Fund youth programs or pay for law enforcement?

According to Farrington High School Principal Catherine Payne, crime and vandalism in Honolulu’s Kalihi neighborhood will soar if the city cuts $116,000 in funding to the nonprofit Adult Friends for Youth’s program to counter gang violence.

Payne told local media the nonprofit’s project has been an effective deterrent to daily gang violence in the school and also helped youths to obtain the equivalent of their high school diploma. Adult Friends for Youth has worked with gangs at Kuhio Park Terrace and Kalihi Valley Homes to stem their rivalry through mediation. The agency also provides alternatives to gang activities, such as outings to the beach and the University of Hawaii.

Ryan Beauchan, 19, of Waipahu told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that without Adult Friends for Youth he would not have earned his high school diploma. "They the reason why I graduated," he said.

Christopher Ulep, 33, who once lived at Kalihi Valley Homes, told the newspaper the organization helped him turn away from gangs and drugs when he was a teenager and helped him to graduate from high school. "It changed my life," said Ulep, a sheet metal worker on Maui.

Farrington Principal Payne said she fears a rise in fights, vandalism and crime by gang members as the nonprofit group faces budget cuts from the city. "If they rob you, break into your home, there also (is) the human cost," she said. Many of the youths served are on the edge of falling into criminal behavior and that spending $116,000 annually to fund the program is significantly less than if they commit crimes and go to jail, she said.

Adult Friends for Youth is one of many nonprofit organizations facing funding cuts and reduced services, as private donations and government funding diminish during the economic recession. "It's happening at a time when these services are needed more than ever," said Lisa Maruyama, Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations president.

She said the groups affected the most have relied heavily on government funding, including some that provide food and shelter and also preventive health programs to reduce community problems. "People on the brink of losing their homes who are overwhelmed and stressed out over the situation are going to turn to community-based services more than ever," she said.

Maruyama said that when social services are reduced, more money eventually would be spent on expensive crisis funding, such as imprisoning people who have turned to crime. "When you tend to be reactionary, it tends to become expensive," she said. Other nonprofit groups statewide face shrinking budgets as well, sometimes with potentially harmful effects to the larger community, according to the Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations.

Adult Friends social worker Malakai "Moe" Maumalanga said the program has developed enough trust that some 80 gang members at the public housing projects Kuhio Park Terrace and Kalihi Valley Homes are turning to mediation rather than fights during and after school. "They come from rough family life, rough neighborhoods," said Maumalanga, 33, a former gang member.

An advisory group appointed by the mayor's administration and the City Council gave Adult Friends a low score in ranking grants, resulting in a recommendation against renewing the $116,000 annual project. The Council is reviewing the committee's proposal.