ANTI-GANG SUMMIT SEEKS FUNDS FOR YOUTH PROGRAMS.

Byline: Sara Catania Daily News Staff Writer

Alarmed at the rise in juvenile crime and looking for solutions beyond simply locking up young offenders, religious and political leaders will meet today to rally support for programs aimed at keeping kids out of gangs.

Participants at the event, to be held at Phillips Temple CME Church in South Central Los Angeles, are expected to include Mayor Richard Riordan, District Attorney Gil Garcetti and federal Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, one of the organizers of the event, also is expected to speak, along with other religious leaders who have been active in juvenile programs in Los Angeles.

"Our goal is to lobby for more funds, to refocus attention from punishment to prevention," said the Rev. Paul Stewart, pastor at Phillips Temple and chairman of Wednesday's summit. "We want to look at all the programs and services that are out there, and see what we can do to improve the situation."

Garcetti said he hopes the summit helps produce a broader view of dealing with gang problems beyond the traditional police-prosecution solutions.

"We need to get more focus on how to prevent young people from getting involved in gangs," Garcetti said. "I am not going to boost any particular program, but look for any and all programs that can address the huge issue of juvenile crime."

The program includes panel discussions on the effect of gangs on youths and families, and new ways to generate funding in the community.

Riordan will give a status report on LA4KIDS, a task force he created that calls for the creation of neighborhood councils to analyze the needs of youths in each neighborhood.

LA4KIDS also resulted in the mayor's creation of the Commission on Children, Youth and Family to identify needs of kids citywide.

Riordan hopes the summit will identify options for a variety of anti-crime initiatives involving community-based organizations, said spokesman Steve Sugerman.

Cisneros will deliver the keynote address, discussing federal efforts to set up gang prevention and intervention programs.

He also will offer support for the Hope In Youth program sponsored by Mahony and other religious leaders.

"The secretary is here to talk about supporting Hope In Youth and the concept of Hope In Youth," said Wendy Greuel, Southern California special assistant to Cisneros. "You can't just do law enforcement. You have to have prevention and intervention programs."

The Clinton administration sought in both the 1995 omnibus crime bill and another bill to steer money to the organization, but most prevention program funding was killed out by Congress, said Greuel.

Hope In Youth was the largest anti-gang program in the United States when it was launched in 1993. But over the past year, the program's funding and staffing have dwindled as a result of several critical audits and eroding support from Gov. Pete Wilson.

Wilson, who was personally invited by Mahony to today's summit, will send a representative but will not attend himself.

The most recent blow came in December, when the state withheld $2 million in state grants after a critical audit by the Office of Criminal Justice Planning. The loss came a year after Hope In Youth lost $2 million in county funding because of the county's fiscal crisis.

Now Hope In Youth's budget has been whittled down to $2.5 million in city funding.

Stewart, a member of Hope In Youth's coordinating council, said he was dismayed by the critical state audit, which he called unfair and inaccurate.

He also was unhappy with Wilson's decision to send as his representative Ray Johnson, who heads the Office of Criminal Justice Planning, the agency that prepared the critical audit of Hope In Youth.

"It's strange, very strange," Stewart said. "Instead of coming himself, or sending his top person, he sends somebody we're not sure will have any weight in Sacramento."

Mike Carrington, spokesman for the Office of Criminal Justice Planning, disagreed, saying that his boss, a former Inglewood police chief, is "the perfect person" to represent Wilson at the summit.

"He's familiar with the issues, he's familiar with the community," Carrington said. "I'm sorry they are unhappy with the governor's choice, but I don't really understand why."

Wilson will be attending a press conference in Sacramento held by backers of the California Civil Rights Initiative as they submit signatures to qualify for the ballot. The measure calls for an end to affirmative action programs by public agencies.

Police Chief Willie L. Williams was invited to attend, but has a conflict with a meeting over the DARE program, said LAPD spokesman Tim McBride.

Sheriff Sherman Block also was invited, but aides said they did not know whether he would be there personally or send a representative.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Rita Walters, a frequent critic of Hope In Youth and in whose district the summit will be held, was not invited to appear, said her chief deputy, Jan Perry.

"They contacted us and asked us to lift some parking restrictions in the area, which we did, but they didn't ask us to appear," Perry said, adding that Walters would have no comment on the organization or the meeting.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, another critic of Hope In Youth, also was not invited to the summit and aides said he would have no comment on the event.

Ridley-Thomas, chairman of the council's Ad Hoc Committee on Gangs and Juvenile Justice, will hold his own meeting Thursday to review the gang culture in the city.