Facilitation

The Community Relations Service (CRS) offers facilitation to help local communities address conflicts and tensions arising from differences of race, color, or national origin. CRS also offers facilitation to help communities develop strategies to prevent and respond to violent hate crimes committed on the basis of actual or perceived race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or disability. Communities that are involved in conflicts or are experiencing violence often have long-standing problems communicating effectively with one another. This can lead to misperceptions of each other's actions, a lack of trust, and avoidance of face-to-face discussion.

CRS' conflict resolution specialists-called conciliation specialists-facilitate discussions to help communities open lines of communication by listening to the issues of each community group and learning from each group about the problem and potential solutions to the conflict. These dialogues often include various local agencies, institutions, and community residents. Topics of these discussions may include race, police-community relations, perceived hate crimes, tribal conflicts, protests and demonstrations, and other issues that may be important for a community. The discussions help communities to develop work plans for promoting peace and resolving conflicts in neighborhoods and schools.

Featured Cases

In spring 2012, a Community Steering Committee consisting of the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire, law enforcement, and civil-rights advocacy groups in New Hampshire, asked CRS to convene a "Multi-County Local Law Enforcement Dialogue with NAACP, Latino, Arab, Muslim, Sikh, and other community representatives. The objective of the Dialogue was to facilitate meaningful discussions between local law enforcement officials and participants. The goal of the discussions was to foster mutual respect among the parties, enabling them to identify issues or concerns and propose workable solutions. In advance of the Dialogue, CRS facilitated a planning meeting in which the parties were able to identify and raise issues and concerns and formulate an action plan for addressing any future community issues or concerns.

A multi-day civil disturbance occurred in March 2012 following the death of an African American male while police were serving a warrant at a Newburgh home. CRS deployed on-site immediately and began to work with community leaders, law enforcement, and local government officials to quell the unrest and establish a working group on relations between law enforcement and the city's African American community. While the initial disturbance was a result of the death, long-term tensions existed around a range of issues, including perceptions of police bias and disparate access to housing, economic development, health services, and education. CRS convened local officials and community leaders to identify concerns, address misunderstanding and distrust, and to establish an ongoing task force comprised of officials and community leaders that is working together to address those issues. CRS also trained facilitators from the Newburgh Dispute Resolution Center and the New York State Division of Human Rights in their efforts to provide ongoing support to the task force.

In May 2011, a Geneva Police Officer shot an unarmed African American male. The incident led to several months of escalating tension between and among the various stakeholders, which included local city officials, local law enforcement representatives, community members, and local and national civil rights advocacy groups. In May 2012, CRS convened the City of Geneva officials, the Geneva Human Rights Commission, representatives of the local branch of the NAACP, and representatives from several other local African American organizations, and facilitated discussion that ultimately resulted in a mediated agreement between local officials and community leaders to work together to address perceptions of police bias. CRS also provided racial profiling training to law enforcement professionals and community leaders as a part of the mediated agreement. The community and city continue to collaborate on solutions to issues identified by the groups.

In summer 2012, a fatal police-involved shooting of a 25-year-old Khmer man sparked outrage and protests in a small community outside Philadelphia. Tensions in the community increased further after community members created a makeshift memorial at the site of the shooting. According to community members, in the week following the memorial's creation, police officers mocked and harassed community members who attempted to visit it. In response, CRS facilitated a community meeting hosted by the One Love Movement, a volunteer advocacy group for Cambodians in Philadelphia. Participants included representatives from the Philadelphia Police Department, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, as well as state and local officials. Approximately 150 people attended the standing-room-only meeting. CRS also shared best practices for reducing community tensions and improving police-community relations with the group.

