PCITI GRADUATION A SUCCESS! A group shot from Thursday night's Professional Community Intervention Training Institute (PCITI) Graduation, where over 50 Intervention Specialists representing 40 neighborhoods graduated and committed themselves to becoming "Peace Ambassadors" in their communities. From left: Brian Center, executive director, A Better LA; USC football coach Pete Carroll and A Better L.A. founder; Aquil Basheer, Maximum Force Enterprises executive director and PCITI founder; Toni Guinyard, KNBC 4 News reporter and Mistress of Ceremonies; and LAPD Commander Commander Mike Williams, who replaced the late Kenneth Garner to lead the department's South Bureau.

With the keynote speech provided by USC football coach Pete Carroll, Maximum Force Enterprises on Thursday graduated the second certified class of its much talked about Professional Community Intervention Training Institute (PCITI). This year's theme was "40 Neighborhoods Working Together to Save Lives," Providing Protocols for Peace."

Leaders representing local law enforcement, emergency responder units, and community stakeholders, showed up in numbers to recognize the 50 men and women that represented a variety of diverse Los Angeles communities, who successfully completed the intense 16-week institute and committed themselves to becoming "Ambassadors for Peace" in their respective communities.

With a new emphasis placed on accountability of government and private-funded gang intervention/prevention programs, Maximum Force Enterprises developed and implemented the specialized curriculum to professionally certify frontline gang intervention workers that deal with the culture of gang violence on a daily basis. Major funding for the training is provided by A Better L.A. and partial funding by the California Wellness Foundation.

"This gathering brings together over 40-plus neighborhoods, who have come together to collaborate on saving their communities by any means necessary," said Maximum Force Enterprises Executive Director Aquil Basheer. "These men and women have sacrificed much, accomplishing a feat that very few felt was attainable. They accomplished their goal and achieved their mission and they should be celebrated with dignity."

Basheer took the opportunity to thank Carroll and the staff and board members of his non-profit organization, A Better L.A., who said have supported the PCITI from its inception.

The PCITI, adopted as a model for intervention by the Los Angeles City Council, involves operational protocol and standards of behavior that includes a wide range of real-life scenarios such as a role playing to prepare participants for situations that they may encounter on the streets.

This will bring the total number of PCITI graduates to 100-plus certified intervention specialists, linking over 40 neighborhoods for the purpose of saving lives. The graduation ceremony also highlighted Maximum Force Enterprises' other successful community-based violence prevention programs that focus on youth and families.

Maximum Force Enterprises provides a wide-range array of services that deal directly with all aspects of violence abatement & threat eradication. Its executive director, Aquil Basheer, has been described as "one of the nation's most premier public safety, crisis survival, threat elimination professionals" in today's society. Mr. Basheer is an internationally known, award-winning lecturer and author, instructional coach, & violence prevention and crisis intervention expert.

"These individuals have taken the first step and have shown that they will do what's necessary to set the record straight," Basheer told the packed audience the evening graduation. "I ask you to support them and let them know that their stepping up will not go unrewarded."

Last update: 05-13-2009 15:11

Published in : News, Local

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