The District of Columbia will enlist teens and ex-offenders in the battle against graffiti through a pilot program in Ward 1 this summer, D.C. Council Member Jim Graham announced Wednesday.

“We have been fighting graffiti,” Graham said, “much of it gang-related. We wondered, ‘How are we going to stop the graffiti?’ One idea: community murals,” Graham said.

Based on Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program, the anti-graffiti program in D.C. will work with the Metropolitan Police Department and business owners to identify areas obstructed by illegal graffiti and cover them with community-inspired murals.

Graham said the city has allotted funding for 27 full-time positions for ex-offenders, who will identify and remove graffiti.

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The nonprofit organization Midnight Forum will work with PROUrban Youth to offer teens jobs designing and painting the murals.

“Graffiti isn’t accepted as an art form,” said Dominic Painter, executive director of Midnight Forum. “But it is art.”

Up to three murals in Ward 1 will pioneer the program, which Graham set aside $100,000 of the city’s budget to support.

If the murals in Ward 1 work, another 47 murals will be fashioned throughout D.C. beginning in the fall.

“There’s more to come. If we get this working, we’ll expand this,” Graham said.

“A lot of the time, graffiti people respect the murals,” Graham said, but as a precaution, he said he also secured $250,000 in the budget for anti-graffiti paint, which prevents adhesion of other paints.

“We’re trying something different and taking steps to prevent blight in this neighborhood,” Graham said.