ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 16, 1997 TAG: 9704160054
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Representatives of 10 Southern states and Puerto Rico are seeking strategies for rebuilding inner cities.
A nonprofit youth ministry that uses no government money to run a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center has attracted the attention of Gov. George Allen.
Allen and representatives from 10 Southern states and Puerto Rico visited the Hope Center at a conference on urban revitalization sponsored by the Southern Governors' Association, which is trying to identify strategies for rebuilding inner cities in the South. A similar conference was held in New Orleans last month.
``With the new welfare reform bill, states are having to figure out new ways to address the challenges of getting people ... into self-sufficiency,'' said Murray L. Johnston III, a policy analyst with the SGA. ``Clearly, that's what people are seeing here.''
As SGA chairman, Allen was the host of Tuesday's conference. He said he chose Hampton Roads for the site because ``I knew there were a lot of good ideas here.''
``I want to get the grass-roots folks who are the innovators, the initiators of it, not just always to look at government programs, look at what individuals are doing,'' Allen said.
The conference began at the Hope Center, which is operated by Youth Challenge, a nonprofit youth ministry.
``If the church and civic and corporate community bind themselves together, we can lick our problems in society - the majority of them,'' said the Rev. Troy Collier, founder and executive director of Youth Challenge.
Participants later went to the Gateway 2000 computer-making plant in Hampton for a tour and a discussion of how Hampton and other cities have attracted jobs and corporate investments. Gateway 2000 also offers a job program for welfare recipients.
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB