"Redemption Song" -- Real Life Redemption from Two Incredible Organizations

Redemption Song logo via Nitro, Black Music Theatre.

The first performance in our Double Feature at the Actor's Gang is "Redemption Song" -- a cabaret of artists performing on the theme of Redemption.  In this show, we will be encouraging our audience to discover and support two non-profits who really know the meaning of that word.

Beit T'shuvah & Homeboy Industries

Beit T'shuvah is a unique organization that is both a residential addiction treatment center and a full-service Jewish temple.  It is just a couple blocks from the Actor's Gang, and it's turning lives around every day.

Beit T'shuvah in Hebrew means "to return home" and through their work they have brought countless individuals back to themselves, back to their community, back to their faith.

The Beit T'shuvah philosophy affirms that addiction is a symptom of divided self; an unhealthy dependence on substances or compulsive activities to provide a temporary sense of wholeness and well-being. The Recovery Model at Beit T'Shuvah is a unique blend of Jewish spirituality, cognitive behavioral therapy, 12-step philosophy and the creative arts.
Their motto..."Recover Your Passion, Discover Your Purpose."

Homeboy Industries is another organization that serves up Redemption daily.  Homeboy helps formerly gang involved and the previously incarcerated, by offering hope, training and job skills.  They serve high-risk men and women with a continuum of free services and programs, and operates seven social enterprises that serve as job-training sites.  From humble roots, it has grown to become one of the largest, most comprehensive and most successful gang intervention, rehabilitation and re-entry programs in the country.

What this place discovered was that it was a lethal absence of hope that leads kids into gangs, and the fact that there was no way out of the cycle of gang violence compounded people’s despair.  Homeboy's vision is that of community trumping gang. They have learned how to help heal this population so that they can transform their pain and not transmit it.
Their motto..."Nothing Stops a Bullet Like a Job."

Rabbi Mark of Beit T'shuvah, with Father Greg of Homeboy Industries.