http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cci.htm#faithbasedinitiatives Faith-Based Initiatives The Manhattan Institutes Jeremiah Project is an effort to study, promote and replicate the work inner-city ministers are doing in reducing youth violence and restoring civil society to urban communities across America. Dr. John DiIulio founded the project while he was a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Through this effort, the Institute conducts research, hosts conferences and shares information on these faith-based organizations in order to highlight and replicate the most successful efforts around the country. We methodically research their efficacy in the areas of youth violence, drug addiction, teenage pregnancy, illiteracy, joblessness and other social ills that remain so heavily concentrated in predominantly minority, inner-city neighborhoods. Last year the Institute released two new studies on faith-based organizations, in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvanias Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society. Good Dads: Religion, Civic Engagement, and Paternal Involvement in Low-Income Communities by W. Bradford Wilcox shows that residential fathers who are involved in religious organizations are significantly more likely to spend time with their children and be involved in their childrens activities. The Role of African-American Churches in Reducing Crime Among Black Youth, by Dr. Byron Johnson, the current Director of the Jeremiah Project, determines that religious involvement by African-American youth significantly shields them from the effects of neighborhood disorder and decay and reduces the potential that they will turn to crime. Our 1998 conference, Can Churches Save the Inner City?, highlighted scientific evidence showing that religious belief and involvement reduces juvenile criminality. In 1999, we featured five successful Washington, D.C. based ministries at Faith-Based Approaches to Saving Our Capitals Youth, an event we co-sponsored with Empower America. And in 2000, we joined Reverend Herbert H. Lusk, II of the Greater Exodus Baptist Church in Philadelphia to host a roundtable entitled Religious Leaders in the Public Square. Theres more,50 million taxpayers have already been released.Should buy a few Koran's.