Two classes graduate from the Community Safety Leadership Academies
Last week, the Crime Lab celebrated the graduation of two Community Safety Leadership Academies (CSLA) classes: One cohort of police commanders from the Policing Leadership Academy and one cohort of community violence intervention leaders from the CVI Leadership Academy.
From CSLA’s inception, we have understood the complementary nature of law enforcement and CVI organizations, and it has been our aspiration through these academies not only to cultivate leaders in each field, but to build understanding and collaboration across these fields which are each so essential to achieving public safety in our cities. Already, we have seen commanders and CVI leaders from the academies collaborate on projects in their local jurisdictions; this shared coursework and more formal coordination across the CSLA continues building on this essential component of our theory of change.
As federal funding for CVI has been cut and city budgets are on the brink of collapse, the CSLA, too, are facing financial headwinds to this work – precisely at the moment when this work is most essential. We cannot continue building the infrastructure needed for the next generation of community safety leaders without your partnership. Please consider supporting this work using the link below.
Policing Leadership Academy (PLA) graduation of its fifth cohort
With the graduation of the PLA’s fifth cohort in Washington, DC, we have reached 90 jurisdictions in 36 states plus four international departments. This cohort brought the magic: From day one, they absorbed the material with incredible enthusiasm and thoughtfully challenged our co-facilitators and instructors on issues both professional and personal. PLA is an essential investment in them as people and their power and potential to impact gun violence in their cities.
The graduation events in Washington, DC were phenomenal. Our Chiefs’ Night featured a fireside chat between Crime Lab Founding Executive Director Roseanna Ander and Ambassador Rahm Emanuel, former Mayor of Chicago who, with the Crime Lab, launched the Strategic Decision Support Centers (SDSCs) in the Chicago Police Department. The evaluation of the SDSCs led to the findings that underpin the philosophy of the Policing Leadership Academy – that investing in management and leadership of mid-level police managers can have a transformative impact on violent crime, police-community trust, and officer wellness. Chiefs’ Night was generously underwritten by the Rooney Family.
On graduation day, we were grateful to have speakers who traveled from around the country to congratulate our graduating class: Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, Baltimore Police Department Commissioner Richard Worley, and former Mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter, each of whom underscored the value of leadership and dedication to craft, in an increasingly polarized policing environment.
By coincidence, PLA partner The Second City received an award at the World Business Chicago International Gala the next day with the PLA called out as one of their great innovative achievements.
Every day, the PLA team and program is working to support our American cities, to invest in our police departments, and to raise the bar for relationships between police and the communities they serve. We cannot wait to welcome the next cohort in January.
CVI Leadership Academy (CVILA) graduation of its fourth cohort
Last week, we also celebrated the graduation of the CVILA’s fourth cohort in Atlanta, Georgia. The 32 graduates – CVI leaders from 24 cities across the country – spent five months engaged in hands-on education to improve their organizations and support their mission to prevent and reduce gun violence in their communities.
The week concluded with capstone presentations, where a panel of judges selected four graduates to receive seed funding through the Capstone Innovation Prize—recognizing initiatives that demonstrate innovation, apply research and evidence, and show strong potential for impact:
- Boye Sofidiya – Safe Passage → Youth Leadership Bridge (Washington, D.C.): Boye’s project transforms Growing Up Inc.’s Safe Passage program into an active youth re-engagement and violence intervention strategy. By training Ambassadors as mentors, scaling outreach across seven schools, and adding paid youth leadership opportunities, the initiative aims to reduce school pushout and strengthen safety.
- Onoyemi “Oni” Williams – Community Lifesaver Training Program (Alabama): Oni’s project equips Alabama residents with lifesaving trauma-response skills in counties with limited access to emergency care. Through training, trauma kit distribution, and coordination with EMS, it seeks to reduce pre-hospital mortality and improve community preparedness.
- Gerardo Lopez – Homies Unidos Denver Youth Cohorts (Colorado):Gerardo’s project brings together newcomer Venezuelan youth and local BIPOC youth for nine-month cohorts focused on wellness, cultural exchange, creative expression, and street outreach to build leadership, strengthen peer connections, and reduce violence through healing-centered, culturally-grounded programming.
- Tiffany Lamela – We Are the Evidence (New York City): Tiffany’s project will build a practitioner-governed data system for the CVI field. By co-creating a mobile-accessible platform with frontline workers, the project will help communities use their own data to generate funding and strengthen policy and long-term safety outcomes.
During the graduation celebration, the cohort heard from Breskii, the Atlanta-based rapper who lost her father and brother to gun violence. On what would have been her father’s birthday, she announced the launch of her new initiative to address gun violence—offering a moving reminder of the personal and generational stakes of this work.
It was a fitting week of celebration to cap five months of hard work and welcome these new CVILA alumni into our community of practitioners dedicating their lives to building peace.