The Homeboy Way

A man takes off his mask, looks up, and smiles as a room full of people applauds him. For Hector Verdugo, that moment in Manila captures what Homeboy Industries brings to communities around the world: the chance to feel seen, valued, and worthy of belonging. In this episode of The Homeboy Way, Tom Vozzo welcomes Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J. and Hector Verdugo home from Japan and the Philippines. They shar...

At Homeboy Industries, a young person can push a therapist away and still find the door open when they return. Tom Vozzo sits down with therapists Fajima Bedran and Jason Delgadillo to explore how trust, belonging, and consistent care help young people heal from childhood trauma. Together, they discuss youth therapy, complex trauma, EMDR, and the relief of realizing that abuse and neglect were nev...

After 17 years in prison, Gabby Hidalgo came home to a family that still saw the person she used to be. Alejandro Zapata returned to Homeboy after a second prison term, determined to leave behind the fast money and experiences he never wanted to repeat. At Homeboy Industries, both found people willing to believe in their future, even when rebuilding their lives felt overwhelming. In this episode o...

In the late 1980s, a young social worker in Watts kept hearing she had to meet a priest in Boyle Heights. She didn't like priests. She didn't like religion. But she finally made the call. What happened in that first meeting, and in the decades that followed, changed how Dr. Jorja Leap saw gangs, research, and her own life. In this episode of The Homeboy Way, Tom Vozzo, former CEO of Homebo...

What do you do when you're tired of the life you're living but have no idea where to start? Paradise Adamson asked that question in a prayer on a dirt hillside beside the freeway, at what she calls her rock bottom. What followed was an arrest over a missing TAP card, time in county jail and in treatment, and a string of people telling her she should check out Homeboy. In this episode, Tom...

After surviving a brain hemorrhage and facing stage-four metastatic cancer, Fr. Frank Buckley, S.J. describes the past year as both the hardest and the best of his life. His experience revealed something he had spent years searching for: God was not somewhere “out there.” God was already present within him, and in the people surrounding him at Homeboy Industries. In this deeply personal conversati...

What does it take to rebuild your life after prison, addiction, grief, and years of being told you will never change? For Nickloos Tate and Washea Beverly, transformation began when they stopped allowing their pasts to dictate their futures and found a community willing to believe in them. Nickloos shares how a life-changing question inside prison, “Do you want life, or do you want to live life?”,...

A life shaped by survival can make change feel almost impossible. Mike Tyson knows that world firsthand. So does Jose Arellano, whose childhood in a multigenerational gang family led him into the streets, juvenile hall, and eventually prison. Miguel Tyson’s story takes a different path, shaped by a mother who taught him through her actions that helping others is a way of living. When Jose returned...

What if the most effective response to incarceration, homelessness, and economic instability isn’t another temporary program, but a real job? Carla Javits has spent nearly two decades helping employment social enterprises turn overlooked talent into meaningful work, sustainable businesses, and pathways toward a better life. In this episode of The Homeboy Way, host Tom Vozzo sits down with Carla to...

For thousands of people, the hardest part of leaving gang life behind isn't deciding to change. It's carrying visible reminders of a past they're trying to escape. Every day at Homeboy Industries, people walk through the tattoo removal clinic hoping for more than a treatment. They're hoping for another chance. Behind that work is a team of 36 volunteer doctors who donate their time...

Tom Vozzo arrived at Homeboy Industries from the corporate world expecting to bring his experience, solve problems, and help stabilize an organization facing a financial crisis. What he didn't expect was how much Homeboy would change the way he understood leadership. In this episode of The Homeboy Way , Daniel Martinez and George Nunez turn the tables on Tom, asking about the transition that f...

Joey Ray, (Joseph Raymond Lucero), never expected his life to take him from a California Youth Authority facility to a Hollywood film set. But a chance encounter with Father Greg Boyle in prison, and a program called Criminals and Gang Members Anonymous, set him on a path toward Homeboy Industries, sobriety, and eventually an acting career. In this episode, Tom Vozzo sits down with Joey to explore...

Kabira Stokes never planned to become an entrepreneur. After 9/11, she became an anti-war activist, searching for ways to create meaningful change. That journey led her from city government and criminal justice policy into an unexpected realization: instead of waiting for policy to create opportunities, she could create jobs herself. In this episode, Tom Vozzo sits down with Kabira Stokes to explo...

