Saving city youth before crime explodes

Intervention: Mentoring program adds a new tool to Baltimore's violence-prevention arsenal.

THIS IS what should keep us up at night:

By 2006, there will be more 15 to 19-year-olds than the country has seen in two decades. Among them will be thousands of teenagers who are growing up needy and fatherless in Baltimore's violent neighborhoods.

Crime and violence are likely to rise, unless we do something today for children between the ages of 8 and 14. Last year, 23 of the city's homicide victims were 17 years old or younger.

Over the past two years, a number of private organizations and public agencies have targeted kids for particular attention. The Safe and Sound Campaign is an example. It is working on five tough objectives -- from strengthening family support to trying to ensure all third-graders can read. The goal is to prevent youth violence and gun-related homicides.

"Baltimore Rising," which was announced by Mayor Martin O'Malley this week, advances that effort. It will identify up to 300 youths in three of the city's nine police districts -- Eastern, Western and Northwestern -- who are believed most likely to kill or be killed. Each will be assigned an adult mentor from a church or other faith-based organization who will try to prevent crises. The program is modeled on faith-based intervention initiatives that have been successful in reducing youth violence in Boston and Philadelphia.

Interestingly, a representative of the White House served as a consultant to the Baltimore effort, which dovetails with President Bush's controversial idea to use faith-based organizations to help solve social problems.

That didn't seem to bother Mayor O'Malley, a Democrat. He welcomed the help: "Nine out of 10 of our children could be saved if only we have the courage to get out there and try."

Baltimore indeed needs to enlist everyone who is willing to help in finding short- and long-term ways to curb youth violence.

As the number of youths keeps rising, these deficiences, intensified by dysfunctional home lives, are a prescription for disaster. Or as a sociologist put it, "We have a predictable crime wave coming. We have six years or less to fix it."

This is why "Baltimore Rising" and other youth intervention programs are so crucial to the city's future. They deserve everyone's unflinching support.