A gang intervention training academy has received a $200,000 one-year contract from the city of Los Angeles to teach former gang members how to convince their friends and neighbors not to join gangs, and to track their effectiveness.

Gang intervention programs have had mixed reviews in Los Angeles, with some of their staffers — many of whom are former gang members — arrested for committing new crimes.

But Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the Los Angeles Gang Intervention Training Academy will professionalize the work of gang interventionists.

“These brave men and women have chosen to correct their life’s path, to work side by side with our police department to bridge the gap of cooperation for the sake of saving lives,” he said at a news conference Jan. 7.

“Today, we’re not only rewarding their efforts but we’re continuing to build on a comprehensive gang strategy that is addressing not only gang crime but the root causes of gang crime,” he added.

The school will be the first in the country to develop professional standards, academic curriculum and oversight for gang interventionists.

Run by the Advancement Project, it will begin offering classes in March. Locations being considered are the USC Delinquency Center, the Expo Center and the UCLA Labor Center.

The city pays gang intervention agencies about $26 million a year to negotiate cease-fires and provide activities to lure young people away from gangs.

Their programs are not uniform, however, and many gang interventionists improvise their tactics for preventing violence, with varying levels of success and little oversight from the city.

“This work is not a science per se, there’s some art to it,” Villaraigosa conceded.

Last year, the city terminated a contract with the gang intervention agency Unity T.W.O. when it was unable to account for thousands of dollars in government money.

In August, the executive director of another gang intervention agency, Homies Unidos, was arrested on federal racketeering and conspiracy charges, and last January, a gang intervention worker once praised as model of reform was charged with robbing a well-known rapper at the Universal City Hilton.

“By having this academy, we will have a higher standard of professionalism and fewer wannabe interventionists tainting the work of true interventionists,” said Councilman Tony Cardenas, who chaired the City Council’s now-defunct Ad Hoc Committee on Gang Violence and Youth Development.

The mayor’s Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development will continue to conduct background checks, fingerprinting and mandatory drug testing of would-be gang interventionists.

After that, the Advancement Project — co-founded by prominent civil rights attorney and activist Connie Rice — will train them at the academy, and certify them.

Ben Owens, co-founder of Ceasefire, a coalition of groups and organizations that provide gang intervention services, will help develop the curriculum at the academy.

Asked what qualified him to undertake that responsibility, he responded, “My life experiences, how to deal with people that are in gangs, people that want to get out of gangs, people that have been involved in the gang culture and my own personal experience of making that transition. The best practices for me would be to show them what worked for me.”

Police Chief Charlie Beck said police officers will also be active at the academy, teaching and learning from gang interventionists and improving relationships with them.

“The police department is not only supportive of this, we are involved in this — we are part of the curriculum,” Beck said. “I am absolutely relentless in my desire to speak to the intervention classes myself.”

“Police can solve the last crime, but intervention can stop the next one,” he added.

Meanwhile, Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, offered to secure federal funding for the city’s gang intervention and prevention programs.

Guillermo Cespedes, who heads the mayor's Office of Gang Reduction and Youth Development, said the academy’s first students will be the 100 gang interventionists working for agencies contracted by the city.

They earn a minimum of $35,000 a year by helping provide crisis management after gang shootings to prevent more violence, and by trying to reconcile rival gangs.

They also help identify gang members who are ready to turn their lives around and direct them to public and private institutions that provide counseling and job training.

Los Angeles is home to more than 400 gangs with more than 39,000 documented members, and Beck and Villaraigosa credited the programs for helping to reduce gang violence to record lows.

According to the LAPD’s latest crime statistics, gang-related crimes dropped 11.2 percent in 2009 compared to the previous year, and gang related homicides dropped 15.6 percent.

In 2009, 908 people were shot in gang-related violence in Los Angeles, compared to 1,069 in 2008, which is a drop of 15.1 percent.