For The Chicago Defender, Tacuma Roeback reports on a new effort out of the University of Chicago’s new Community Violence Intervention Leadership Academy, which “welcomed its first cohort of leaders from 21 cities nationwide [to help] address cycles of violence”—including leaders from Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, New Orleans, Nashville, and more. A first of its kind program and curriculum, Roeback details the program’s training and structure:
“[The program] equips senior and executive leaders working in community violence intervention with the skills and knowledge needed to alter their communities and the organizations they lead … [during an] intensive six-month [program] overseen by expert practitioners and scholars… [including] immersive training in program management, workforce retention, data literacy, evaluation techniques and a host of other critical competencies… culminat[ing] with a community-focused capstone project where members apply their newfound expertise to real-world challenges.”
After city leaders complete their training, “researchers from leading universities will conduct qualitative and quantitative studies to gauge how effectively the [programs] reduce violence [and] undertake a comprehensive assessment of the training’s effectiveness.”
Former Chicago and Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck lauded the program and told the newspaper that “intervention groups are the answer to reducing violence…If you want to solve the problem of violence in the community, you have to work with people in the community…if CVI can get young people to lay down guns, I’m 100% behind that—and everybody else should be, too.”