D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and President Obama met for the second time this week to discuss youth violence and prevention strategies.

Gray and Obama were joined by Attorney General Eric Holder and 17 other mayors, including Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Obama applauded the mayors for the work being done in their cities to curb youth violence. Youth violence in D.C. hit an all-time low in 2010, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Gray discussed the city’s summer youth employment program, which offered six weeks of paid employment to 15,000 participants this summer. The program came in under budget for the third year in a row, a major improvement from its history of cost overruns and programming issues.

At the meeting, Obama said he would “continue doing everything in his power to combat gun violence through executive action and to press Congress to pass common-sense reforms like expanding the background check system and cracking down on gun trafficking.” Obama was stymied by the Senate from pressing forward gun control legislation this year.

Obama and Gray last met for lunch in December 2010, before Gray was sworn in as mayor.