As the Weed and Seed program struggles to secure funding year after year, officials are kicking off a new initiative meant to attract volunteers willing to put in long-term commitments in their communities.

Today in three Weed and Seed neighborhoods — Kalihi, Ala Moana and 'Ewa Beach — hundreds of volunteers will gather to paint out graffiti, pick up trash and hand out informational packets. The events are meant to find residents and organizations willing to adopt parcels of their communities for a year or more.

"The success of Weed and Seed is community participation," said Maile Kanemaru, program director. "Communities care. We just have to provide a venue for them."

Weed and Seed is a U.S. Department of Justice program designed to "weed" out criminal elements from neighborhoods, and "seed" community involvement — through clean-up, citizen patrols and other venues — to keep crime at bay. The program starts out with federal funding, but communities are tasked to find other money to keep it going.

In the Islands, the first Weed and Seed site, covering Kalihi and Chinatown, was designated in 1998. The site was broadened in 2003 to include Ala Moana and Kaheka. A designation for Waipahu was approved in 2000, and 'Ewa Beach became a Weed and Seed site two years later.

The program has gotten rave reviews from community members, who say high-profile police stings and tougher penalties for criminals caught within the sites has deterred crime. During the first five years of the project in Kalihi, for example, major violent crimes such as murder, larceny and aggravated assault dropped by 66 percent. Other crimes, including assaults, vandalism and prostitution, dropped by 75 percent.

The "weed" portion of the program is meant to continue even without funding, because as long as a site keeps its designation, drug offenses or violent crimes can be subject to federal prosecution.

Still, officials say the "seed" component of Weed and Seed is perhaps even more important. If residents are active in their neighborhoods, criminals are less likely to be, they say.

"The weeding will always be there," Kanemaru said. "The challenge is sustaining the seeding side."

Because of restrictions on how federal funding on Weed and Seed can be spent and how long a site can get it — usually federal funding is limited to five years — the program has had to search annually for private, city and state dollars, mostly to cover "seeding" projects, like cleanups and gatherings.

Federal funding for Waipahu expired in 2005, and city and other funds for the site will run out in June. Meanwhile, the Kalihi/Ala Moana and 'Ewa sites will get federal funding through February, but other funds for the 'Ewa site run out in December.

And private, city and state funding for the Kalihi site will be spent by June.

It takes about $175,000 a year to run a Weed and Seed site, whose expenditures include everything from overtime for police officers to supplies for community cleanups.

Kanemaru said she is pursuing other funding for the sites and has several promising leads from potential donors — so she urged residents not to panic about the prospect of money running out. "We are always looking for whatever resources we need to clean up the community," she said.

The new initiative, dubbed the Neighborhood Kokua Project, is designed to find volunteers who are willing to pledge long-term support for cleanups or other events, in the hope that even if funding lapses the "seeding" end of Weed and Seed will continue.

"Really what we're trying to do is a recruitment to have people adopt projects in their communities ... versus just doing one project," said Reina Miyamoto, the Weed and Seed volunteer coordinator for Ala Moana. "So far, it's been a slow process."

From Kalihi to Kaheka, there are already about 200 volunteers involved in Weed and Seed adoption programs for parcels or parks, Miyamoto said. 'Ewa Beach has about 75 regular volunteers. Numbers for Waipahu were not available.

Gale Braceros, the 'Ewa Weed and Seed coordinator, said volunteers will clean up sections of Fort Weaver Road today, painting over graffiti at bus stops and picking up trash.

"We're kind of crossing our fingers" that there's a good turnout, she said.

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.