This conference explores the role of local community-based organizations that have successfully controlled youth crime in major urban centers in this country. It brings together scholars, nonprofessional community leaders, former gang members, and others concerned about crime-ridden urban areas, who discuss their experiences and philosophies and examine their remarkable record of success with "high-risk" youth. Solutions to social problems will not come primarily from academic discussion, from human service professionals, or from government authorities, they conclude. The people themselves must participate in the formulation of the policies that affect them.

Robert L. Woodson, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, has written "A Summons to Life: Mediating Structures and the Prevention of Youth Crime" (1981), a study of the capacity of local neighborhoods to control and prevent youth crime. He is also director of the AEI Neighborhood Revitalization Project, which seeks to determine the combination of public policies and neighborhood strategies most likely to succeed in revitalizing urban centers.