A neighborhood youth advocate is encouraging the Highland Park Neighborhood Council to address the area's gang problem by reaching out to those who understand the problem from the inside.

Jose Luz Carmona, who has long worked with at risk youth in Northeast Los Angeles, is currently on a mission to organize a summit of former gang members who live in Highland Park and surrounding Northeast neighborhoods.

Recently, he told the neighborhood council that in the past few weeks he's been able to gather a list of former gang members who have expressed interest in coming together for the summit.

Now, he said, he'd like the neighborhood council to officially support the meeting, as a way of lending it more legitimacy.

"We're going to need that support as we move along in this process," he told the council.

LAPD has scored recent victories against the entrenched Avenues gang, including the demolition of a home that served as a headquarters on Drew Street in Glassell Park in 2008 and a massive crackdown raid on Avenues members in September 2009.

However, despite the headway made by LAPD, gang violence has persisted in the Northeast. In April, a 17-year-old who was mistaken for a gang member was shot and killed outside of an apartment on Avenue 57. Police are still seeking the culprits.

Carmona said that elected officials and concerned community members can talk all they want about the neighborhood's long-standing gang problem, but the conversation will be fruitless unless those who have close ties to the gangs are involved.

"We really want to get at the heart of what is going on with these kids," Carmona said. "A lot of these discussions tend to get diluted."

So far, he said recruiting for the summit has been successful because the former gang members have been told that their input would be valued.

"To my surprise, they have been very receptive. They want to do something," he said.  "My approach has been to say, 'we want your knowledge. We want what you can bring to the table. You might be put with people you don't agree with, but they're going to be on the same level of wanting to do something about this.'"

Carmona said his next step would be to put together a steering committee with the mission of organizing the meeting. He would then come back to the neighborhood council at the end of January with an invitation.

Neighborhood Council member Janet Dodson said she supported Carmona's efforts.

"I'm very excited that you're doing this and I'm glad you're making progress," she said.

Attending the neighborhood council meeting with Carmona was Michael Penaloza, a young man who had been pressured to become involved in gang life as a teenager.

Penaloza said that addressing the problem should with reaching out to young people before they are lured, or forced, into joining a gang.

"We want to reach out to young people, keep them moving forward, keep them in school," he said.