The Urban Peace Institute (UPI) is proud to announce that Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed A.B. 90, a bill that mandates a massive overhaul to California’s shared gang database system.  For the past two years, UPI acted as a leading advocate for change to California’s gang databases, which unfairly labels over a 100,000 California residents, including children as young as two years old, as gang members.  

The Urban Peace Institute will lead efforts to expand the Community Safety Partnership by first guiding a three-month community needs assessment effort to engage over 500 residents and stakeholders.The Urban Peace Institute will lead efforts to expand the Community Safety Partnership by first guiding a three-month community needs assessment effort to engage over 500 residents and stakeholders.

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.

The Urban Peace Institute has worked diligently to assist to residents like Arellano to appeal their inclusion on gang injunctions. “In some cases, it took two years, and this included a client who had never been arrested for anything” commented Green.

As part of the Urban Peace Institute’s commitment to ending the mass incarceration of boys and men of color, our team partnered with the ACLU of Southern California and Youth Justice Coalition to uplift civil rights concerns through a lawsuit against the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office.

Anthony Blockman, who grew up in Venice’s Oakwood neighborhood, is one of the few former gang members who has been successfully removed from a gang injunction with the help of the Urban Peace Institute. Despite taking a positive path in his life and working in steady construction job for over a decade, Blockman was still included in listing of active gang members.