PROVIDENCE — When it comes to gang violence, few know more than the streetworkers at the Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence, on the city’s South Side.

Yesterday in Washington, Teny Gross, the institute’s executive director, and André “Ajay” Benton, a program manager and ex-convict, lent their expertise to a congressional panel addressing the growth of gangs and youth violence.

The summit, titled “Empowering Communities to Combat Gang Crime: The Youth PROMISE Act,” was the brainchild of Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, D-Va., who serves on the House judiciary committee.

“Increasingly, law enforcement and others working with problem youth recognize that no matter how many you arrest after the fact, if we are not working on preventing the next cohort from committing crimes, we will have little, if any, impact on the crime rate,” Scott said in a statement. “The Youth PROMISE Act will provide communities with the tools and procedures for effectively reducing crime and gang involvement.”

Scott is hopeful that Congress will pass his legislation next year.

Gross said that the recent election of Barack Obama as president gives him hope for the legislation. Social-service agencies have rallied around Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago.

“Obviously, there is a new day in Washington,” he said. “But these things don’t happen overnight.”

He said that a powerful message he picked up was the mantra: A dollar spent on prevention leads to $5 in savings. In essence, crime prevention is five times less costly than pumping money into the judicial or prison system.

Around midday yesterday, Gross and Benton joined two other experts on juvenile crime in leading a seminar called, “What’s Working Now: Positive Programs and Interventions.” The other panelists were Jorja Leap and Khalid A. Samad. Leap, a professor at UCLA’s School of Public Affairs, is a recognized expert in crisis intervention and trauma response who has worked with the Los Angeles Police Department. She also serves as the policy adviser on gangs and youth violence for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Samad is executive director and cofounder of Peace In the Hood, a Cleveland-based organization that is dedicated to peace, justice and empowerment to combat gangs and violence.

Benton talked about how he and the streetworkers build relationships with gang members and work toward persuading them to do something more productive.

Gross talked about college being unaffordable for inner-city teenagers and about the growing availability of guns that is blamed for a surge of shootings in Providence in the past year. Through last weekend, 69 people have been shot in the city, compared with 59 in calendar year 2007.The Providence police estimate that there are about 1,400 gang members in the Providence metropolitan area. Gross, Benton and about a dozen streetworkers at the institute intervene in gang disputes and work to keep troubled teens in school or find them jobs.

bmalinow@projo.com