Founded two years ago, Gang Peace is anorganization which resists definition. WhateverDailey and his followers think can help Bostonyouth--that's what they do. They act as advocatesfor kids in trouble, take part in community forumson police practice, mediate between gangs, conductworkshops on issues like AIDS, drugs, andviolence, sponsor concerts, help teens find jobs,encourage programs to get the teenagers to usetheir "entrepreneurial" skills to do somethingother than sell drugs. Gang Peace has also enabledseven people to take courses at Atlantic UnionCollege by computer.

The answering machine in its Cambridge officetypifies the organization's approach. "Hello,you've reached Gang Peace. And we're glad to be ofservice to you. We want to help you do anythingexcept sell drugs and shoot guns."

Their philosophy, though not unique, differsfrom that of other organizations trying to helpBoston youth. Gang Peace doesn't tell people toleave gangs. It doesn't tell them to stop sellingdrugs or carrying guns.

"We can't just tell them to get off the cornerand stop selling drugs," says Dailey. That message"doesn't make sense if there are no jobs."

Dailey says that young people need to know thatthere are "other things out there." For Dailey,showing young people alternatives to the "druggame" is the primary purpose of Gang Peace.

"Jobs, jobs, jobs," Dailey says,unintentionally echoing the nation's leader,"That's the biggest request."

But others in the community are more familiarwith other aspects of Gang Peace's work,particularly their role in mediating disputesbetween gangs.

Roger Harris, the principal at the TimiltyMiddle School in Roxbury, considers himselfheavily indebted to Dailey and Gang Peace. InSeptember 1990, his first month as principal ofthe school, a fight between two boys over abasketball game escalated to what Harris called a"potentially very dangerous situation." At the endof the school day, some kids inside the schoolcalled their older brothers and cousins in theprojects to come down and protect them from agroup from another neighborhood who were outsidethe school with guns.

Harris contacted Dailey, who came over to theschool with members of Gang Peace and spoke withthe rival groups to defuse the situation.According to Harris, Dailey was successful inpreventing violence because he comes from thecommunity.

"He talks street talk," Harris says. "The kidsknow he's talking from the heart."

Dailey does talk the language of the street.Getting up to leave the office, he tells avisitor, "I gotta jet."

Nathaniel Askia, executive director of FIRST,Inc., a non-profit drug rehabilitation programwhich serves as Gang Peace's parent organization,says that Gang Peace has been able to mediatebetween gangs by stepping into disputes andraising the question: "Is this worth dying for?"

But some youth are pessimistic that a grouplike Gang Peace can make a significant impact ongang violence in Boston.

"Nothing can do it," said a 16-year-old whoasked to be identified by his street name, Squirt."If people want to kill somebody, they'll killsomebody."

Gang Peace staff and those who know GangPeace's work say that they have builtrelationships of "trust" and "understanding" withmany youth in the city, including some hard-coregang members. Part of that trust is built on theunderstanding that Gang Peace members won't turnanyone over to the police.