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Three Great (Social Justice-y) Things to Do for Father’s Day Weekend



GO TO SEE THE U.S. PREMIER OF THE G-DOG MOVIE

G-Dog, the wonderful new documentary film about Father Greg Boyle by Academy Award winning doc director, Freida Mock, will have it’s US premiere on Sunday, Father’s Day, at 4:20 p.m. at the LA Film Festival downtown,

Father Greg and some of the guys from Homeboy Industries will be on hand to do a Q & A session after the film.

(And, yes, I’m definitely going to be there with a passel of friends and family.)

(But if you go, go early as it will sell out fast, if it hasn’t already.)



BECOME A COURT APPOINTED SPECIAL ADVOCATE FOR A FOSTER CARE CHILD—GUYS PARTICULARLY NEEDED

Each month in LA County, more than 800 hurt, frightened and confused children enter the Family Dependency Court, and thus the foster care, system, having been removed from their parent’s custody because of s abuse, neglect or abandonment.

A judge must quickly make all of the important decisions about each foster child’s life and, more often than not, he or she must do so in the context of a system that is overburdened and seems disinterested.

However, a judge can appoint what is called a CASA, or Court Appointed Special Advocate, for the child. This trained and supervised volunteer is charged with advocating for a foster child who is under the court’s protection because of abuse or neglect.

But here’s the deal: only 16% of the volunteers at CASA/LA are male, while 49.8% of the kids in the system are boys. Even more than the girls, the male foster children are too often left with no solid male role models in their lives.

As a consequence, this Father’s Day there is a strong push to get more men involved in volunteering for CASA.

For more info, check the CASALA website.

Spread the word.


GO to SEE THE SO CAL PREMIER OF MUSIC FROM THE BIG HOUSE

Today, Friday, at 7:20 p.m., the Loyola Law School Center for Restorative Justice will co-host a screening of the new documentary, Music From the Big House, in which Rita Chiarelli, Canada’s “Queen of the Blues,” makes a musical pilgrimage to Louisiana State Maximum Security Penitentiary at Angola, a place that used to be the bloodiest prison in America, but has always been a place where the some of the deepest, truest blues have been played.

The screening will be held at the Laemmle Theater at 9036 Wilshire Boulevard, in Beverly Hills.

7 Comments

  • Dear Top o’

    Wow, really? Heck, that must mean that Chief Beck is complicit in all this harboring, since he’s at Homeboy for breakfast at least once a week. And the sheriff is certainly complicit, since he nearly always goes to the Homeboy fundraisers. Oh, and a couple of the LA County supervisors, they’re in on the conspiracy too, since they go to those same events. Plus there are a couple of criminal court judges that are in and out of Homeboy for lunch on a regular basis. OMG! Sounds like a RICO case in the making.

    (Insert visual of editor rolling eyes.)

    PS: This “harboring criminals’ nonsense used to be the mantra chanted by certain Hollenbeck officers 15 years ago. But, despite the fact that, up until a few years ago, the Homeboy offices were right next to the Hollenbeck detective bureau, somehow no “wanted” people ever were discovered at Homeboy. Instead, Father Greg and Homeboy Industries went on helping hundreds of people turn their lives around every year—helping them find in themselves the emotional tools to stay out of prison, to become real parents to their kids, and to create real futures for themselves.

    But, honestly, why let facts get in your way.

    Don’t believe me. Go visit homeboy and see for yourself. Take the tour. Talk to random people. I dare you.

  • Father Boyle is a good man and I have been at the home several times. In years past I would convey to G-Dog that we were looking for a certain boy (yes a gang member) and leave. Usually within days the boy would turn himself in, the way it should be. The Sheriff has told me personally that attends the functions to stay in good with the voters. What a jerk Baca is!! Hang in there G-Dog!!

  • That left wing kool-aid you have been drinking has really done it’s damage. Boyle has been a pain in the side for Law Enforcement for years. You and I know that an elected or appointed official not getting face time with Boyle or “Gang Banger” Industries will not get the “Community” support or vote. Speaking for the Enforcement arm of Law Enforcement, Boyle is a pain. Get a grip. Here’s an idea for a story, research how many gangsters (reformed gangsters, is there one?)have worked for Homeboy Industries from its inception till now. How many went back to jail or prison while employed by this great institution from the start till now. Just the facts maam, not the myth.

  • So you’re saying that Greg Boyle’s community popularity and face time with public officials is because of the factless myth of his success. Hmmmm. Could this be true or is it just easy to make provocative statements when one doesn’t have to identify oneself?

  • I believe the relevant questions about Homeboy are:

    Can they make make a decent omelette?

    How is the B.L.T.?

  • […] http://witnessla.com/prison/2012/admin/three-great-social-justice-y-things-to-do-for-fathers-day-wee… Featured Story "One day, when I went to school, my mom told me to get off the bus at my aunt’s house after school. Maybe she knew what was about to happen. When I got off the school bus that afternoon, I found DFCS waiting for me on the front steps. My mom had been arrested for drug possession. That was the day I went into foster care…." (Read more) […]

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