Although overall crime continues to drop in Los Angeles - we continue to see gang violence as one of the serious threats facing our City. Most of our communities are safer than they have been in decades, but we are losing too many of our youth to senseless gun and gang violence. Too many of our brightest children are losing hope, are dropping out of schools, and are entering into cycles of violence and incarcerations.
Over the last four years we have worked to boldly transform the way our City works to reduce gang violence. We put in motion a plan to radically change the way our City prevents and suppresses crime -- a plan that recognizes that fundamentally fighting gangs is a question of putting people on a path to a productive live.
Today, our efforts to fight gangs in our City is taking a monumental step forward by developing the first comprehensive gang intervention academy in the country. Through a contract with the Advancement Project, this new academy will work with individuals who choose to join us on the front lines of our gang fighting efforts.
The Los Angeles Gang Intervention Training Academy will professionalize the work of intervention workers by developing a professional standard, an academic curriculum and the oversight needed to create clear lines of accountability. As it would be in any professional practice, we will challenge the true commitment of each individual to improve by providing the critical platform in the classroom and in our communities for continual learning and improvement.
Lastly, this academy will provide the tools necessary to deal with the high stress and high risk of being a gang intervention worker.These brave men and women have chosen to correct their life path by working side by side with our police department to bridge the gap of cooperation for the sake of saving lives; their efforts deserve to be rewarded.
We will continue to build on a comprehensive gang strategy that is addressing not only gang crime, but the root causes of gang crime. Public safety is the foundation for everything we are trying to build, the context for economic growth, and the building blocks for good jobs and a brighter future. We have laid the foundation; now we must continue to build a future that allows our youth the opportunities to decide their own fate.