MOORPARK : Priest to Speak on Solutions to Gangs

An East Los Angeles priest who is famous for his work against gang activity will speak tonight in Moorpark about the causes and solutions for youth violence.

Father Gregory J. Boyle is famous for setting up social services to combat gang activity in one of the poorest barrios of East Los Angeles, where he is pastor of Dolores Mission Church.

The event, which is open to the public, is sponsored by Moorpark Community High School and Our Town, a group dedicated to steering local youths away from gang activity.

Boyle has set up services that provide jobs and educational and recreational activities for youth in his neighborhood, contending that communities need to look beyond law enforcement to stop gang violence.

In a newspaper editorial last year, Boyle wrote that people must try to understand the causes of youth violence in order to stop it.

“Gang members act out of their despair,” Boyle wrote. “Their inability to imagine a future beyond the housing projects, the poverty and their gang allegiance reduces the chance that they will care enough not to kill or remove themselves from harm’s way.”

One way to combat the youths’ despair is to provide them with jobs, he wrote.

“In my barrio, jobs, work and money save lives.”

Boyle will speak at 7 p.m. at the Moorpark Community High School auditorium.