. >> reporter: 19-year-old steven carson is preparing to teach senior citizens the latest tech trickslibrary. >> i actually went online and set up my account for the interview and everything. they actually liked me. >> reporter: he got in the door through an ipo. the mayor's 2-year-old interrupt, predict and organize program that aims to prevent community violence. now it and 163 other similar programs here are suddenly under close scrutiny thanks to a study by cohen. the report by the budget says $45 million was spent in the last fiscal year. san francisco has no strategy to prioritize which get funded or how effective they are. >> we're spending money and we don't know if we're doing a good job or not doing a good job. >> reporter: the city doesn't even have an agreed upon resolution on what constitutes -- >> the city over the last 30 years has had as many violence prevention initiatives than an ice cream shop has flavors of the month. >> reporter: the public defenders office has one of 11 agencies that offer some form of violence prevention programs. >> there is in san francisco a

. >> reporter: steven carson is preparing to teach senior citizens the latest tech tricks in his newbrary. >> i went online and set up my account for the interview and everything. they actually liked me. >> reporter: he got in the door through an ipo, the mayor's 2- year-old interrupt, predict and organize program that aims to prevent community violence. now it and 163 other similar programs here are suddenly under close scrutiny thanks to a just released study commissioned by malia cohen. >> i'm calling time out and doing an about face and we're just stopping and we're going to start to do things differently. >> reporter: the report by the budget analyst says 45 million khrars was spent on violence prevention programs mostly for youth -- $45 million. but the city has no strategy to prioritize which get funded and what impact it has. >> so we're spending money and we're not sure if we're doing a good job or a bad job. some would say that's doing a bad job. >> the city over the last 20 years has had many violence prevention initiatives than an ice cream shop has flavors of the month.