Two young men gather around a computer to tackle the problem du jour. A third person woos a would-be client on the telephone. It is a scene typical of countless offices in countless corners of the globe.

In this instance, however, the two at the computer are former Milwaukee street gang members; the one on the phone closing the deal is a Jesuit, Br. Jim Holub.

"Nothing stops a bullet like a job," says the 38-year-old Holub, the motivating force behind Homeboyz Graphics, a website design, training, and job placement ministry on Milwaukee's predominantly Hispanic near South Side. The catchy seven-word statement originated with Fr. Greg Boyle, an L.A. Jesuit also involved in creating jobs for former gang members; it has been the de facto slogan of Homeboyz Graphics since 1996, when Holub created the company from its precursor, Homeboy Printing. Holub had seen the electronic writing on the wall and anticipated a booming job market for people skilled in website technology.

"We powered up our Macs and decided to take a crack at the wild world of the web," Holub says. The decision was a good one, resulting in redemption from gang life for dozens of successful trainees.

Homeboyz Graphics trains young Latino men and women in computer graphics; they also become skilled in conflict resolution, public speaking, and leadership. Currently there are 21 Homeboyz interns active in the job market and 15 more in training. Once their training is complete, Homeboyz will assist them in finding jobs in the printing and computer graphics industries, often as website designers.

Homeboyz has placed 36 former gang members in jobs in the United States at salaries that have topped $40,000 a year; another 18 have gotten positions in Mexico at comparable wages.

Milwaukee native Bill Cannestra, 33, who joined Homeboyz a year ago, conducts most of the training. Advanced trainees mentor those with less experience. That frees Holub to bring in website design business and place trainees in jobs, the two key sources of revenue that sustain the ministry.

Sometimes recruits walk through the door, having gotten word on the streets about Homeboyz. More commonly, however, Holub walks Milwaukee's streets and alleys in gang neighborhoods. At times he's faced guns, outrage, and threats. But this is the recruit pool where he chooses to fish, often at night, sometimes in the early morning. It is where he conducts much of the spiritual and pastoral side of his Jesuit life.

"These young people need us. They're not born the monsters society portrays them as. They have human value, imagination, and intelligence just like those of us born to lives with clearer, more attractive options," Holub says. "They need to be rebuilt from the inside out, not torn apart further by fear and a lack of compassion."

Three strikes and you're out might make good rhetoric, but Holub sees it as weak policy. Sometimes redemption from the streets takes four or five stumbles from grace. And as treacherous as the path out of gang life might be, so too is ongoing success after landing a job. As a result, Holub dedicates time to helping Homeboyz graduates make it in the corporate world's political corridors, which Holub, a former Proctor & Gamble employee, knows well.

The future appears to hold good things for the Homeboyz operation. Financially, the business is on fairly steady ground. "We're supporting our entire operating budget of $125,000 this year via the business we generate," Holub says. "We're looking for additional funding for build-out of our facility, Microsoft Certification Training, and additional equipment."

Be it on a fiscal or personal basis, Homeboyz strives for self-sufficiency on many levels. And while that does not sound as catchy as "Nothing stops a bullet like a job," it has helped a lot of former gang members catch a needed break.

[See also the related story:Homeboy.]

Phil Nero, communications director for the Wisconsin Province, was a metro reporter for the Milwaukee Journal for seven years after working on a number of newspapers in New York State.