to this day and the overall Homeboy Industries now includes Homegirl Café and Catering, Homeboy Diner, Homeboy Farmers Markets, Homeboy Grocery, and Homeboy Silk Screening and Embroidery. These enterprises allow people to learn the basic skills of showing up on time (every time they’re scheduled) putting up with a boss, and working alongside their former enemies. The Homeboy Industries budget for 2012 was approximately $14,700,000, with the social enterprises bringing in around $3,500,000. The goal is not to ultimately make money in these social enterprises. Fr. Greg says, “We don’t hire homies to bake bread, we bake bread to hire homies.”
If the 80 percent need for employment skills is taken care of, Fr. Greg says that there is a 20 percent need for other types of services for those formerly in gangs. In addition to the tattoo removal, an employment services division acts as an intermediary between the clients looking for work and the potential employers. The division has a mental health, substance abuse, and domestic violence prevention program, as well as a full-time lawyer who can help with the many of the issues that former gang members face. The employment services division also offers extensive education classes, with more than 400 trainees and community clients, engaged in forty-five different classes each month, ranging from high school equivalency classes, to financial literacy courses and even “Baby and Me” classes. People from the neighborhood utilize these services as do people released from the prison, the detention center, and the juvenile probation camps.
