Intergroup Conflict Resolution Symposium

On August 7, 1998 over a hundred people attended CAHRO's Community Conflict  Resolution Symposium to share information and explore new ideas in addressing youth gang, cross-cultural, police and student conflicts.  Rusty Kennedy, CAHRO's Board President welcomed the participants and introduced Rose Ochi, Director of the United States Justice Department Community Relations Service, whose agency cosponsored the event.  She outlined some of the work of the agency and recalled some of her personal experiences as an interned Japanese American.  Michelle LeBaron, a George Mason University Professor,  whose career is the study and teaching of community conflict resolution, provided a global perspective on the topic.  She was followed by Bill Drake, Director of the Western Justice Center Foundation in Pasadena, and Joe Hicks, Director of the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission whose agencies also cosponsored the event.

The focus of the symposium was on preventing and responding to school, youth, interethnic and community conflict.  Closing remarks were made by Marcia Ramos of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Mutual Assistance Consortium speaking on behalf of the Burbank Human Relations Council. 

The Youth workshops led by Gilbert Sanchez, Director of the Gang Violence Bridging Program, at the Pat Brown Institute, and Brad Carson, a Deputy Probation Officer, who resolved deadly gang violence in the Venice area of Los Angeles focused on listening to youth and engaging them in activities designed to integrate them within the mainstream.  However, some generalizations made about working with gang youth in Los Angeles did not resonate with everyone, particularly those from other areas in California who work in a different environment.  The discussions following the presentations allowed for a good exchange of views and offered everyone a chance to step back and gain another perspective on what they were doing.

The Cross-Cultural workshops led by Marcia Choo, from the Museum of Tolerance; Rusty Kennedy; Ron Wakabayashi, Director of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, and Hilda Gutierrez Baldoquin from Community Boards in San Francisco took on perhaps the most difficult topic.  The discussions pointed out the need for more examination of the dynamics of racial and ethnic conflict, particularly as to how it is practiced in various cultures. 

There was general agreement that  priority needs to be place on preventing interethnic and intercultural conflicts by promoting understanding at all levels within the community. Police, schools, and churches were pointed to as the institutions that need to take the lead in developing more effective strategies for preventing and responding to conflicts provided they are points of contact with both public and private institutions.  Several people expressed misgivings about using intercultural and interethnic dialogs as an effective method for preventing conflict since participation within these dialogs tended to involve a tiny portion of the community.

The Police workshops were led by Ilene Gusfeld, Director of Conciliation Forums in Oakland and Ray Regalado, from the Orange County Human Relations Council.  Ilene discussed the San Francisco Bay Area project  attempting to link San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland Police Departments with conflict resolution programs operating in their respective cities.  Ilene spoke about her work in training both law enforcement and community groups on the use of formal conflict resolution and her work with the Oakland Police Department.  Ray related an account of being called in by the police in an Orange County community to resolve an escalating conflict between a family whose friends were members of a white power group and their neighbors. 

Oakland's experience is interesting because it is dynamic and growing in depth and breadth.  Although the program began with Conciliation Forums being called by police to resolve issues in the community it has expanded to include the police calling on the agency to resolve conflicts between the police and other city agencies and among law enforcement officers themselves.  What has yet to be explored is the value of a community agency serving as a mediator between law enforcement and people who lodge a complaint against a police officer.

The School workshops were led by Steve Thom, a federal mediator with the United States Department of Justice Community Relations Service, Howard Gadlin, UCLA ombudsman who operates a program training students to mediate intergroup conflict, and Gus Frias, a resource specialist from the Los Angeles County Office of Education Safe Schools Center. Not surprisingly, many of the issues brought up in the Cross-Cultural workshops were repeated in these workshops.  The suggestion once again was to focus on prevention.  However, a distinction was made between community based and school based conflicts.  Those working on school intergroup conflict resolution frequently face an additional challenge in their work, which is the denial or fear of campus administrators in admitting that the potential for intergroup conflict exists let alone take action to prevent or respond to it.  They also expressed a feeling of isolation and a need to connect with others to share information, learn best practices, and develop ways to collaborate on common issues.