Ganging Up Against Hope : Promising youth gang programs need money, not gamesmanship

Money used to be no object for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. They found $256 million recently to increase county pensions, spent $33 million to refurbish their offices and pay for their staffs and travel and paid out $3 million in bonuses to county managers.

But when church and community groups come together for a much-needed $2.9-million county contribution for a program like Hope in Youth, a promising effort to combat the destructive problem of youth gangs, money is suddenly scarce. Instead, county bureaucrats have proposed that Hope in Youth be funded with money budgeted for the Community Youth Gang Services Project--a crisis-intervention program that focuses on preventing violence. This rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul strategy is way off base, considering that there were 771 gang-related murders in Los Angeles County last year.

There are an estimated 100,000 gang members in nearly 100 gangs across the county. And while there may always be some who can’t be reached by any program, there are thousands who can still turn their lives around. What is required is a two-pronged effort. In the short-term, that means holding on to programs that have already demonstrated their effectiveness, like CYGS.

But long-term success requires giving youngsters the foundation for a better future in the form of the skills they need to survive and compete in the world. That means weaning kids from gangs. To that end, Hope in Youth will assign 160 family outreach teams of gang experts, social workers and teachers to work directly with kids--to help them with their schoolwork and family problems, and to help them find jobs.

Most of the $19.7 million in public support needed to fund Hope in Youth could come from the federal government. But in the meantime, there is no reason why supervisors should rob one good gang program to fund another. They should fund both.