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CAHRO board and staff design a strategy to carry the
Association into the Millennium Board retreats; interviews and meetings with stakeholders in civil rights, human relations, education, criminal justice and conflict resolution; and thoughtful introspection occupied our
Association leadership while El Nio saturated California in late 1997and early 1998. Thanks in no small part to support from The James Irvine Foundation, CAHRO was able to thoughtfully plan where it wants to go and how to get
there.The Board of Directors, the staff, and stakeholders in sectors impacted by CAHRO articulated several principles to guide CAHRO's work.
- CAHRO should serve, but not formally represent human relations and civil rights organizations. It should promote ideas and interests to improve human relations and civil rights in California, but not advance the
specific interests of one or more of its members.
- Influence on public policy should be carried out through public information, and building the capacity and networking of human relations and civil rights organizations, and other activities that do not violate
restrictions placed on a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.
- CAHRO should continue to be a thought leader and organizer around issues of hate violence, but also develop activities and expertise in other substantive issue areas.
- CAHRO should continue to focus on California and only indirectly serving a national audience.
- CAHRO should participate actively in efforts within California to define a new human relations agenda for the 21st century. CAHRO will make this a major focus of its 1998 Silver Anniversary Conference.
- CAHRO's information clearinghouse should serve clients as a practical resource for discovering best practices in human relations activities. It should focus on key issues of particular importance to CAHRO's client
organizations. Initially the clearinghouse will focus on hate violence and hate crime prevention and response strategies; school and community intergroup conflict prevention and resolution strategies; police-community
relations, and human relations organizational capacity building.
The enunciation of the guidelines provided welcome direction to the staff and there are already signs of their implementation:
- CAHRO's planned civil rights/human relations retreat and Silver Anniversary Conference reported separately in this newsletter is designed to position the organization as a player in the effort to define future directions;
- CAHRO will launch its website in late August. The website will consist of more than 100 pages and provide opportunities for visitors to download summaries of information on the areas CAHRO has targeted, along with
model programs and sources for further information. Initially the website will cover issues related to hate violence and hate crime, police-community relations, community intergroup conflict prevention and response,
and human relations organizational development.
- CAHRO will continue its efforts to build local human relations and civil rights networks to address hate violence and hate crime and expand those efforts to include organization around its other targeted areas of interest.
- CAHRO will host symposiums, hearings, and conferences throughout California on topics within its area of expertise. It will also begin planning a curriculum and system of delivery to train those involved or planning
to be involved in responding to school and community intergroup conflicts.
- CAHRO will participate in, but not host, national conferences in the areas of its interest and expertise.
We welcome comments and questions on this plan. |
