Groundbreaking Training Professionalizes Work of Community Heroes

June 11, 2010

FIRST CLASS OF FRONTLINE GANG INTERVENTION WORKERS GRADUATE FROM LOS ANGELES VIOLENCE INTERVENTION TRAINING ACADEMY (LAVITA)

For more information contact Deidra McMorris dmcmorris@advanceproj.org

LOS ANGELES, CA, JUNE 11, 2010 – Twenty-seven frontline gang intervention workers will graduate on June 11, 2010 from the Urban Peace Academy, the nation’s only training program for the courageous people who help to keep the peace in Los Angeles’ gang hot zones. Gang interventionists broker ceasefires between rival gangs, defuse tensions before violence escalates and respond to gang related homicides to prevent retaliation.
Graduation Details

Friday, June 11, 2010

9:30 – 10 am Reception
10 – 11 am Program & Commencement, featuring
• Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
• Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca
• Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck and
• Gang Reduction & Youth Development Office Director Guillermo Céspedes

Location: Children’s Bureau
Magnolia Place Conference Center
1910 Magnolia Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90007-1220

Note: Due to the sensitive nature of their profession, some of the gang intervention workers will not be available for photography or interviews.

Graduates receive diplomas in recognition of the more than 140 hours spent over 14 weeks in the program in courses that include “History of Gangs and Gang Intervention”, “Crisis Intervention, Ceasefire and Understandings”, “Hospital Based Intervention”, and “Law Enforcement Dynamics”. Participants are rigorously tested before graduation to ensure mastery of intervention training material.

Academy graduates are representatives of local community-based intervention organizations that have contracted with the Mayor’s Office of Gang Reduction & Youth Development (GRYD): Aztecs Rising, Chapter Two, Communities in Schools, Community Build, Developing Options, Going Beyond Boundaries, HELPER Foundation, KUSH Inc., Soledad Enrichment Action, and Toberman Neighborhood Center.

The Urban Peace Academy builds on prior training programs to elevate the field of gang intervention as a credible profession with an important role to play in a comprehensive violence reduction strategy. The Academy offers multiple levels of certification and creates a coherent body of knowledge that enforces the highest standards of practice and conduct. The Academy has also played an important role in defining the separate but parallel functions of gang intervention workers and law enforcement, ensuring that the response to gang violence is swift, coordinated and effective.

The Urban Peace Academy is a program of Advancement Project, a next generation civil rights “action” tank that expands opportunity for vulnerable people through large-scale change in the systems that affect their lives. Grounded in the facts, Advancement Project is committed to doing what it takes – and working with unlikely allies – to ensure all Californians have a chance to succeed. In 10 short years, Advancement Project’s work in California has helped secure billions of dollars in investment in better schools and safer communities.