Father Greg Boyle — Colorado Speaker Series
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient and founder of the world's largest gang intervention program speaks on compassion and radical kinship.
Why we picked this
The Jesuit priest who built the world's largest gang rehabilitation program makes the case that kinship — not punishment — is how you transform lives.
Father Greg Boyle founded Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles in 1988, and it has since become the world’s largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program. His approach is radical in the literal sense: he believes that people change not through punishment or programs, but through unconditional kinship — being seen as worthy before you’ve proven anything.
His bestselling books “Tattoos on the Heart” and “Barking to the Choir” are some of the most moving nonfiction of the last two decades. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work. At Bellco Theatre, expect an evening that reframes how you think about compassion, community, and what it actually takes to help people who’ve been written off.