BLOOMINGTON - Decreased counseling for troubled youths could lead to increased violence this summer, a youth counselor said.

"They need someone in their ear," said Mike Harrison, a street outreach worker for Bloomington's Western Avenue Community Center. "They need someone to tell them the right things."

Harrison said his group lost more than half of its funding and half of its counselors after Bloomington pulled money from the program in summer 2007.

The cut coincides with the rise of what police have dubbed "hybrid gangs." These groups of teenagers and some adolescents have named and renamed their homegrown groups, and police say they have been responsible for batteries, intimidation and group attacks for more than a year.

Bloomington and Normal each were contributing $60,000 to the Youth Impact program, but the program shut down when Bloomington pulled its funding, a Western Avenue administrator said. A smaller version of the program reopened six months later, with private funding and a new name.

Bloomington Police Chief Roger Aikin said intervention is important, but Youth Impact was helping far fewer teens than he expected. He said the numbers dropped from 125 when the program was receiving federal funding several years earlier to about 25 last year.

But Greg Patton, director of youth programs for Western Avenue and another outreach worker, said he was personally counseling 22 youths and was one of eight counselors together helping more than 100.

Aikin also said that, of the youths served, only about half qualified as "at-risk" by department standards. For example, he said one youth helped through the program had only been truant.

He said he and other city officials decided, "We're funding a program that basically has nobody in it."

Patton said the children helped by Youth Impact were referred to the agency through the cities, social service agencies and the juvenile probation department, not chosen by the counselors.

Aikin said he would ask the City Council for funding again, despite the current budget cutting, if the program was running as effectively as it had in prior years. Youth Impact stopped asking the town for funding during the reorganization, said Normal City Manager Mark Peterson, but he expects Western Avenue will seek money again.

Since Jan. 1 the program has been open as Western Avenue Community Center's Survival Program for Youth, with $50,000 in funding from State Farm Foundation. But the smaller budget has led to a drastic decrease in time spent talking with and watching children who are at risk of joining gangs.

"We're still trying to accomplish the same goals with less funding," Patton said.

The four counselors still drive through Bloomington-Normal neighborhoods and check popular hangouts four nights weekly. They watch for gang colors and walk through areas to talk with youths.

But they used to be out every night, and Patton said they also watched for problems at sports events, dances and other gatherings in the community.

Harrison said the funds were pulled at the time when the organization's relationship was at its best with the Bloomington police's proactive unit, and he called the cuts "an injustice to the community."

"I thought we were making some significant strides, and the funds were pulled," Harrison said. "We need to shore those relationships back up."

But Patton said he will continue his work on the streets regardless of funding.

"I live in this community," Patton said. "If it goes up in smoke, I'm going up with it."