Citing a growing presence of Chicago gangs in the northern suburbs, law enforcement officials gathered Tuesday at a Waukegan school to announce a federal grant to combat them.

"We see gangs ... feeling the heat in Chicago," said U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), "and deciding that they can take on suburban law enforcement organizations that may not have the level of experience [with gangs] that the Chicago police do."

Kirk, joined by federal, county and city law enforcement officials and two former gang members, spoke before about 150 7th- and 8th-graders at Miguel Juarez Middle School.

Discussion centered on how to keep middle-school children--who officials said are the most vulnerable to recruitment--away from gangs.

"The only way that gangs can remain viable is to replenish with younger members," said Andy Traver, special agent-in-charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Chicago office.

There are more than 2,000 documented gang members in Lake County, said Kirk, who helped secure the $100,000 grant.

The grant will go to the Waukegan Police Department's Neighborhood Enforcement Team, a 10-officer unit dedicated to gang and drug investigations.

Lawrence Hall, 39, a former member of the Gangster Disciples, told the students that by his early 30s he had been shot, stabbed and imprisoned 18 months for a drug conviction.

Growing up in Waukegan, he joined the gang at age 12 because he was searching for a sense of order and family in his life.

"But I was looking for love in all the wrong places," Hall said.