The Little Village Project: A Community Approach to the Gang Problem.

The article focuses on inter-organizational and community approach represents by the Little Village Gang Violence Reduction Project in Chicago. Community organization and direct services are not easily combined in the modern lexicon of social work methods. The current rhetoric distinguishing community and personal empowerment from various treatment modalities, however defined, may be insufficient for planning and dealing with the complex problems of troubled and troublesome people in fragmented, impoverished and segregated communities. Youth gang crime and delinquency are major social problems that are no longer confined to inner city areas. Both are now present in small as well as medium-size cities, suburban areas and rural areas.