SOUTH : 2 Youth Programs to End Thursday

For more than 40 teen-agers and several dozen former gangbangers, the past month has brought a little more money to their pockets, more field trips and more encouragement about the importance of getting along.

The additional activities and extra pay were provided by $25,000 from the federal Community Development Block Grant program. The money, allocated by county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, supported two monthlong programs for teen-agers and former gang members to help keep the peace in Los Angeles before and after the verdicts in the Rodney G. King federal civil rights trial.

The programs began April 13 and end Thursday.

“The grant funds were to help maintain a safe and peaceful environment in the city and to hire more young people during a time when they needed it,” Burke said.

The Crenshaw-based Community Youth Sports and Arts Foundation received $10,000 for its Youth Survival Project, which provides teen-agers with group discussions about their lives and field trips to other parts of the county.

A joint program run by Brotherhood Crusade and the Amer-I-Can organization for former gang members received $15,000 to pay 75 workers at the temporary Watts/Willowbrook Emergency Rescue Unit. The unit was set up to provide assistance in the event of more civil unrest, but ended up giving food and clothing to needy people in the area. The unit will close Thursday.