A PROJECT that has helped turn around the lives of some of Los Angeles's most notorious gang members is heading for Scotland.
The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) is looking for backing to set up a series of profit-making businesses which will give jobs to former gang members and violent offenders.
The project is based on a Los Angeles initiative which has for 25 years rehabilitated members of some of the United States' most feared gangs by giving them jobs in trades such as baking.
Homeboy Industries, founded by Jesuit priest Father Greg Boyle, runs seven different businesses and is about to start an eighth with the opening of a diner run by ex-offenders at Los Angeles International Airport.
The VRU, based at Strathclyde Police, aims to set up social enterprises on a similar model by September of this year, establishing partnerships with supportive businesses and charities with the aim of giving a job to those who have successfully turned their lives around.
The Los Angeles initiative now covers businesses including a bakery, cafe, clothing business and farmers' markets all linked by the strong Homeboy brand.
The move follows a visit to the LA project by Sergeant Iain Murray of the VRU, to view businesses run by former members of gangs such as LAs Bloods, Crips and the notorious MS-13s.
Sgt Murray said: "Father Boyle speaks of a 'lethal absence of hope' and set up these firms because he had become overwhelmed by the number of people he was burying in his community.
"Homeboy offers people hope and a way to earn some honest money, often for the first time in their lives."
Father Boyle is to visit Scotland in May to help build support for a version adapted to Scottish problems.
He will be accompanied by James Horton, a former death-row inmate whose conviction was quashed after 24 years. He is now a "navigator" with Homeboy Industries, helping new recruits adapt to working life.
VRU director Karyn McCluskey said the move was an attempt to build on the success of an existing police initiative to tackle gangs in Glasgow.
The Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (CIRV) takes young men on the fringes of becoming involved in the city's gang culture, confronts them with the likely consequences of gang violence, and offers them ways to turn their lives around.
However, Ms McCluskey said: "We have done really well, but we have only changed the problem. The issue is we can't get them into jobs."
Research shows that people who have a criminal conviction are no more likely to offend than anyone else, once they have managed to avoid offending for four years or more, she said. "But that is not how employers see it. They will simply look at people who have never been in trouble and choose the ones with no convictions.
"These guys are confined to life on welfare.
"But they have kids and their kids see this and we know their kids are likely to follow the same path.
"A job is the best antidote to the gang, the gun and the knife."
She added that in Los Angeles, which at one time had 1000 murders a year, Homeboy Industries has got gang members who were previously trying to kill each other working together and contributing to society.
"We don't want to invent something new. We want to look for something that has worked for a long time, and it has to make money and has to be sustainable," she said.
The VRU has already been in touch with business leaders including Sir Tom Hunter's Business Hatchery Programme and is exploring potential industries which a Scottish operation could involve. Existing projects, including one which gave CIRV graduates work at last year's Edinburgh Military Tattoo, could be incorporated into a "Scottish Homeboy".
While the timescale for the launch is tight and the financial climate not ideal, Ms McCluskey said every year wasted meant more children growing up at risk of offending or of a life on benefit.
"We are trying to overcome some of the negative attitudes people have about starting something new in the recession.
"We can't just do that for the next six years. We don't have time to make mistakes," she said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article