c. 1998 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ President Clinton unveiled a “values-based violence prevention initiative” Wednesday (July 22) that will make $2.2 million in grants available to 16 U.S. communities to foster collaboration between faith-based groups and community and police organizations in an effort to combat juvenile crime and violence.”What is working in America is a community-based, prevention-oriented, broad-based partnership to try to bring crime down and bring our kids back and the faith community has an important role to play,”Clinton said in announcing the grants.

His announcement, in an auditorium of the Old Executive Office Building next door to the White House, was welcomed by clergy, mayors and school officials in attendance.

Sixteen cities from Hempstead, N.Y., to Salinas, Calif., will receive grants of $135,000 each for efforts to address drug and alcohol abuse, gang intervention, job training, conflict resolution and other initiatives.

Sister Carol Keck, executive director of the Norris Square Neighborhood Project in Philadelphia, said she was thrilled the grants will give recognition to programs like hers.”It’s very important for people to finally realize that it’s all of these many, many neighborhood groups that are saving the kids one at a time,”she said after the announcement.

The grants are an extension of federal programs such as the Justice Department’s”Weed and Seed”program, which works to reduce crime and foster alternatives to youth violence.

Clinton held up the example of the Boston TenPoint Coalition and its collaboration with that city’s police as”Exhibit A”for future programs.”Boston’s pastors and faith communities took the lead,”the president said.”Often, they are the most stable institutions left in unstable neighborhoods. I think it is important that these mentors saw in each child a cause not just a case file; a future, not just a present full of problems.” The Rev. Eugene Rivers, co-founder of the coalition, said the grants point out the need for collaboration and faith in fighting crime.”They send an important message to the country that the federal government recognizes the importance of the faith factor in reducing crime, helping kids avoid violence, increase literacy and secure employment,”he said.”It gives legitimacy to the faith-based initiatives in that it indicates the federal government recognizes the legitimacy of such initiatives.” Rivers sees no reason for possible concerns about church-state separation in the distribution of the grants.”I think the relevant issue here is that faith-based communities in purely functional terms are a function of geographic location in proximity to the poor in the best position to do what other institutions presently cannot do,”he said.

Boston Police Commissioner Paul Evans said the joint effort has contributed to a drop in the juvenile homicide rate.”Once you start working together, it’s ironic how much more you have in common than differences,”said Evans.

In each of the recipient cities, faith communities, law enforcement, businesses and schools will be given money from the grants to provide alternatives to youth involvement in drugs and gangs.

Other cities to receive grants are Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Miami; Chicago; Indianapolis; Baltimore; Detroit; Philadelphia; Seattle; San Antonio; Kansas City, Mo.; Charleston, S.C.; Portland, Ore.; and Richmond, Va.”Carl Sandburg once said that a baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on,”Clinton said.”Well, when we lose our children, we are thwarting the opinion of God.”

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