2 Local Programs Chosen for Clinton’s ‘Summer of Service’ : Youth: UCLA School of Nursing project and another by a group of schools and community organizations are among the first selected.

Two programs designed to help needy Los Angeles neighborhoods are among the first 16 projects chosen to launch President Clinton’s national service program, the Administration said Thursday.

The programs--one run primarily by the UCLA School of Nursing, the other by a group of schools and community organizations--together would employ 200 Los Angeles-area youths ages 17 to 25. They will be among 1,500 young people nationally to participate in the Administration’s so-called summer of service, the first stage of a program aimed at producing a network of community service projects that would employ 150,000 young people by 1997.

“This is about more than meeting the needs of communities,” Eli Segal, the head of the President’s national service office, said at a news conference called to announce the selections. “This is about changing the lives of young people.”

The summer program--for which $10 million has been allotted--will pay participants minimum wage and offer them $1,000 stipends for education or job training. The money will be redirected from other social service programs.

Los Angeles will receive about $900,000 for its two projects.

Under the UCLA School of Nursing project, 50 minority high school and college students will be recruited to improve health care services for at-risk children.

The recruits will conduct medical assessments of at least 1,000 children at clinics and residences to help the university understand what barriers prevent those children from getting quality health care. Participants also will be taught basic science and trained to teach classes on preventing and dealing with violence, sexual and physical abuse, substance abuse and other issues facing children.

The second Los Angeles program, called Building Up, involves five universities and colleges, 29 community organizations and more than 20 secondary and elementary schools. It will place 150 young people in a wide range of service projects, including tutoring younger children, helping health care professionals immunize children, planting gardens at elementary schools and leading crime prevention seminars.

Other projects chosen to receive initial grants are in Atlanta; Baltimore; Oakland/East Bay; New Orleans; Newark, N.J.; New York City; Philadelphia; Delaware; Ohio, and Red Lake, Minn.