Joe Tarin never imagined he would one day lead a business that helps transform lives. After years of addiction, incarceration, and believing he didn't belong anywhere, one conversation with a friend led him through the doors of Homeboy Industries. What began with fear and uncertainty eventually became a journey of healing, recovery, and leadership. In this episode, Tom Vozzo sits down with Joe...

After spending years interviewing homies, healers, and thought leaders, Tom Vozzo finally finds himself on the other side of the microphone. In this special episode of The Homeboy Way , Dyamond Watts, Angel Rodriguez, and Vianka Villagomez turn the tables on Tom and ask the questions that reveal the person behind the leadership lessons. Tom reflects on his journey from corporate America to serving...

Kimberly Moore went from a mattress in a crack house to building a $51 million campus in one of Louisville's most violent neighborhoods. The moment that changed everything came when she watched a six-year-old girl get slapped by her mother for saying she was hungry. Kimberly got up, walked out, and went to treatment. She has been sober since 1998. In this episode, Tom Vozzo sits down with Kimb...

When Tom Vozzo stepped down as CEO of Homeboy Industries after thirteen years, he thought he would finally get some peace. What he did not expect was how much he would still need the place and how much it would still need him. In this episode, Tom sits down with founder Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J. to talk about what happens when you stop running an organization but refuse to leave it behind. Fr. Greg adm...

Actor Lauren Tom has spent decades moving audiences through roles in The Joy Luck Club , Friends , Futurama , and more. But in this episode of The Homeboy Way , she joins Tom Vozzo to talk about the story that moved her: Homeboy Industries. After reading Fr. Greg Boyle S.J.’s Tattoos on the Heart and hearing him speak, Lauren knew she had to get involved, even if she didn’t yet know what she could...

George Nunez, Head of Security at Homeboy Industries, spent years in and out of prison. He shut out the world, including his own children, because showing weakness behind bars wasn't an option. Daniel Martinez, a Navigator at Homeboy Industries, asked his parole officer to lock him up again rather than feel like a burden to his brother. Both men walked through Homeboy's doors expecting not...

What does it take to trust again after a lifetime of betrayal? For Karla Leon and Anthony Chairez, both formerly incarcerated and now executive assistants to the Co-CEOs of Homeboy Industries, the answer isn't a pill or a program, it's patience, kinship, and learning how to hug. Karla came home from federal prison to a three-year-old daughter who didn't know her as "Mom." Ant...

What does it mean to be loved without needing to earn it? In this episode of The Homeboy Way , host Tom Vozzo sits down with Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J., founder of Homeboy Industries, for a deeply human conversation about love, humility, recognition, trauma healing, and the kind of kinship that changes lives. Fr. Greg reflects on his birthday at Homeboy, the mariachis, the joy of being celebrated, and t...

When world-renowned trauma expert Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, author of the nine-million-copy bestseller The Body Keeps the Score , walked into Homeboy Industries, he came skeptical. What he found stopped him cold: people leaning into each other like friends. No suspicion. No dominance games. Just open-hearted safety. For a population with histories of violence and gang life, that is "quite rema...

What actually helps people heal? Is it therapy? Medication? Community? A conversation? A job? A second chance? In this special episode for Mental Health Awareness Month, host Tom Vozzo steps back from single transformation stories to look at the through line that makes Homeboy Industries actually work: mental health healing in community. Tom sits down with three sets of voices who have built, shap...

Dr. Bill Resnick first heard about Homeboy through a friend before Homeboy even existed. Years later, after a site visit, reading Tattoos on the Heart , and witnessing Homeboy’s financial crisis, he found his way into the community. In this episode, former CEO Tom Vozzo talks with Bill about moving from donor to volunteer. A psychiatrist in long-term recovery, Bill now leads mindfulness classes at...

In this episode, Tom Vozzo sits down with three remarkable women who have each walked through Homeboy's doors broken and walked out as leaders. Dyamond is now a brand strategist for the Homeboy Way podcast. Angel is a navigator helping new trainees find their footing. Vianka is an academic program coordinator at Homeboy's adult high school. Together, their stories paint a vivid portrait of...