The UCI Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, in partnership with the Orange County Department of Education (OCDE), is launching a gang intervention training program for students, academics and practitioners who work – or plan to work – with at-risk youth. Funded wholly by OCDE, the 15-week program will run three times a year at UCI and cover topics such as:

•    Stages in the developmental process as it affects socialization and violence tendencies
•    Violence as a learned behavior
•    The role of street gangs, prevention and intervention techniques
•    Organizing the community against violence
•    The role of truces and peace treaties
•    Advocating for policies that support anti-violence

The program is modeled after the Youth and Gang Violence Intervention Specialist Training Program previously offered by The Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles and builds on a DVD series, funded by the JAMS Foundation, that  the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding has been working on to make training more widely available.

The lead UCI trainer is Paula Garb, co-director of UCI’s Center for Citizen Peacebuilding, anthropology lecturer, certified mediator, and researcher in peace and conflict studies. Additional trainers include faculty from the School of Social Sciences and School of Social Ecology at UC Irvine and faculty from California State University, Los Angeles, as well as current and former law enforcement personnel and experts from the OC Sheriff's Department, OC District Attorney's Office and OC Probation Department.

The inaugural class of 40 participants starts Friday, March 23 with workshops and a luncheon.

For more information, please contact Paula Garb, pgarb@uci.edu.