Reflecting Back and Moving On

This first issue of Connections sets another milestone in CAHRO's maturation as a uniting force for people and organizations working to address human relations and human rights issues in California.  From its creation in 1973 as a convener of annual conferences where staff and volunteers of human relations commissions shared information to the opening of a fully staffed office in 1995, helping under-served areas in the Central Valley, the Central Coast and far northern California to build capacity to  address bias motivated conflict, CAHRO has promoted the mission envisioned by its founders to foster cooperative intergroup relationships and stop arbitrary discrimination. 

A review of activities over the last year provides a sense of how CAHRO has evolved and where it is going.

CAHRO took a giant step forward last year when we hosted a retreat for 60 selected civil rights and human relations leaders representing the diversity of California's population.  Acknowledging our differences, participants grappled with defining what we had in common, what needed to be done to achieve shared objectives, and what role CAHRO should play in facilitating these efforts.  The retreat set the stage for CAHRO's Silver Anniversary Conference which will be held on November 4th-6th in Los Angeles.  The conference will promote regional and state intergroup collaborations to formulate policies and design strategies to create a just and nonviolent society where all people are exposed to the rich range of constructive life options and are free to pursue any of them without fear of arbitrary discrimination.

Forming Human Relations Commissions

Last year the City of Rialto contracted with CAHRO to establish a human relations commission.  Rialto is a city with a population of some 80,000 people located between San Bernardino and Ontario.  CAHRO helped Rialto draft an ordinance for the commission, select and orient commissioners, and draft a work plan.  The design ensures that it will be integrated into the governance of the community rather than serving as a buffer to protect elected officials from vocal advocates demanding attention to their issues.  CAHRO used the contract with Rialto to build a human relations commission that can serve as a model for other mid-sized cities without large budgets. 

Holding Symposiums

Recently CAHRO hosted a symposium In San Diego on police community relations which received critical acclaim by the participants who evaluated it as providing excellent information that will be of great use in their work.  The symposium provided an opportunity for those attending to learn about the various tools used to promote law enforcement accountability to the community.  It also allowed for an assessment of their strengths and weaknesses while addressing the requirements necessary in building  partnerships between law enforcement and people in their jurisdiction.
The symposium was the latest in a series held throughout California that was used to provide information on school intergoup relations, community policing from a community perspective, and community intergroup conflict resolution strategies.

Networking Communities

Earlier this year CAHRO worked with Santa Cruz and the City of Alameda to put on hate crime forums within their respective communities. CAHRO facilitated the participation of state and federal officials to join with local school district and elected officials, representatives of law enforcement and community members to discuss issues of hate and the presence of hate groups within their local community. The moving testimony of victims and families of victims of hate crimes provided the incentive for building the area's capacity to address hate crime. 

The City of Alameda forum drew the largest crowd to a meeting ever held in Alameda to bear witness to the testimony of victims of hate violence and hear the views of psychological and educational experts on hate crime.  The City is successfully implementing CAHRO's model for building a community based hate crime network.

In Humboldt County, which created a hate crime network following CAHRO's guidelines, we provided training to various organizations working to assist victims of hate violence.  CAHRO presented a six hour presentation to enable those organizations to learn and practice methods for providing victim assistance.

Online Information

If you are an internet user and seek information on human relations using the Yahoo search engine, you will find CAHRO's website, www.cahro.org, listed as the first website out of more than 200 listings.
The website provides access to information on human relations, conflict resolution, police-community relations, bias free schools, etc.  It is proving to be more effective in getting information out than CAHRO expected.  It serves as a tool which we utilize in our effort to provide and share information and resources. 

The website continues to grow as more information is gathered by CAHRO.  It also provides links to websites with related information and statistics.  It is available to members who wish to advertise activities and job announcements and is updated regularly by CAHRO staff.  By the end of the year the website will also provide a way for people to join the Association online. 

Liaison with State Agencies

CAHRO consults with the California Commission on Police Officer Standards and Training to improve police work as it impacts intergroup and community relations.  We are helping to refine curriculum on hate crimes and expect to consult on other issues as the Commission updates its curricula.

CAHRO is meeting with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission to improve procedures and practices for addressing complaints of housing and employment discrimination.  CAHRO is particularly interested in the use of human relations commissions to help mediate complaints. 

CAHRO is playing a critical role in the development of the California Attorney General's Civil Rights Commission on Hate Crime.  The Attorney General responded to CAHRO's request for a meeting between the directors of the larger hate crime prevention networks and his staff by asking the directors to partner with the Attorney General in establishing the Commission.

Looking Ahead

CAHRO is planning two initiatives to enhance our work as we moves into the next millennium.

CAHRO is designing our Silver Anniversary Conference to encourage and facilitate the meeting of leaders from academia, the faith community, public and private human relations and civil rights organizations on a regular basis to recommend policies and design strategies to help them achieve their common goals.  The Conference will explore the benefits and challenges for people and organizations to build collaborations across disciplines and across constituencies to work for the common vision of a nonviolent, non-discriminatory society where people can maintain self-respect and seek to meet their personal objectives.   There will be ample time to explore what works, what does not work and what is needed to improve opportunities for building successful coalitions.  CAHRO is optimistic that those attending the conference will commit to building new working relationships and that the Association can facilitate the process.

CAHRO's other initiative for this year is to expand our training capacity to meet the demand generated by our constituents.  Every week CAHRO receives requests for training that cannot be delivered because the Association does not have the resources to employ a full-time trainer. CAHRO has curriculum on conflict resolution, cultural awareness and human relations issues designed for law enforcement, schools and communities.  With the help of our Board of Directors Training Committee, CAHRO is in the process of developing a strategy to incorporate our Board of Directors, who are full-time human relations professionals drawn from various disciplines to assist in providing training so that more requests can be honored.

CAHRO is seeking support to provide advanced training in intergroup conflict prevention and intervention for practitioners drawn from education, criminal justice and the communities.  For too long those who actually are involved in responding to intergroup conflicts have been relying on intuition and experience rather than theoretical and practical training.  Although there are institutions of higher learning such as George Mason University in Virginia that provide opportunities to learn the theory of intergroup conflict there is virtually no hands-on training academy in intergroup conflict prevention and intervention available to practioners in California.  Factors that stimulate conflict are not increaing in California and CAHRO recognizes the critical need for professional support to those who are in the front lines of responding to intergroup tensions.
We hope that as you read this premier edition of Connections you get a sense of what CAHRO is and where we are going.  If you find the work of CAHRO to be stimulating we invite you to participate in any way you can.  Your support, involvement and encouragement keeps us going.