Shaw and his colleagues had determined that several Chicago neighborhoods produced vastly disproportionate numbers of criminals and chose Russell Square, a working class, Polish-Catholic community, as the first locale to test their innovative ideas of community organization and delinquency prevention. After 15 months of work to gain community support, the CAP opened its St. Michael's Boys Club in January 1933. Youth gangs were active in Russell Square and involved in crime, but their crimes consisted mainly of petty larceny, vandalism, and lewdness. Unconventional and/or illegal sexual relations between boys and girls were common, disturbing the CAP workers who made upgrading relations between the sexes an integral part of their prevention efforts. The CAP's strategy consisted of recreational programs for youths, community revitalization, and mediation, notably one-to-one interaction between street workers and gang members and child advocacy with schools, police, and courts. Consistent with its philosophy of working with persistently difficult and delinquent youths, the CAP extended its program to parolees. A wide range of individuals, including some ardent supporters, sporadically criticized the CAP. Although evaluations have methodological problems and cannot prove the CAP reduced delinquency, two successful features are clear: its implementation conformed to several criteria that social scientists now consider essential to effective social innovation and the RSCC overcame many operational hurdles that bedevil most current innovative programs in delinquency prevention. Excerpts from the RSCC archival records and other CAP staff reports support the text.