NEW YORK – A faith-based effort to reduce juvenile crime in Boston has been so successful that it is being replicated in other parts of the country.

"Boston had a terrible crime rate among young people back in the 1980s and early '90s," said the Rev. Fred Davie of the Ford Foundation, which has helped finance a program that created an alliance between churches and the city's police.

Davie, a Presbyterian minister and program officer for community and resource development, spoke at a Nov. 16 briefing sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

The improvement in Boston which has had only one juvenile homicide since 1995 -- was assisted by Boston Ten-Point Coalition, founded by religious leaders in 1992 after a youth was attacked during a funeral in the Roxbury area. The coalition has served as an intermediary between the community and police.

"They have just met with phenomenal success," Davie said.

With an additional $1.2 million in grants, the Ford Foundation is supporting similar faith- based programs to decrease youth violence, improve job access and increase literacy in Denver, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and San Francisco. The foundation also hopes to establish a Ten-Point Foundation and place a thousand intermediaries in 20 cities by 2006, Davie said.

The New York-based Ford Foundation, with 600 employees and 15 field offices, is the fourth largest foundation in the world, according to Davie. In 1996, Ford reorganized to create more of a global emphasis. Its three major program areas are asset building and community development, peace and social justice, and education, media, arts and culture.

Davie's job is to make grants to faith-based institutions involved in community development work. Last year, the United Methodist-related Shalom Zone in Houston was the recipient of a Ford grant. "We hope to expand the work down there," he said.

Other recent grants have included:

• $240,000 over two years to Bread for the World -- which receives United Methodist support for research on international hunger and food security;

• $500,000 over two years to the Congress of National Black Churches to strengthen community development church coalitions;

• $1.1 million in a three-year supplement to the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta for its Institute on Church Administration and Management.

Davie highlighted a program through New York Theological Seminary in which graduates from a master's degree and professional studies program at Sing Sing prison are placed in churches and "are now doing mentoring and outreach with other high-risk young people." The Board of Global Ministries also has given financial support to that program.

International projects in community and resource development are found in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Mexico.

Most grants are awarded to faith-based networks or institutions. Only individual congregations with an "extraordinary" project would be considered for funding, Davie said.

The foundation also makes religion-related grants through its unit on education, knowledge and religion, which is part of the education, media, arts and culture program area.

More information about the Ford Foundation can be found at its Web site, www.fordfound.org.

November 17, 1999

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, New York, and Washington.