Know the work. Know your role.
Storytelling, movement history, identity, boundaries, ethics, and professional responsibility.
A.T. Mitchell-Mann · Founder & President
From credible to incredible.
Incredible Messenger University prepares community violence intervention practitioners with shared skills, safer practice, credentials, and pathways to grow.
37Participants began Cohort 1
31Graduates
84%Completion rate
13Community organizations represented
The university
Shared preparation for high-stakes work.
In partnership with the Institute of Research for Social Justice in Action and the City University of New York, IMU offers a practice-based 12-week academy for messengers, outreach workers, hospital response teams, and reentry practitioners.
Participants bring lived experience and neighborhood knowledge. The academy adds common training in safety, ethics, crisis response, field practice, and professional growth.
The 12-week learning model
Four learning pillars
Respond with care and skill.
Trauma science, emotional regulation, communication, de-escalation, conflict, and crisis response.
Learn through practice.
Mentorship, reentry navigation, hospital-based intervention, mediation, and supervised field learning.
Build the next step.
Professional identity, coaching, career skills, and a community-centered capstone.
Practice-based academy
Training for safer, stronger practice.
Classroom learning, crisis scenarios, supervised field practice, coaching, and a community-centered capstone connect preparation to the realities of the work.
Credentials and a path to a degree
Through IRSJA’s partnership with The Chart Academy, IMU connects graduates to six certificate programs approved by the Higher Education Licensure Commission. IMU is also working with CUNY toward a longer-term degree pathway for community safety practitioners.
Certification training
Stop the Bleed
CPR / First Aid
Mental Health First Aid
Peer Support Specialist Certification
Restorative Justice Circle Keeper Training
Inaugural cohort · January 2026
A citywide class. One learning community.
Thirty-seven people began the first cohort; 31 graduated. The class brought together practitioners from 13 organizations and represented all five boroughs.
Jan. 29Commencement at Medgar Evers College
13Participants met college recruiters and expressed interest in continuing their education
Community partnership
Thirteen organizations brought students.
IMU connects a distributed workforce through shared preparation while preserving the local relationships that make community-based intervention possible.
Project ECHO
Man Up! Inc.
King of Kings
Brownsville Think Tank Matters
True 2 Life
The Drum
Lead by Example
Greater Direction
East Harlem SAVE
Enough Is Enough
Guns Down Life Up
Brownsville In Violence Out
Institute for Transformative Mentorship
The next chapter
Build the shared academy New York needs.
Partner with Incredible Messenger University to connect lived experience with common training, credentials, continuing education, and career growth for the community safety workforce.
Start a partnership conversation