Connie Rice, Advisory Board Chair, Addresses The Latest Urban Peace Academy cohort

Launch of New Urban Peace Academy Cohort

The Urban Peace Academy recently launched a new training session to promote effective violence reduction and community policing strategies. This 12-week training program is currently engaging 27 new participants in Los Angeles, who are learning proven public health approaches to improve safety in the region’s most underserved communities.

Academy graduates complete this innovative program with a new understanding of the professional standards essential to guide successful gang intervention efforts to ensure safer neighborhoods.  “Our training provides a lot of information, and a lot of tools in the tool box to reduce community violence,” remarked Melvyn Hayward, a veteran Academy instructor and Executive Director of the H.E.L.P.E.R Foundation.  “With the understanding that majority of intervention workers were formally gang involved, we also help officers learn the tremendous transformation individuals have to go through to now keep peace on the streets.”

To date, over 2,600 gang intervention workers, law enforcement officers, and community residents have been trained to work collaboratively in promoting health and safety across the nation. While the Academy’s latest cohort is based in Los Angeles, recently, the program successfully trained 20 participants working to reduce and prevent violence within Chicago’s Austin neighborhood.