Jesuit outreach receives $20 million from Jeff Bezos ex

Great. Mackenzie Scott.   And she's remarried a school teacher after 25 years of marriage and four children (one daughter adopted from China) with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. 

Here's the recipient group – this link is a three minute video – Homeboy Industries 2020 | Stories Behind the Mission

And an article from the Jesuit publication America –

Homeboy Industries, believed to be the world’s largest reentry organization for formerly incarcerated and gang-involved men and women, is undergoing what board member the Rev. Allan Figueroa Deck, a Jesuit priest, sees as a ‘quantum leap’ in economic stability.

The Los Angeles-based nonprofit founded by the Rev. Gregory Boyle has received $15 million in long-term funding from the state of California and a $20 million gift from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, the former spouse of Jeff Bezos.

This is the first time the organization has received this level of funding and monetary gifts, which, Deck said, will “really bring the organization to a new level of capacity” to serve people who have been in prison and involved in gangs.

“It will assure a level of stability in this really important work that it never has had before,” said Deck, who serves on Homeboy Industries’ board of directors.

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For Deck, the new level of funding signals a shifting mindset around criminal justice. He highlighted the words of Pope Francis, who has talked about a church called “to be a missionary,” in a world that is experiencing “a change of epoch,” as noted by America Magazine.

Deck acknowledges that this change is “not just in the church … but rather in our whole world.”It might sound a bit utopian, Deck said, but he added: “Now what we’re seeing is, this is real money.

“This is real commitment. This is a real track record. These are solid outcomes in dealing with what is a very ongoing issue that we’ve had not just in our country, but in the world, about the whole question of the rehabilitation of people who break the law,” Deck said. “It’s really quite extraordinary.”