Editor’s note: Through the development of WordWrite StoryCraftyingsm we’ve learned that effective PR storytelling is driven by three things: factual authenticity, storytelling fluency and continually reading and measuring audience response. Today we begin a new monthly series of blogs that will highlight stories, storytellers and audience engagement examples that illustrate true PR storytelling. Watch this blog for posts that illustrate creative factual thinking, show fluency in sharing stories and success in effectively engaging and responding to audiences.
Fluent in Good and Tough Times
Like many clergy before him, Father Greg Boyle excels at the storytelling craft. And also like many clergy, he commits himself to causes that many in the lay world would find hopeless. These two factors have come together in Father Greg’s aid to those affected by Los Angeles’ gangs through the creation of HOMEBOY Industries.
Since 1992 Father Greg has led a multi-program non-profit deep within the LA gang community that blends job-training, entrepreneurism and enterprise development. Forever sharing his belief that “nothing stops a bullet like a job,” Father Greg has honed his HOMEBOY story over nearly two decades with such effectiveness that the HOMEBOY story draws national attention. It’s also why the religious press has followed HOMBOY for decades and why his work has been the object of several books.
And what a compelling story it is! Innumerable economic and life resuscitations within one of the poorest Los Angeles neighborhoods. Surrogate fathering to countless wayward gang and community children. And the sorrow of burying more than 160 of those who were considered “his kids” — victims of the pernicious crime and hopelessness that fuels his crusade. In both the highs and lows of sharing the important work of HOMEBOY, Father Greg has been a magnificent, fluent storyteller who skillfully organizes the bleak facts of gang life to highlight the humanity that makes the story compelling.
Father Greg’s latest storytelling success is his long-awaited memoir, Tattoos of the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (Free Press: 2010). A book that blends Father Greg’s strength of factually supporting stories while avoiding judgmental finger-pointing, Tattoos of the Heart is a story tour-de-force in its authentic clarity and communication effectiveness. It doesn’t pander or promote and simply describes in real, human terms what is the world of gangs and challenges to HOMEBOYS in 21st century LA.
And it’s a story that will take on yet another chapter. Right after the release of his memoir in the spring of 2010, HOMEBOYS furloughed most of its administrative staff, citing tough economic times that have shredded funding for an annual budget of $7 million.
In announcing the dismal news, Father Greg told yet another story that in itself was astonishing. “Dear Friends of HOMEBOY” his press release starts, “HOMEBOY Industries has laid off the bulk of its staff. OUR CORE BUSINESSES (which include a bakery, café, merchandising and silk screen printing operations) REMAIN OPEN.” With a “we may be temporarily broke but still committed attitude,” Father Greg deftly tells the next authentic passage such content and clarity that any listener or reader would clearly understand and feel HOMEBOY’s situation.
For this reason WordWrite recognizes Father Greg Boyle, S.J. as our first example of what it means to be a fluent storyteller.
John Durante is senior marketing associate for WordWrite Communications.
