"They are homeless, helpless, hungry, hugless and hopeless," Nawojczyk said Thursday in a speech to about 75 people at the Selena Auditorium. "They create their own sub-society because they don't fit into ours."

Nawojczyk, a gang researcher and former coroner who has been featured on several national news programs and documentaries, told those in attendance to forget about the blame, stop the denial, and do something to save society's children.

"We have to got to get past whose fault this is," he said, drawing applause from several audience members. "We have got to fix it, and that worry and that blame isn't doing anything."

Nawojczyk, who lives in Little Rock, Ark., is an adviser to the Arkansas Attorney General's Task Force on Youth Violence and was recently featured in a Home Box Office "America Undercover" documentary, "Gang War: Bangin' in Little Rock."

His presentation on Thursday, sponsored by the Mayor's Task Force on Youth Violence and the Corpus Christi Commission on Children and Youth, used videos. slides and national statistics on youth violence.

He told audience members about ways that different communities are employing solutions to the growing gang problem, including ways to hire gang members and use their knowledge to help other children.

"Gangs are the strongest where communities are the weakest," he said.

The program concluded with a presentation by Let Our Violence End, an anti-violence group in Little Rock.

"I'm very careful to make communities realize that it's not this community's fault -- this is happening everywhere," he said, adding that he recently received a call from residents in Anchorage, Alaska.

"They have gangs there, too," he said. "In Alaska."

Carlos Amador, youth pastor of New Life Fellowship in Corpus Christi, said that with Nawojczyk's presentation, the community is slowly learning more about gangs and solutions.

"We're going to be held responsible for what we do know, and we're going to have to do something with it," said Amador, who attended the presentation. "We're going to have to get out there and love. That means rolling up our sleeves, putting our hands in and getting dirty."

Said Nawojczyk, "A lot of people are intimidated by these gang members, but once you get them alone and talk to them, you'll see that veneer go away and they become kids again."

The HBO documentary featuring Nawojczyk apparently was seen by several local gang members, some of whom Nawojczyk spoke with Thursday afternoon.

At one recreation center, Nawojczyk spoke with four or five teens he described as hardcore gang members.

In describing the gang situation in Corpus Christi, Nawojczyk said the teens painted a picture that resembled the gang situation in most cities around the country.

"It's about the same here as it is everywhere," Nawojczyk said. "The root causes are there, the violence."

The root causes of the gang activity, he said, are poverty, the desire to belong and the desire to be loved and recognized.

Youngsters also join gangs or engage in criminal activities because they don't have anything else to do, or they are unsupervised, he said.

Nawojczyk said he spoke with a 16-year-old boy on Thursday who has two children and has been to jail. "He said, `I've got to get a job,'" Nawojczyk recalled. "`If nobody will hire me, I've got to sling dope. I've got to support my babies.'"

Another boy, 14, told Nawojczyk that he never had any money for school clothes and had to wear the same thing every day.

"The kids made fun of him, so he quit," Nawojczyk said. "This is a 14-year-old boy who quit going to school because he can't afford clothes."

Another teen-ager told Nawojczyk that his mother was hooked on crack cocaine.

"He joined the gang looking for love," Nawojczyk said. "Another one had an eye that was a little crossed. He said some people at school made fun of him, `but my gang don't make fun of me.'"

Nawojczyk will be speaking with several of those youngsters from area recreations centers at 9 a.m. today at the auditorium, Room 225.

The program is free and open to the public.