Gildan Activewear, St. Michael, Barbados, is pleased to announce Homeboy Industries as the recipient of its $100,000 donation as well as the successful close of its first annual “I Support…” campaign that proves a T-shirt can make a better world.
Initiated in 2010, the “I Support…” promotion was funded via sales of Gildan Activewear’s best-selling T-shirt, style 2000, and asked industry partners and customers to share their thoughts on deserving charities in North America to help guide the $100,000 donation.
Homeboy Industries was voted into the top 10 of the “I Support…” campaign via public voting on www.genuinegildan.com. Homeboy Industries, along with the other top 10 charities, then submitted responses to a standardized questionnaire to Gildan Activewear for individual consideration. A panel of judges that included influential and successful businesspeople from within the industry as well as from the Charitable Giving industry then selected Homeboy Industries as the charity from the top 10 that best illustrated the characteristics of accountability, sustainability and impact.
The donation ceremony took place on January 13, 2011 at The PPAI Expo in Las Vegas, where representatives from Homeboy International, Gildan Activewear and several of the participating judges were in attendance.
About Homeboy Industries
Located in Los Angeles, Homeboy Industries is the largest gang intervention and re-entry program in the U.S. Their organization has become a role model for similar programs around the world with an astounding 70 percent retention rate for individuals who enter their programs. They facilitate and enable young people to redirect their lives from the hopelessness of a gang lifestyle to become contributing members of society through a variety of services, but primarily through their jobs training and placement program that offers education, skills and actual practical work experience to put on a resume.
A distinctive feature of Homeboy Industries are its small businesses, where the most difficult-to-place individuals are hired in transitional jobs in a safe, supportive environment where they will learn both concrete and soft job skills. The largest of these has direct ties to the promotional products industry, Homeboy Silkscreen & Embroidery, and has employed nearly 500 former gang members since its inception in 1996.
In 2009 alone, Homeboy assisted 12,000 clients, 8,000 of whom were actual former gang members from over 800 gangs. That is 8,000 individuals who otherwise might have continued with a gang lifestyle.
