Too many shooting sprees at schools have left memorials like this one behind. President Clinton believes that morality and religion go hand in hand on the way to crime prevention. (Jack Smith/ AP Photo)

By Steven E. Brier
ABCNEWS.com
July 22 — The White House took on the tenor of an inner-city church today as President Clinton, ministers and police officials announced grants that will help churches and community groups join police in fighting juvenile crime.
     The Rev. Lewis Anthony of the Metropolitan Wesley AME Zion Church in Washington, his remarks punctuated by “amens” from the audience, said young people are “lambs adrift in a land where traffic lights and a moral compass had been removed, a land that could find millions for jails but balk at scholarships for Yale.”
     “This is a spiritual problem,” Anthony said. “They need to answer (the question), ‘Who am I and why am I here?’ “
     Clinton proposes that some of that answer can be inspired by a Boston initiative. Under that plan, the grants will funnel money to churches and community groups that will provide before- and after-school programs, summer school programs and other community offerings for young people.
     Boston Police Commissioner Paul V. Evans said that there were 17 homicides in his city so far this year, a 74 percent drop from the early ’90s. Evans placed much of the credit on a broad coalition of police, churches and community groups. He said that before the coalition started, the only crime figure going down “was the ages of the victims.”
     Clinton, like the others at the Washington announcement, said religion and morality could both play a key role in crime prevention.
     “Last year researchers at Harvard found that urban neighborhoods, with a strong sense of community and shared values, had much, much lower crime rates than those without it—big surprise,” Clinton said.
     “What we’re here to celebrate, and to emphasize, (is) that there is a critical, fundamental role for the faith community in teaching our children a sense of right and wrong and self-discipline and respect,” Clinton said.
     Clinton said that what youngsters learn in these programs would help keep them out of trouble outside the program.
     “When young people learn to turn to values, then they turn away from gangs,” he said. “When they learn the basic rules of right and wrong, then they can reject the rules of the street.”
     One grant recipient trying to instill those values is the STAR program run by the Baltimore YMCA. STAR—Success Through Accelerated Responsibility—runs during the school year and takes children identified as being at risk by school officials and gives them some direction.
     “Prime time is from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. and kids get into things they should not,” said Phillip Lane, a Baltimore YMCA program director.
     “ We provide counseling services, activities and mentoring programs,” Lane said. “STAR gives young people something to do constructive during crucial hours of the day.”
     A related program, Summer Buddies, runs when school is out and is somewhat more expansive.
     “During the summer most parents go to work and kids are by themselves. They are subject to gangs, drug dealers and general mischievousness,” Lane said. “We take them to basketball games, on picnics and to libraries. They volunteer at shelters and we had a soup kitchen so they can learn what homelessness is.”
     The grants total about $2.2 million and will go to organizations in 16 cities: Los Angeles; Salinas, Calif.; Washington; Miami; Chicago; Indianapolis; Baltimore; Detroit; Kansas City, Mo.; Hempstead, N.Y.; Portland, Ore.; Philadelphia; Charleston, S.C.; San Antonio; Richmond, Va.; and Seattle.