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Unlike street workers hired by the city, these interrupters will not be disqualified if they have a criminal past. This background, community leaders say, could deepen their understanding of what drives people to crime and give the workers more credibility with young people caught up in violence.

The street workers, who have yet to be hired, would be clustered in areas of Roxbury, the South End, Lower Roxbury, and Dorchester, where 78 percent of the city's shootings and homicides occur.

"This thing has a lot of ambitions, but it is very sharply focused on achieving sharp reductions in murders, aggravated assaults, and robberies in these communities," said Paul S. Grogan, president of The Boston Foundation, which is putting $1 million a year of its own money toward the effort. "That's what this thing is all about."

Mayor Thomas M. Menino has instructed city agencies, including the Boston Police Department, the Department of Public Health, and the Boston Center for Youth and Families, to cooperate with the initiative on the plan, said his spokeswoman, Dorothy Joyce

"The mayor has always made it a priority of getting young people who may be at risk engaged in positive, productive opportunities," Joyce said. "This program will hopefully help them to that end."

The unusual public-private initiative, known as StreetSafe Boston, will concentrate on 1,400 to 2,200 people between 16 and 24 years old who live along or near the Blue Hill Avenue spine and are former offenders, gang members, actively involved in violent crime, or involved with the Department of Youth Services.

Specifically, it would focus on Dudley Square and Grove Hall in Roxbury, the South End and Lower Roxbury area, and two Dorchester hot spots, in the area of Morton and Norfolk streets, and Bowdoin Street and Geneva Avenue.

StreetSafe would also target 4,000 young people who may not be involved in violent crime but are vulnerable, like dropouts, drug dealers, pregnant teens, and runaways.

The money also would go toward the development of job training programs and mental health services for young people. The foundation has raised close to $7 million and hopes to get the rest through donations from national and local foundations and individual contributors.

"We don't want to just see young people decide, 'I'm not going to shoot anymore,' but they're still not in school," said Marc H. Germain, a foundation associate who described the program at a neighborhood meeting in Dorchester yesterday. "We're looking for improvement in their lives."

The street workers program will be overseen by the Black Ministerial Alliance, the Boston TenPoint Coalition, and Chris Byner, who runs the city's street worker program.

"I'm convinced it will work," said the Rev. Ray Hammond, chairman of the Boston Foundation, who compared it to efforts in the 1990s that led to the so-called Boston Miracle. "This kind of strategy was a major piece of the successes of the '90s - collaborative and comprehensive. And it's targeted. All of our kids need attention, but if violence is the issue, then we know it's a very a small population that needs a lot of attention."

The geographical area was picked not only because of the violence it experiences, but also because of economics.

"With limited resources, you have to be judicious," Germain said.

Still the program buoyed activists who have been alarmed by the growing list of cuts to youth programs.

"It's the largest commitment of funds to the most difficult-to-work-with group that I've ever seen," said Emmett Folgert, head of the Dorchester Youth Collaborative. "The focus population is quite small, and the amount of resources is high, so there is a good chance of success here."

But others expressed skepticism that the initiative will lead to a long-term reduction in violence.

"I really want this to work," said Ralph Ortiz, youth program coordinator at the Codman Square Neighborhood Development Association. "My concerns are that these things have been done before in the past."

The violence interrupters will need to receive formal, technical guidance in how to deal with young people traumatized by violence, he said.

"It won't be effective unless street workers are trained to become more clinical in their approach to young people," Ortiz said.

Hammond said he expects the street workers will not only be trained to help young people cope with trauma, but will also be taught skills to help them avoid the burnout that often comes with working with troubled youths.

Robert Lewis Jr., vice president for program at the foundation, said the violence interrupters - as well as the street workers already deployed in city neighborhoods - will receive new, specialized training under the same model and taught skills like mediation.

Lewis said he expects to start recruiting the interrupters in January. Criminal background checks - known as Criminal Offender Record Information, or CORI, checks - will not stand in the way of hiring, he said.

"You have to put the best workers out there. Period," Lewis said. "What we don't want to do is allow CORI to be a reason why we couldn't put the best worker out on the street."

The city employs about 23 street workers, down from about 40 in the 1990s. The ranks were once swollen with former gang members who spent late nights persuading their younger peers to drop their guns and pursue a peaceful life.

But in the late 1990s, the street workers became unionized, and the hours were changed so that workers were not out later than 9 p.m. Soon after, the state mandated that anyone working with children have a clean record, which precluded most former gang members from being in the program.

Some community leaders said those changes created a program of street workers out of touch with gang members and offenders.

Lewis, who started the city's street worker program in 1990, said the violence interrupters will work from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. The goal will be to hire men and women who can relate to the city's troubled youth and are not afraid to stay out late and work with difficult, even dangerous people. Because the interrupters will not be city employees, they will not be beholden to state or union rules.

Jorge Martinez, executive director of Project RIGHT in Grove Hall, said he was thrilled CORI would not be a factor.

"It gives an opportunity for folks who have been in the criminal justice system to do some work in the community and reestablish themselves in the community," he said.

It will also help young offenders see they can move past their criminal record, Martinez said.

"Now you can say that it's not a barrier," he said. "If you're in the life, it's a perfect opportunity to look up and see someone in a similar situation actually succeeding."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.