Ripples Story: “Meeting gang violence with love”

In this article, Joe Russo, Managing Director at Project-Connect, reflects on his Memorial Award journey, from Glasgow’s Violence Reduction Unit to Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, and how these experiences revealed a different way to tackle gang violence through connection, compassion and love.

In 1992 I started a youth club. It was set up to help provide a place of safety and create connections for young people and children, and for communities to feel a sense of family, a sense of belonging and what it’s like to be loved. That youth club evolved, grew and developed and it became a charity that worked across multiple areas, including Manchester, Nottingham and Derby. It began to grow beyond being a youth club. We developed mentoring programmes, and we began to work with gangs.

Some of the gang members were young people in their early 20s, who’d come along to my youth club as 11-year-olds. So, I had a great interest and understanding of why and how people are drawn into those lifestyles. But more than that, I wanted to be able to try and create alternative opportunities and possibilities for those young people who were turning to gangs.

When I came across the Rank Memorial Award in 2020, I decided I would apply for it to visit two projects: The Violence Reduction Unit and Homeboy Industries, which is the world’s largest gang rehabilitation re-entry programme.

The Violence Reduction Unit in Glasgow was absolutely fantastic. I met some amazing young people lesson I came away with was that the most powerful thing we can do when tackling issues around violence and deprivation, is for people to connect with who they really are: a human being, special, seen and loved. and found out the context of the Unit, which has been subsequently copied across the UK. Most importantly, the thing that I learned was that violence is a symptom, it is not a cause. Their approach was to tackle violence as an illness, treating the violent behaviour like an infection by looking at where it spreads, who is most at risk, and what triggers it.

While there, I discovered that they were heavily influenced by Homeboy Industries, a Los Angeles-based non-profit. It was set up in the 1980s by an amazing human called Father Greg Boyle, who had spent lots of his time burying people who’d been involved in gangs. When he realised that standard job placement couldn’t keep up with the number of individuals looking to escape gang life, he began launching dedicated social enterprises, the most famous of which is Homeboy Bakeries.

I spent approximately a month in Los Angeles, and it was one of the most amazing times of my life. There are so many lessons, so many powerful encounters that I had but the biggest lesson I came away with was that the most powerful thing we can do when tackling issues around violence and deprivation, is for people to connect with who they really are: a human being, special, seen and loved.

I have so many different stories from Homeboys, so many different encounters. I remember spending time with Miguel, who was the first person to show me around. He took me under his wing and I learned that from a very early age, he’d been surrounded by violence. He’d spent 20 years in prison, of which about half had been in solitary confinement. He was a wonderful human being. He had such a gentle, beautiful soul that really touched the people who came into contact with him. My two big takeaways from Homeboys – and from Miguel – were that, firstly, we are all inherently good and secondly, that we’re all connected.

The impact of the Memorial Award

I maintain regular contact with the teams, both in Glasgow and Los Angeles. A lot of their work has influenced the work that I do now. I’m privileged to travel and work up and down the country with police forces, charities, local authorities, and I always bring to the table those lessons from Homeboys. More recently, I’ve teamed up with two amazing UK charities, Shift and Oasis, for a conference in London and Manchester. We’re calling it the Restoration Revolution, and over four days we’ll bring together voices from across the justice system to talk about the growing recognition that we cannot harm to heal. Father Greg Boyle and Homeboys will be there too.

On a personal note, my trip transformed not just how I viewed the world, but how I viewed myself. Having run a charity for almost three decades, the truth is it is incredibly difficult and challenging; sometimes I became part of the system. My trip got me to reflect on my identity and my values. And that’s something I’ve been working through ever since. That is the legacy of my Memorial Award.

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