Kentucky's Protection & Advocacy (KYPA), an independent state agency designated by the Governor as the protection and advocacy agency for Kentuckians with disabilities, had become concerned with the Jefferson County Public School District's (JCPS) delivery of services to JCPS students. Specifically, KYPA alleged that African American students-especially those with disabilities-were adversely impacted by disparate services and asked CRS to help KYPA identify strategies for working with JCPS to address KYPA's concerns. In June 2012, CRS facilitated a community forum coordinated by KYPA, the Children's Law Center of Louisville, and the Legal Aid Society of Louisville. Approximately 100 people attended the forum, including officials from JCPS, the NAACP, the African Education Association, Kentucky Youth Advocates, local Hispanic leaders, and the Citizens of Louisville Organized United Together (CLOUT) organization. Following the forum, JCPS representatives agreed to work with community leaders throughout the school year (as needed) to ensure that all students with disabilities-including African American students-are treated equitably.

CRS learned of two alleged hate incidents in Ohio-abuse and neglect of a disabled child who died in Cincinnati and bullying and harassment of a special-needs teen in the greater Columbus area. The Cincinnati incident involved the death of a disabled 14-year-old teen with cerebral palsy. The teen's death, due to starvation, abuse, and neglect, was allegedly caused by her mother and nurses assigned to care for her who did not report the neglect and abuse to authorities. The greater Columbus incident involved a special-needs teen who was bullied and harassed by a teacher and teacher's aide at school. In August 2012, CRS convened federal and state civil rights and disability organizations and facilitated a hate crimes forum for the disability community in Columbus hosted by Ohio State University (OSU). Participants included the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio, the FBI, the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, ADA-OHIO, the Ohio Statewide Independent Living Council, and Ohio Legal Rights Services. Participants also formed a Disability Hate Crimes Task Force that meets quarterly at OSU in partnership with ADA-OHIO.

In May 2012, a 7-year-old Detroit boy, alleged to have been bullied based on his gender, committed suicide. The suicide created outrage and widespread concern among community members, including parents, teachers, students, civil rights leadership, the Michigan Parent Teachers Association, and the Children's Center in Detroit. It also renewed concerns among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender advocates, who had experienced several anti-gay bullying suicides in the past several years. In July 2012, CRS convened a series of meetings with the Michigan Parent Teachers Association, the Detroit Children's Center, the Detroit Police Department, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan, the Director of the U.S. Department of Education, the Office for Civil Rights, Equality Michigan, and other community partners in Detroit, who later participated in a CRS-facilitated hate crimes, bullying, and harassment community dialogue. CRS also helped the parties develop a Community Resolution Call to Action-a commitment to provide community-wide anti-bullying education and awareness to parents and students in neighborhoods and schools in Detroit.

In February 2012, CRS worked closely with leaders of the African American community and Korean merchants to reduce tensions stemming from an incident that occurred between an influential religious leader and a merchant during a store purchase. The incident received considerable coverage by local media and resulted in boycotts, protests, and heightened community and police concerns over the potential for violence. In response, CRS convened community leaders and the local clergy alliance, members of the Korean merchants' association, and local officials to engage in a facilitated dispute resolution process. The groups met, were led through a problem-solving dialogue, and developed an action plan that included an agreement by the members of the association to increase customer-service standards and to develop a collaborative program to educate both the African American and Korean communities about the other's cultural norms. In addition, CRS worked with African American community leaders and the Korean Merchants' Association to establish a permanent working group that would meet regularly to address a number of long-standing community issues beyond the scope of the initial conflict.

Extensive media coverage of a man being attacked brutally outside a gay bar by assailants who shouted anti-gay slurs during the beating had enraged the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community (LGBT), which feared additional attacks. In response, in April 2012, CRS convened law enforcement professionals, prosecutors, and LGBT leaders to identify ways in which to reduce the likelihood of future anti-gay violence and to form a collaborative partnership on LGBT public safety. In addition to leading officials and community leaders through a partnership development process, CRS conducted a community forum to educate the larger community about protections afforded them under the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

In June 2010, CRS provided technical assistance and monitored a rally between supporters and counter- demonstrators of a film some alleged encouraged violent hate crimes against people on the basis of gender identity. Transgender community members alleged that this movie targeted the transgender community for violence and cast the community in a negative light. Some community members expressed concern that the protest would create an environment where hate crimes could occur. CRS facilitated communications between protest leaders and law enforcement agencies with respect to the protesters' request to march in front of the theater as patrons arrived for the viewing of the film. Protesters drew chalk outlines on the sidewalk to represent transgender individuals who have been killed. CRS facilitated dialogues and conflict resolution services that allowed all parties to gain a greater understanding about the transgender community and directly contributed to a peaceful and non-violent march. Additionally, CRS conducted shuttle diplomacy between law enforcement and protest leaders in an effort to calm heightened tensions and prevent hate crimes.

