Mission Centers
All Peoples Christian Center
Homie Accents: Wash up and save a life!
Ricky Ibarra’s mom used to get tired of the long drives
just to visit her son in jail. And the mother of Moses Dominguez
used to cry whenever she visited her son in jail. Ricky’s
mom hasn’t had to visit him in jail for two years. In December,
Moses just celebrated his one year anniversary
from jail and youth detention centers--the longest span of freedom
he’s experienced since he was nine. Both guys earned their
high-school diplomas behind bars and both had participated in
rival gangs in their neighborhood.
With lives of crime and gang-related activities behind them,
Ricky and Moses have decided to wash up and save lives in their
South Central Los Angeles neighborhood ... by making soap.
In the facilities of All Peoples Christian Center, blocks from
Ricky’s and Moses’ homes, a micro-enterprise is taking
off. It began in September 2001, when Ricky, Moses, and Gregory
Turk, the pastor at All Peoples Christian Church since 2000,
decided to make a few bars of soap to sell. With a soap recipe
from the Internet and less than a $100 investment, they made
30 bars of soap and sold out the next day. Less than four months
later, they’ve sold between 3,000 and 4,000 bars, and now
have expanded their product line to include lotion.
Who would have thought a soap-making enterprise would get young
Latino gangsters off of the streets? Greg, who’s spent
more than a decade working with gangs in Kansas City, Mo., and
Fort Worth, Texas, and now Los Angeles, said he constantly challenges
himself to fan glimmers of hope in guys like Ricky and Moses
who too often are demonized by our culture. One way to fan hope
is through jobs--no small task in an area where jobs are few,
and guys tattooed with gang affiliations are not the most employable,
according to Greg.
“We are in a unique area. Within a 10 block radius [of
All Peoples], we have 16 Latino gangs which translates to a
lot of violence,” said Greg. He said the young men don’t
see much hope or opportunity, much less, life past 25, so they
tend to act out “suicidal tendencies in homicidal ways.”
Last November alone, five homicides were reported within blocks
of the Center.
“When people don’t have a sense of their future,
that affects how they live their day to day lives,” Turk
added. The law enforcement response, he said, is to incarcerate
as many young men as possible. Greg takes a pastoral approach--he
reaches out to the guys by entering into caring, trusting relationships.
“He shows interest in what we’re doing, and he was
willing to figure out how to help us out, you know what I mean?”
said Ricky, 27. Ricky, who already had an indirect connection
to All People’s through his sister who is employed there,
has known Greg since late 2000. Moses, 23, met Greg at a “homeboy’s
house” about six months later. When Moses violated his
probation and almost returned to jail, Greg spoke in behalf
of his release. The very next day, Moses showed up at All Peoples
to prove he was serious about changing his life.
And now the guys are working to change other lives. Currently,
the soap-making business, Homie Accents, supports two 20-hour
positions, filled by Ricky and Moses--his first job. In addition
to making soap and lotion, they’re conducting workshops
for kids. Another homie, Nelson, has been volunteering for several
months in hopes of snagging the next job when it opens.
“Our goal? Hire 40 people. Right now we don’t have
funding, but through soap sales and workshops, we’re trying
to establish ourselves,” said Ricky. Their future goals
include developing a job program for gang-members who are ready
to change their lives to become more employable. They plan to
offer tattoo removal and anger management classes to help the
transition into the workforce.
Moses said he hasn’t seen his mom so happy, and that she’s
proud of him. As for Ricky’s mom? “She loves it that
I’m home all of the time,” he said. Which gave him
another idea: get the neighborhood moms together for pitch-ins.
“When we were kids involved in gang activities, the only
persons who could keep us off the streets and away from gang
members were our mothers and fathers. The police would chase
us away, but we would always come back,” said Ricky. “If
there was more communication among the parents, they could notify
each other about the kids’ activities and wrong doings.
If they don’t know each other, they can’t communicate
with each other.”
When you’re ready to buy “homie-made” soap,
call Ricky or Moses. Your purchase will support All People’s
budding gang intervention program. And according to Ricky, “Other
soap companies don’t offer that!” Wash up and save
a life!
How to Order
To order Homie Accents handmade specialty soap and/or lotion,
call Ricky or Moses at All Peoples Christian Center, (213) 747-6357
extension 34.
Or check out their Web site: www.allpeoplescc.org/homieaccents/
—by Angela Herrmann
Director of Web site development
Disciples Home Missions
