PROVIDENCE — The Lucky Seven weren’t feeling lucky.

Some said they were on the edge of homelessness. Some said they were hungry. And some said they still needed jobs.

The seven had been accused of drug dealing but — instead of being charged — were offered a second chance in a novel initiative that the Providence police and the Urban League of Rhode Island turned to in an effort to clean up drug dealing in the Lockwood neighborhood in upper South Providence.

But in an obscenity-laced rant during a meeting last week, the young men told the police and Urban League officials that the second chance was just an empty promise sold to them by people more interested in publicity than helping them turn their lives around.

“I can honestly say I was doing better selling drugs,” said one 20-year-old man. “At least I was feeding people.”

The seven — ranging in age from 14 to 30 years old — had been selected from 104 suspects arrested during a major drug sweep last year. The police promised not to charge the seven if they stopped dealing. In a meeting last fall, the seven were told that the Urban League and other groups would help them with jobs, education, counseling and other needs.

All seven had been arrested in the Lockwood neighborhood, which had been plagued by drug dealers for years. Since the initiative began late last fall, dealing has vanished from the street corners, and residents are praising the police. Until Tuesday, officials thought that the Lucky Seven were also on their way to success.

THE TEENAGERS AND young men were invited to the meeting, hosted by the Urban League, which included Police Chief Dean M. Esserman and high-ranking officers; David Kennedy, the John Jay College professor who came up with the initiative; and Janet Zobel, a senior director of the National Urban League. One of the Lucky Seven, a 16-year-old, didn’t attend the meeting because he was in school.

Holding a Providence Sunday Journal article about the initiative, the young men angrily told the officials that the help Urban League leaders said they were going to provide hadn’t materialized. In particular, they faulted community leaders — especially Urban League President Dennis Langley and administrator Luis Aponte — who had attended the meeting last fall when the Lucky Seven were persuaded to take the second chance.

They praised only their Urban League case managers, Lizette Fuentes and Dina Brown, director of case managers, for helping them.

Some accused the police of harassing them. Carlton Barboza, 19, one of the seven, was charged in December with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest after a traffic stop. He had disappeared, finally turning himself in last week. On Tuesday, he accused the police of lying in the police report about the December incident.

They said they again felt the lure of the street. “Custies [customers] come up and you think, ‘$50?’ ” said the 20-year-old man, who has been working at the Urban League homeless shelter. “I got nothing in my pocket. I’m hungry. I’m broke.”

An 18-year-old man, whose temporary part-time job at Amos House ended, complained: “A hundred dollars a week? I made $100 in 30 minutes.”

WILLIAM FLETCHER, the oldest of the Lucky Seven at age 30, sat apart from the five others. Fletcher had been given a full-time job as a peer counselor with the Urban League. He sat with League President Langley.

“I can’t agree with a lot of what they say about the Urban League, because they [the Urban League] help me, and I help myself,” Fletcher said. “I’m not looking for anybody to help me. I’m going to help myself.”

He also said he was upset that the 20-year-old man and his family were nearly homeless. “If I could, I’d take all this off,” he said, grabbing his tie, “and give him my position. He needs it more than I do.”

But later Fletcher stormed out because he thought the police were looking down on them. “[Expletive] asking these people for help,” Fletcher said, frustrated. “You’ve got to do it yourself.” Then he excused himself.

Langley and Aponte, along with the case managers, attempted at times to say they had tried to provide help. But there were numerous hurdles. “We’re trying to help these young men, but it’s all babysteps,” said Lizette Fuentes, one of the case managers. “We want to see them make it. We believe in this program, but it’s all babysteps.”

But the five young men weren’t hearing it. They continued to shout and make accusations.

“Your attitude determines your altitude,” Langley shot back at one point. “If you come in and you’re polite, people will help you.

“There needs to be a radical transformation in their behavior. …”

“You have money, you can say what you want,” muttered a 17-year-old boy.

“A message needs to be sent,” Langley said louder.

“You come over here and send it!” the 14-year-old challenged, as his mother and a case manager rose to quiet him.

AFTER THE OUTBURSTS, Esserman led the way in promising to make sure all seven received the help they had been promised.

“I’m not walking away. The Police Department is not walking away. We’re going to stick with you,” he said after a break in the meeting. “Your words today were OK. I respect that. We started something here. I’m going to ask you not to walk away. We’re going to roll up our sleeves and keep moving.”

Langley suggested to Esserman that they go to Mayor David N. Cicilline and ask him for jobs, perhaps even at the Police Department.

Esserman listed the names of the Lucky Seven and what each needed — a new school, a place to live, jobs. “Let’s make it simple: Do I have to get each one of them jobs?” Esserman asked.

Langley started to interrupt, but Esserman stopped him: “It’s been five months.”

IN THE DAYS SINCE the meeting, Esserman and Langley have called Lifespan, which owns several hospitals in the state, including Rhode Island and Miriam hospitals. Esserman has also called YouthBuild Providence and other places. In less than two days all except the youngest of the seven who needed jobs had interviews.

Barboza and the 20-year-old man met with Brandon Melton, Lifespan’s senior vice president of human resources, Thursday, and Barboza submitted a formal job application the next day, a Lifespan spokeswoman confirmed.

The 20-year-old man said Aponte took him Thursday to the Community College of Rhode Island to help him enroll and showed him an Urban League-owned apartment in the Elmwood section.

“I feel real good,” he said by phone from Langley’s office Thursday. “I feel like things are finally getting done. I feel like this program’s going in the right direction.”

The Lucky Seven are going to a group interview Tuesday at YouthBuild Providence. The federally financed program helps high school dropouts with literacy and job-readiness skills. Executive Director Andrew Cortes said he would use this first meeting to assess the young men’s needs.

Langley said Thursday that they were making progress. “It’s not like nothing was done, but obviously, we could do more,” he said.

On Friday morning, Esserman walked on Pine Street in Lockwood. “I am still looking at this as a worthwhile investment for the Providence Police Department. We’re going to see things through,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Lockwood neighborhood has been quiet and free of street-level drug dealers for more than four months.

amilkovi@projo.com