Homeboy Recycling gives second chances
Los Angeles company offers new life to discarded electronics, and people
Many people would throw in the towel after watching the small business into which they poured their blood, sweat and tears literally go up in flames. But not Kabira Stokes.
The 40-year-old founder and CEO of Homeboy Electronics Recycling, which breaks down gadgets to refurbish or to resell as component parts, watched her new factory in Los Angeles burn to the ground in 2013.
“We could have shut our doors. We could have walked away. But dedication to our mission brought the team together. Being behind the social mission kept us here,” Stokes said.
What is that mission? To offer second chances to people, and electronics, that have been discarded by society.
Homeboy Electronics Recycling moved into a new 6,000-square-foot facility four days after the fire and now employs 18 people who are overcoming life setbacks that include drug addiction, homelessness and incarceration.
Launched in 2011 as Isidore Electronics Recycling, the for-profit business was acquired in 2016 and renamed by Homeboy Industries, a nonprofit that rehabilitates former “homeboys” – gang members and ex-convicts. Homeboy Industries reported $16.6 million in revenue in 2016.
The newly acquired e-waste business recycled 1.3 million pounds of electronics last year and is on track to double that in 2018. “People do bad things and we tell them to serve the punishment, but after we never forgive them,” Stokes said. “We never let them back into the economy. It’s not very fair.”
Stokes’ mission to give back to her community came before she ever thought of running a small business. Inspired by 9/11 and the politics of the early 2000s, Stokes shifted away from a career in costume design, which she’d always loved, into field work for a local city councilman (Eric Garcetti, now mayor of Los Angeles).
As she reviewed crime statistics for her job, she noticed that ex-convicts had an especially hard time finding employment when they got out of prison.
“If people can’t make a living, what do you think they’re going to do?” Stokes said. “I knew there had to be a way for them to work. I knew it couldn’t be impossible.”
The idea for a de-manufacturing business was birthed from a chance meeting with an electronics recycler in Indiana who was hiring people fresh from prison. Stokes decided to introduce that concept to Los Angeles.
Her business has since grown from a company that just breaks apart and recycles old computers, phones and radios to one that juggles data destruction from hard drives and full-service repair. People can also, for a small fee, ship their used personal gadgets to the company for safe disposal.
Employees of Homeboy Recycling said they are grateful to be employed by a company that values their efforts and education.
Xuong Cam, recycling supervisor, took up the computer refurbishing trade while incarcerated on a second-degree murder charge. After serving 18 years, he was released in 2013 and began working for Stokes’ small business soon after.
“It really is fulfilling. I don’t feel like I have to do anything bad to subsidize what I’m making. I have a stable, steady job,” Cam said.
He said the company both supported his decision to enroll in college and accommodated his school schedule.
“I started at the bottom, dismantling computers. Now, I supervise about 10 other employees, and I feel there’s still a chance I can rise even higher,” Cam said. “I don’t feel like I’m at the ceiling. I don’t even know where the ceiling is at this point.”
Cam wants people to know that jobs exist for people who are willing to search for them. “If you really are looking for help, help is here,” he said. For every 75,000 pounds of electronics collected, Homeboy Recycling creates one new job.
To get her company to this point, Stokes said she spent many years neglecting work-life balance, a strategy she doesn’t exactly advise for others.
“As a startup entrepreneur, you always have to be on call to put out fires. You run around wrestling up interest and support. I did that for years,” Stokes said. “But then you reach a point when you get some burnout. You have to take time off to meditate – exercise. You can’t just run at that speed all the time.”
After seven years in business, Stokes said she has found her rhythm while remaining mindful of self-care.
“If you break down in service of making a business succeed, it’s not a success,” she said.