Shoutout to the newly certified leaders, and a huge thank you to all the LID mentors! The commitment to sharing knowledge and learning from others makes our collective effort to create safety and save lives stronger.

UPI hosts LID as a continuing education opportunity for experienced peacemakers to develop their personal, professional and instructor skill sets, and go on to teach sessions in the Urban Peace Academy. Each participant is paired with a mentor—a veteran peacemaker themselves—to support their growth.

Read UPI's full statement on our website linked in bio and learn how you can stay involved here:

While today’s decision was disappointing, we continue to fight. Community organizations from LAYUP and the Liberation Fund showed up to the hearing to bear witness, be in community, and remind our leaders that: we keep us safe.

While a receivership would have brought its own uncertainties, namely who would be appointed as the receiver, it was an opportunity to finally break the status quo and take action to create better conditions for incarcerated youth.

"These are taxpayer dollars. The county is just a custodian holding our dollars. So we're telling the county: invest in us. INVEST IN US." - Ben "Taco" Owens, Peacemaker, LA Violence Intervention Coalition

Shoutout to everyone who showed up in solidarity! 📣

#CVISavesLives #FundPeacemakers

Across America, lives are being saved every day due to the commitment and lived experience of CVI workers. We’re grateful for opportunities to come together in person and celebrate the collective victories of the field, while sharing momentum to get to a vision zero: no lives lost to violence.

Leadership development opportunities like CVILA are crucial to professionalizing the field and expanding the abilities of experienced peacemakers to provide mentorship and support to the next generation.

— A body of veteran peacemakers from various LA communities who are dedicated to upholding the standards of conduct & practice to guide the work of CVI & street outreach.

Big shout out to Dr. Chico Tillman, Marcus McAllister, Heather Bland, Jvani Cabiness, & Mariah Cooley for making CVILA happen!

Our community partners in other cities face similar dangers with Trump deploying the military in Washington, D.C. and threatening to do so in Chicago. We stand in solidarity with immigrant communities and our CVI partners across the country. Community is stronger than authoritarianism. #ICEoutofLA

As the situation continues to evolve, UPI is committed to advocating for and protecting the rights, dignity and freedom of all Angelenos. We know it doesn’t stop here.

Peacemakers are not only uniquely qualified to stop violence within their communities, they also stand on the frontlines engaging and protecting those most at risk of being harmed by state-sanctioned violence at the hands of immigration agents.

Now more than ever, we need to invest in and support community-led systems of safety that lean on the well-established credibility and relationships of CVI workers (peacemakers) and others at the forefront.

We strive to remain hopeful, while also recognizing that the Supreme Court's ruling will likely ramp up ICE raids and make it more dangerous for Brown community members.

In response to the unlawful raids in Los Angeles that began this summer, UPI developed a “know your rights” training for community violence intervention (CVI) organizations so they could continue safely serving their communities in the face of increased risks.