NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly 4,000 young people have participated in the first year of a sweeping effort to help young minority men in ways ranging from job internships to inmate education, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday.

Financed partly with the billionaire mayor’s own money, the three-year, $127 million Young Men’s Initiative is intended to lower poverty, crime, unemployment and dropout rates among black and Latino males between 16 and 24.