YAKIMA, Wash. — A project to keep Yakima County youth out of gangs and help active gang members leave the street took a key step forward Wednesday.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. included $500,000 in a bill to support a multi-pronged anti-gang proposal for Yakima. The bill was awaiting consideration by the Senate Appropriations Committee after passing through a subcommittee.

Murray's spokesman and local officials said they're cautiously optimistic the funding will survive in the budget to be signed by President Obama this fall.

"It was a big victory to get it in, and she's going to keep fighting for it," said Murray spokesman Eli Zupnick.

The congressional funding makes up two-thirds of the amount calculated to maintain the Yakima County Gang Initiative for a year. Other requests are pending with the Gates Foundation and the Department of Justice, said Yakima County Commissioner Kevin Bouchey.

Bouchey has been part of a group of city and county offficals working since January with Educational Service District 105 and the Yakima Valley Farmworkers Clinic, among others, to craft an attack on the county's gang problem.

Bouchey said the proposed project would focus on social services and schools rather than direct police enforcement.

"We can't arrest our way out of this. We've got to be looking at different avenues" -- from redirecting active gang members to persuading students to stay away from gangs, Bouchey said.

A background paper prepared by the county for potential funders estimates that more than 2,500 gang members may be active here, with roughly half in Yakima and the rest in the county's other cities and rural areas.

According to the county's calculations, the county has 15 percent of the state's gang members but less than 5 percent of the overall population.

The project's major goals would be to reduce the number of gang-involved youth on probation from 60 percent to 20 percent and increase on-time graduation in select school districts from 68 percent to 73 percent.

Bouchey said the project is meant to complement existing efforts in commun-ities across the county to fight gang violence. Half of the county's 18 homicides last year had gang ties, prompting efforts in Sunnyside and elsewhere to mobilize the community.

The funding requests are only part of the solution, Bouchey said.

"Dollars are good, but it's going to take a serious communitywide effort to get rid of the gang problem," Bouchey said.

The actual scope of the program depends on the final funding amount.

If the entire $850,00 comes together, as many as 3,000 students could take an anti-gang curriculum in schools across the county. Several hundred gang members and their families could take part in counseling, vocational education and other programs after being picked up by police or being identified through other channels, according to the proposal.

In a news release announcing the subcom-mittee's approval of Murray's request, Sheriff Ken Irwin said that local voters had stepped forward to help law enforcement when they approved a dedicated sales tax to hire police officers and prosecutors.

"Unfortunately, given the rapid increase in gang-related crime and violence, we need more assistance in the areas of gang prevention, intervention and suppression," Irwin said. "We believe we need state and federal assistance in meeting this incredible challenge to our community."