CRS learned that, in the aftermath of an alleged sexual assault of a Native American Two-Spirit (gay) male, the Wind River Indian Reservation's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) advocate, Wind River Tribal leadership, and Wind River BIA law enforcement officials were in dispute over a perceived lack of community and law enforcement response to the incident. CRS convened and facilitated discussions between Northern Arapaho Tribal leadership, Wind River Indian Reservation BIA law enforcement, and Wind River LGBT Advocacy. In March 2012, CRS facilitated and instructed a hate crimes training for BIA law enforcement, Northern Arapaho Tribal leadership, and Tribal community members. After the training, CRS facilitated dialogues that ultimately led to a Tribal community-based action plan to address Wind River Indian Reservation LGBT concerns: ensuring that Wind River Indian Reservation LGBT concerns will be included in future problem-solving discussions between the Reservation and Fremont County, Wyoming, over perceived health-care disparities; coordinating outreach between BIA, the REZ Action advocacy organization, and at future Youth Summits; utilizing the Regional Wyoming Association of Churches to address hate crimes prevention and reporting; and encouraging Tribal proclamations in support of the Two-Spirit LGBT community.

In response to changing demographics and border town conflicts with American Indian community members, CRS convened a community stakeholder group that included city leaders, education leadership, and community advocates. In August 2012, the group formulated the City of Durango City Resolution, which formally created the Four Corners Region's first city government-sanctioned Community Relations Commission (CRC). The City Council unanimously accepted the resolution as a capacity-building mechanism to improve community relations. The CRC includes five appointed community members who are tasked with promoting positive community relations, advising the City Council on community relations issues, promoting dialogue and education, and facilitating communications between the City and diverse community members.

The Rapid City Police Chief asked CRS to convene and facilitate a dialogue with American Indian community members, including those affiliated with the American Indian Movement (AIM), in order to identify those who would be willing to serve as representatives and work with Police leadership to improve communications and remedy historical issues. The volunteers would essentially serve as community liaisons to foster lasting communication between the two groups and improve general community relations. In July 2012, CRS convened Rapid City Police personnel and American Indian community members, who ultimately agreed to create an American Indian Task Force. The liaisons continue to work with the Police to develop the scope of the Task Force's responsibilities further.

A growing concern among recent Micronesian immigrants to Hawaii about perceived discrimination against them by service providers and landlords had increased community tension in Honolulu. A demand for housing in a tight housing market inflamed the already significant tension between the Micronesian immigrants and other local residents. In May 2012, CRS convened and facilitated the first community-wide meeting of stakeholders, which occurred at the housing complex where tensions between residents and the Micronesian immigrants were highest. This meeting, which included local public officials and representatives from the Honolulu Police Department, helped identify and address residents' concerns. It also connected residents to local conflict resolution services that could assist the community with issues outside the scope of CRS services.

In May 2011, the drowning of a Latino worker who allegedly fled police over his citizenship status resulted in community tension and fear of local law enforcement. In August 2012, after months of investigations, lawsuits, and escalating tension, CRS convened law enforcement professionals and provided cultural professionalism training that had been imposed by an oversight body. Long-standing community perceptions of aggressive policing and citizenship enforcement practices that did not distinguish between undocumented residents and U.S. citizens of Latino descent had resulted in considerable distrust of police and fear of the criminal justice system by many Latino residents. CRS also assisted law enforcement in developing an action plan for building collaborative police-community relations.

Updated October 24, 2014