DECATUR - The string of violent deaths in the Decatur area this month are not going unanswered.

Community activist Brandi Brown is organizing what she hopes will become a weekly prayer vigil for peace throughout the summer to help prevent a higher death toll.

"We want any minister, any family who would like to participate to come out and bring their youth with them," Brown said. "We know there is power in prayer, and if there are more of us praying than there are violent people, they won't want to do the evil things they're doing any more."

Brown said the first prayer vigil will be Friday in Main Street Church of the Living God, but the time and location of future vigils will be decided by those gathered.

"We don't want anyone to think they can't come or that it's just for a certain part of town or just for the city of Decatur," she said.

By the same token, Brown said the vigils are a response to the death of 33-year-old Timothy Buckley, who was apparently struck by an automobile in Argenta last weekend, as well as the Decatur shooting deaths of 45-year-old Vinson Banks on May 6 and 23-year-old Robert Wesley Johnson on Monday.

Brown, who has long been involved in efforts to reduce street violence, is working alongside Main Street Church of the Living God and its after-school program Youth With A Positive Direction, now one of two safe havens funded by a $280,000 grant from a state anti-violence initiative called "The Safety Net Works ¦ Not One Life to Lose."

Margaret Walker, executive director of the Decatur's Safety Net Works project, said Youth With A Positive Direction and other after-school programs also are lobbying the Illinois General Assembly to focus funding on anti-violence initiatives, including Gov. Rod Blagojevich's $150 million proposal for Community Investment Works.

His proposal calls for $100 million to be invested in rebuilding deteriorating neighborhoods by assisting local businesses and law enforcement agencies, $30 million in a summer youth employment program and $20 million in after-school programs.

At a rally Tuesday at Main Street Church, youths spoke out about why programs such as Youth With A Positive Direction are so important.

Stephen Taylor, 17, said he'd be "plotting to get some money" if he had more time on his hands, and Dominique Hodrick, 16, said he's been able to turn his life around since moving to Decatur from Chicago a month ago by playing drums for the church and the after-school program's dance team. "This is my family," he said.

Keagan Cunningham, 12, said that whenever he's at Main Street Church, he feels at home.

"I can express myself and be myself here," he said. "I also get help with my homework."

A sampling of the more than 60 letters already written by other program participants was even more poignant.

"I was always doing something stupid like damaging someone's property or stealing from a store," one 15-year-old boy wrote. "This program has taught me not to do that and to follow God."

A 14-year-old boy wrote that he doesn't want follow his older brothers into a gang, but it's hard not to.

"My mom is gone all day at work, and peer pressure is not a joke," he said. "People are dying every day, and I want to live to be 21 years old and be a firefighter because I want to save people."

Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill@herald-review.com or 421-7978.