Teona’s Journey with PFP
Office of the National Security Council of Georgia
Teona shares that the Professional Fellows Program (PFP) was the best international experience she has ever had as it introduced her to many professionals in the field of law enforcement and allowed her to meet brilliant like-minded people. Teona says that she had a wonderful host family and during the fellowship, she tried to learn from everything and from everyone. She thinks that the host institution and host family enjoyed sharing her experience as well. The fellowship is a valuable opportunity to advance mid-career professionals’ leadership potential, learn new things, and make positive changes in our communities back home.
During my fellowship, I spent October-November 2017 in Salem, Oregon, at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office where I studied best practices in community-oriented policing methodologies. At that time, I was working at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia (MIA) where I was implementing the reform of community-oriented policing.
After the completion of the fellowship, I was able to advance the Ministry’s institutional capacities in the field of community-oriented policing. I implemented the outbound project with her American supervisor in the spring of 2018. A week–long project aimed at introducing the American experience of community-oriented policing practices to the Georgian counterparts.
Apart from that, I coordinated the work of the working group that was able to launch a pilot project of community-oriented policing in Georgia. Over time, the methodologies were expanded and implemented in other parts of the agency. Throughout 2018-2019, at the Ministry, she was able to plan and implement project initiatives with international donors on community-oriented policing with the aim of building public confidence. Also, in partnership with the international organization Project Harmony International, I was involved in the training process of police officers in one of the regions of Georgia.
