The Homeboy Way

Description/Author Bio:

Thomas Vozzo left a lucrative career in corporate America convinced there had to be a better way to define success. In 2012, Vozzo became the first-ever CEO of Homeboy Industries, the largest and most successful gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. 

Each year, thousands of former gang members from across Los Angeles enter the doors of Homeboy Industries seeking hope and the tools to make positive change. They are welcomed into a community of kinship, love, and exquisite mutuality, alongside access to the needed support services to ensure their own success—including case management, tattoo removal, anger management training, mental health services, parenting classes, and more. The overarching goal is to support individuals as they work to heal from their complex trauma, see hope in their future and the importance of their contributions to their families and communities. 

In The Homeboy Way: A Radical Approach to Business and Life with a foreword by Homeboy Industries founder Fr. Gregory Boyle, SJ, Vozzo presents the business and life lessons he has learned from Fr. Boyle and the homegirls and homeboys about fighting social, economic, and racial injustices. 

Leading with heart, authenticity and purpose, Vozzo provides a clear path to a new bottom line—including 55 rules to break— bringing the Homeboy Way to life as the perfect anecdote to systemic injustice and inequities. Combining his personal experiences and hard-earned insights with motivational and sometimes heartbreaking stories of former gang members determined to break the cycles of incarceration and violence, The Homeboy Way gives readers practical ways to address some of our most vexing social issues and provides a new path for personal and business leadership.

100% of proceeds from The Homeboy Way will support the mission of Homeboy Industries.

About Thomas Vozzo

Since 2012, Thomas Vozzo has served as the first-ever CEO of Homeboy Industries,

the largest and most successful gang rehabilitation and re-entry program in the world. Vozzo has led the nonprofit organization forward, bringing his business expertise and vision to implement a strategic and mission-driven plan that doubled the organization’s size and impact. As a voluntary, unpaid CEO, Vozzo has cultivated Homeboy’s portfolio of social enterprise job-training businesses (e.g., Homeboy Bakery, Homegirl Café, and Homebody Electronic Recycling), and increased revenues from Homeboy Industries’ social enterprises while only having less than 5% of the organizations funds come from government sources.