Homegirl Cafe offers 11 chances to leave street life

Boyle Heights Beat profiles the Homegirl Cafe, an economic development project that gives job training to young women who choose to leave the gang lifestyle."The Homegirl Cafe has a unique discipline system. Most workplaces rely upon a three-point warning system, but the Cafe has an 11-point system. “Even then, it is difficult for the girls not to get 11 warnings,” Cuéllar says. Each employee has a case manager. Employees also turn to each other for help. Forty-year-old Adela Juárez, a hostess, serves as a mentor to some. She tells them, “You can reach a goal. It’s never too late.”Read the full story.