DATE: Saturday, August 2, 1997              TAG: 9708020279

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LORRAINE EATON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   71 lines

KEEPING THE PEACEA TEAM OF 16- TO 24-YEAR-OLDS PATROL THE BEACH STREETS EACH NIGHT HEADING OFF TROUBLE.

``See now, look at that.''

Shaking his head in mild disbelief, 19-year-old Larry Jordan approaches two skateboarders who are zigzagging across 22nd Street near the Oceanfront.

``Yo, yo. What's up, man?'' Jordan calls as he and his partner, 24-year-old Myron Gist, walk toward the skaters extending their hands. ``Did you know you can catch a ticket for doing that?''

The skaters start knocking the city's new ban on skateboarding east of Pacific Avenue, but they end up saying, ``That's cool,'' and roll westward out of the no-skate zone. Two informed customers.

That's business as usual for Jordan and Gist, part of the 18-member Youth Intervention Team, Virginia Beach's newest initiative to keep the peace among the throngs of young people that gather nightly at the resort strip.

The idea is twofold, said Daniel M. Stone, director of Virginia Beach's Dept. of Social Services, one of the agencies that developed the program: ``It casts youth in a very positive role, modeling positive behavior. It also helps to ratchet down the tension'' by having young people work with young people.

The patrol of 16- to 24-year-olds first hit the streets July 4 following a week of training on city ordinances governing conduct along the strip, conflict mediation, diversity and customer service. Team members work Tuesday through Saturday from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. They issue no tickets, only warnings. And in serious situations, they call the 2nd Precinct police on their portable phones.

``They are not a mini-police patrol, they were never meant to be,'' said Gerald T. Johns Sr., the team's adult supervisor.

That doesn't mean that there isn't plenty to do.

``We mediate mostly,'' said Jonathan Pauley, 16, a rising junior at Maury High in Norfolk. ``There are rules that people don't know about, like jaywalking. Most teen-agers don't know that jaywalking can get them a ticket.''

During the first week of the patrol, team members interacted with 420 people along the Boardwalk and Atlantic Avenue between 17th and 26th streets. Mostly people wanted information about the trolley and the location of public restrooms, grocery stores and hotels. But team members also gave verbal warnings to people drinking in public, jaywalking or blasting music from cars jammed on Atlantic Avenue. And on a few occasions, they have broken up fights or prevented fights from starting in the first place.

``It's all about mediation and conflict resolution,'' said Scott Lowe, 20, a 1995 graduate of Catholic High and a rising junior at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Team members earn $4.75 an hour and supervisors earn $6.50. The program is a cooperative effort between social services, police, Convention and Visitor Development, the Community Action Resource Empowerment committee and the Southeastern Virginia Job Training Administration.

Local businesses have also offered support. The Comfort Inn at 21st and Atlantic, where the team has muster each night, donated office space. And restaurants along the strip give team members free food.

``They really watch the other kids,'' said Frank Farsi, manager of Chicho's Restaurant on Atlantic Avenue and a frequent pizza donor. ``They will make a difference.''

The team will work through Labor Day. If all goes well, Stone said, it may continue on weekends into the fall. Eventually the city may expand the program and have young, trained patrols at sporting events and ``wherever young people gather,'' Stone said. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

GARY C. KNAPP

Jermey Love, far right, and other Youth Intervention Team members

set an example of good behavior for youths hanging out at the

oceanfront.

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