This guide is written for Commissioners or anyone working with a Human Relations Commission, Human Rights Commission, or any other similar human relations body that has a responsibility in responding to hate. As a commission or body representing a city government, you have both a responsibility and a unique opportunity to take specific steps in the fight against hate. This guide will highlight some of the most important elements to consider.

  1. Assess Priorities
  • Invite law enforcement to your meetings and ask them to report on hate activity
  • Invite community organizations to report on hate
  • Assess patterns and priority areaa

2. Send a Strong Message

  • Agree on a Resolution
  • Promote and communicate the resolution across various platforms to spread the message and ask others to do the same (HRC and city websites as well any social media accounts)
  • Invite media and communicate the message (issue a press release)
  • Organize a march or rally to promote the message
  • Challenge youth and the public to find creative ways to promote the message such as through art (in-person and virtually on social platforms)
  • Recognize the efforts of youth, the public, and of organizations
  • Use social media as a tool to denounce hate 

3. Listen to Your Community

  • Organize a listening session or dialogue
  • Use your commissioners to facilitate small group dialogues
  • Identify threats, fear dynamics and assess priorities, and ask for recommendations from your communities
  • Don’t forget to include youth and school leadership

4. Identify Ways to Support Your Community

  • Cross promote, provide presence and create force multipliers by supporting anti-hate events by your community partners
  • Ask faith leaders and civic organizations about how you can best address community fears
  • Ask partner organizations for tabling opportunities (provide presence)
  • Partner with victim rights, local counseling, or family centers to offer resources to victims of hate

5. Encourage the community to report hate and hate crimes

  • Designate a local capture system to keep track of patterns and help identify priority areas to focus on
  • Coordinate with other larger organizations that keep track of data so they can add it to county, state, or federal databases or hate crimes tracking.
  • Alternatively, ask the public to report hate with California versus Hate, a hotline and online portal established to support individuals and communities targeted for hate: https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/ca-vs-hate-page/

6. Identify and engage other city departments, or even external stakeholders and nongovernmental bodies forming working groups to address concerns of institutional discrimination or hate

  • Convene representatives 
  • Identify and agree on goal and objectives to combat hate or discrimination
  • Identify actionable steps to study and address the challenge
  • Be inclusive and include vital stakeholders (internal and external)

7. Ask Law Enforcement to form a task force or designate a hate crimes coordinator and/or investigator to specialize in the topic

8. Identify Training and Education Opportunities for the City and the Public, such as:

  • Unconscious bias
  • Bystander 

9. Organize community events

  • Encourage connections between communities
  • Educate and Message

10. Identify Opportunities to Increase and Promote Internal Inclusion through routine feedback systems with city employees, as well as through HR data collection and analysis (Hiring, Promotion, Retention).

11. Communicate and promote your progress and success

The California Association of Human Relations Organizations is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to: 1) Establish and support local and regional networks of human relations organizations; 2) Promote communication between local and regional networks of human relations organizations; and 3) Build the capacity of organizations addressing human relations issues through information sharing, training, and technical assistance. For more information visit our website www.calhro.org and follow our social media page https://www.facebook.com/CAHRO2012/

To download a pdf version of the guide click the following: Hate Response in Community