Richard - Homeboy Industries
“Right now Homeboy is helping me be a better father to my kids, a better son to my mother and a better boyfriend to my girlfriend. When I was out doing what I was doing, I didn’t care about any of those things. But now I look at life in a whole different form.”
Richard works in merchandise for Homeboy Industries. In this interview he describes his difficult early life and the ways in which Homeboy Industries helped him break the cycle of despair to begin a life of caring for his son and service to the community.
Grateful People: How did you come to Homeboy?
Richard: I came to Homeboy kind of down and out, broken. I took some classes before I got hired here. I took some classes, anger management classes I needed to do. So I applied for their job. Well actually it’s not a job. It’s a program. So I applied for the program and they called me back and that’s how I ended up here.
What did Homeboy help you with?
Well, right now it’s helping me be a better father to my kids, a better son to my mother and a better boyfriend to my girlfriend. When I was out doing what I was doing, I didn’t care about any of those things. But now I look at life in a whole different form.
What are you most grateful for?
I’m just grateful for my freedom, for one.
What do you mean your freedom?
As in not behind bars. And being free from drugs. But I’m thankful every day for just the little things. For having people that are – for the homeboys that are like – it’s like one big family, a family that I didn’t have growing up. So you come here and you get the handshakes, the hugs and it makes you feel. So I’m grateful for a lot of things.
“You come here and you get the handshakes, the hugs and it makes you feel. So I’m grateful for a lot of things.”
How do you show your gratitude at Homeboy?
I just kind of spread the message and kind of let people know because a lot of people ask about Homeboy. What is Homeboy about? Just go down and check it out. It’s a good place man. It’s a good stepping stone to move on and do what you’re doing because it is a program. It’s not a job. It’s an 18-month program. When your 18 months is up, they try to get you somewhere permanent, stuff like that. So what I’m doing here is I take Parenting. I take Fatherhood. I take Substance Abuse. I take a bunch of different classes to better myself.
Tell me a little bit about your job here.
When I came to Homeboy, I started in maintenance, cleaning windows, mopping floors, cleaning restrooms, stuff like that and they moved me into merchandise. Now what I do here is I kind of keep the store intact. Tag whatever needs to be tagged. When they have big events, I pack up everything and go out to do the events. So I just kind of maintain the store I guess.
What’s your favorite part of the job?
Just seeing the different kinds of people coming in. I mean we got people from all over the world that come in here and buy merchandise, buy souvenirs. When I start talking to ‘em I think maybe they’re from around here and nah, they’re from everywhere, man. Like everybody comes here to get Father G’s books, get it autographed, just to get a glimpse of him. In my head, the way I see it he’s going to be a legend. He’s a legend already. So like I’m living that little – I can say like I know him. Like, I work for him. I have seen what he done for people, you know? My kids could grow up and I could tell them what Father G is about. But I mean like I said, I take classes here and I mean I was never a good father. I thought being a father was dropping off money at my baby’s mom’s house and that’s how I take care of my son. No. Today I’m present in my son’s life.
That’s great.
I put him in sports. I help him with homework. For instance, I’m going to leave at 4 o’clock today because I’m going to a father-and-son barbecue at his school. Those are things that I’d never done before. I had a drug addiction. I was hooked on drugs for maybe 15 years and today I got three years, five months clean without drugs.
Congratulations!
And growing up in this lifestyle was like you were never – I mean you thought like what you saw [was normal] – because I grew up in all that. So I mean I saw my uncles do what they did. My cousins do what they did. So growing up I thought doing what they did was the right thing but now I sit back and reflect on it and like I was just taught wrong. Now I’m trying to break the cycle with my son. So with my son, I’m going to go about it a different way. It’s like a cycle that goes over and over through family generations and generations and – but I’m not going to have that on my son. I’m going to break the cycle. I got him in a Catholic school.
“It’s like a cycle that goes over and over through family generations and generations. But I’m not going to have that on my son. I’m going to break the cycle. ”
I mean I want him to do schoolwork. I want him to play in sports, things that I never did. So I mean other than that, like I mean I feel like – like this place taught me a lot. So I have kind of been using it as a stepping stone to branch out and I mean when you’re in an addiction or when you’re in the lifestyle, you kind of have blinders up to where you don’t see what – like there’s more – if you take these blinders off, there’s a whole world. But growing up, this is what we see, whatever is in front of us.
So it’s gang violence, drug selling, whatever the case may be. We see that. So we think that. But now like I want to see more. There’s more to the world. I just – I don’t associate with a lot of friends. I used to have a big circle of friends. Now my friends, I don’t even count them on one hand because now that I sit back and think about it, they’re not really your friends. They were just there because you had something or they wanted something. You get what I’m saying?
Yeah.
So now I go home. I walk into my house. My son comes home. I give him a hug. Like embrace him. I mean it’s just things I never did, you know. But my main thing is like being a father to my kids. That’s something I never had.
And that’s something that Homeboy helps you with?
Oh, yeah.
So it’s the classes…
Yeah, the Parenting class and I take Fatherhood.
What's the Fatherhood class?
Growing up, they always have classes for women, always women, always women. What about the men? There are two parents. There’s a father and there’s a mother. Right here, they made a class called Fatherhood and it’s a bunch of fathers – no girls, just all guys. We eat. We talk about problems, stuff like that and it’s a really good class, one of the best classes I ever had.
What is something you’re grateful for today?
I’m grateful for having a boss like Ana. I’m just grateful for being present and being here.
Thank you so much.
“I’m just grateful for being present and being here. ”
