With a $1.1 million federal grant, the Pittsburgh Public Schools and a handful of partners are trying to save East End gang members -- one at a time.

Outreach worker Anthony "Tone" Walls may start his work day at a school, the county courthouse, a juvenile detention center, or on the streets of Homewood or Garfield, wherever gang members need him.

He keeps a bead on gang activity and counsels gang members about a better life. He said one high school dropout took the message to heart, returned to school and graduated on time. He recalled guiding other lost men into welding school, so they'd have a chance at decent jobs.

"You can't save everybody," Mr. Walls said. "But if you can save one or two, you're doing your job."

The U.S. Justice Department awarded the school district one of four grants nationwide for a Gang-Free Schools and Communities program, which began operation in 2003.

After analyzing gang activity citywide, organizers decided to concentrate resources in the East End, project director Errika Fearbry Jones said. Grant funding will expire in December, and Ms. Jones is devising a plan to keep the program going.

Since the program's inception, there's been a drop in the percentage of gang-related killings in eastern neighborhoods, while the rate of other gang-related crimes has held steady, she said. Supporters said the initiative -- involving city police, probation officers, social service caseworkers and the Homewood-Brushton YMCA -- has yielded a more complete picture of gang activity and given gang members repeated opportunities to start anew.

"It's kind of unprecedented," Sgt. Mona Wallace of the city police intelligence unit said.

As they did last month after the gang-related fatal shootings of a 12-year-old girl on the North Side and a 15-year-old boy in Homewood, police sometimes saturate neighborhoods with patrols to suppress gang activity. But much of the time, the battle is waged with low-key intervention and prevention efforts, such as Mr. Walls' work.

The district pays the Homewood-Brushton Y $115,000 a year for the services of Mr. Walls and fellow outreach workers Jason Akers and Inshirah Jihada.

Mr. Walls, 39, a coach for the Garfield Gators youth football team, said he gets to know many East End children as they grow up and uses the rapport for anti-gang work.

He'll visit a school to mediate disputes or counsel gang members. He'll go to court to tell a judge how kids are doing. He'll go to a detention center to tell kids he hasn't forgotten about them.

"A lot of them are looking to do better. They don't know how to go about doing it," Mr. Walls said.

Outreach workers and the other agencies formed a team that meets periodically to review files on 100 15- to 24-year-olds recruited into an intervention program. All are in gangs or at risk of joining them, Ms. Jones said.

While outreach workers offer daily guidance to gang members, the intervention team determines whether vocational training, mental health services, or participation in sports or church activities might benefit them in the long run.

"Each kid has his own treatment plan," said Mary Hatheway, school-based intake coordinator for Allegheny County Juvenile Probation.

"It's definitely beneficial with some kids. I won't say the large majority. I don't think it's ever going to be that way."

It's a tug-of-war, Mr. Walls and Ms. Jones said, with some gang members wanting to change course but getting frustrated and faltering.

"There are different things that happen that pull a kid back," such as family and financial problems, Mr. Walls said.

About 35 of those initially enrolled in the program have moved on or were lost to prison or violent deaths.

One of those still involved is Elijah Crosby, 22, of Garfield, who's recovering from a gunshot wound suffered several months ago that left him paralyzed below the waist. Mr. Crosby said Mr. Walls persuaded him to join a welding program, which he didn't complete because of his injury. Now, Mr. Walls takes him to physical therapy and is trying to find money to build Mr. Crosby a wheelchair ramp.

Mr. Crosby said he was "more into sports and girls" than gangs and got shot because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He said Mr. Walls is a respected figure in the neighborhood and dogged in urging young people to make good decisions, such as enrolling in trade school.

"He stayed on my back about it," Mr. Crosby said.

The deaths last month of Jolesa Barber and Ernest Tolliver heightened attention on gang violence, but police said the incidents didn't reflect an upswing in gang activity.

Police called Jolesa an innocent victim and said Ernest, gunned down in a restaurant drive-through line, may have been targeted for gang retaliation because he was present at a previous shooting. Police said Ernest was associated with gang members but stopped short of saying he belonged to a gang; Ms. Jones said he was not enrolled in the intervention program.

Ms. Jones also provides gang-awareness training to school administrators and established a mentoring program in East End elementary schools, hoping role models will help youngsters make good choices as they mature.

Team members lament the ones who slipped through their fingers.

Ms. Jones said one man in the intervention program bounced back from a gunshot wound, completed a welding program and got a job. He had an on-the-job injury, then was arrested for murder.

"We thought we had him," Ms. Jones said. "What happened?"