Shirley Torres
Shirley Torres is the Chief Program Officer for Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention program and therapeutic community in the United States. Homeboy Industries serves 12,000 former gang-members and high-risk youth a year in a city with over 80,000 known gang-members. In her current capacity, she leads the agency in strategies to receive, engage, and retain citizens returning from California state and federal prisons, county jails, and juvenile detention facilities.
Prior to her role as CPO, Shirley Torres served the Director of Re-entry Services where she provided leadership and oversight to the following departments: Education, Tattoo Removal, and Workforce Development, increasing quality service to community clients and cultivating key partnerships to secure resources. Additionally, Ms. Torres served as head of Curriculum and Training where she was responsible for designing, developing, and implementing the educational component for the agency. In addition, Ms. Torres spent over three years working as a Release Counselor as part of a contract with Los Angeles County Probation, specifically focused on girls and gangs within juvenile detention camps.
Her experience with underserved communities of color, specifically gang-members, stems from her personal journey to achieve a post-secondary education. Shirley was raised in South Los Angeles, a neighborhood populated by violence, drugs, and gangs, and knows first-hand the structural barriers and challenges facing urban youth and their futures. Ms. Torres graduated from UCLA, becoming the first in her family to earn a college degree. Currently, she is completing a Masters degree in Social Work at the University of Southern California focusing her studies in Community Organization and Public Administration. Over the past 15 years, her commitment to building communities of support for those least likely to succeed is best exemplified in the development of training programs at Homeboy Industries.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Shirley Torres has an employment relationship with Homeboy Industries. She receives a speaking honorarium from 小蝌蚪视频. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Shirley Torres has no relevant non-financial relationships.
