Education/Schools

Challenges cited by group participants: How can we...

1) promote diversity in schools\

• Participate in inter-district diversity programs that encourage interaction among students from different backgrounds.
• Create a resource list of multi-cultural presenters for assembly programs and make it available to all Intermediate Units.
• Provide incentives to educators who attend courses, workshops, and training in diversity, multi-cultural-materials, and conflict resolution.
• Create and distribute a diversity newsletter, local or regional.
• Be familiar with demographic trends in the region.
• Acknowledge differences as well as similarities among students. Celebrate uniqueness.
• Adopt a sister school.

2) address stereotypes?

• While all educators should strive to address stereotypes as they are brought to their attention, the issue is complex and benefits from direct attention. One program that seeks to address assumptions, stereotypes, and discrimination is Study Circles. Students meet for six weeks to discuss the issues in a comfortable setting. The most successful Study Circles have been inter-district programs.
• Provide structured opportunities for integration e.g. inter-district programming.
• Take every opportunity to challenge bias and stereotypes.

3) reduce pressure to conform to cliques/groups?

• Offer a summer community-building program for youth entering H.S. Develop a program that addresses the issue of cliques and groups by focusing on community- building. High School students could serve as facilitators and mentors to incoming freshman.
• H.I.P.P. (Help Increase the Peace Project) was created by the American Friends Service Committee to teach conflict resolution skills to students as well as to promote acceptance and inclusion. Successful programs exist in Chambersburg, West Shore, Harrisburg, and Northern York school districts.
• Conduct a simple survey to assess the school environment and use classroom time to analyze responses

4) promote respect for others?

• Implement programs that encourage befriending people who are different from you such as Study Circles and HIPP.
• Ensure that all students receive hate prevention training through classroom activities, assemblies, and other school-related activities.
• Encourage children to tell stories about their families, however different they may be.
• Reach out to students who hate.
• Actively create a school environment where interrupting discriminatory behavior is expected from staff and students.
• Encourage students and staff to form a unity, diversity, multi-cultural, or anti-violence group.
• Teach children to look critically at stereotypes portrayed by the media.
• Teach students how to recognize bias and how to respond appropriately.

5) involve administration?

• Define diversity as it applies to your school community.
• Support students who seek to form clubs that promote diversity and inclusion.
• Use faculty meetings as a forum for discussion of diversity issues.
• Periodically review your school’s Mission Statement regarding respect for differences.
• Establish a diversity committee of students, parents and educators.
• Develop personal and institutional action plans for creating an equitable school.
• Develop and implement a process for institutional change.
• Encourage educators, students, parents and community members to communicate directly with administrators about their interests and needs.
• Develop partnerships with families, community organizations, and law enforcement agencies.
• Encourage administrators to attend the annual Superintendents’ Institute hosted by the Institute for Cultural Partnerships which addresses different aspects of diversity each year.
• Suggest that diversity committees or task forces be created in each school or district.
• Provide on-going diversity training or subject specific learning opportunities for all school staff.
• Provide hate prevention training to all staff, including teachers, administrators, school security personnel, and support staff.
• Revise staff recruitment policies in order to create and retain a diverse faculty.
• Develop a hate prevention policy to distribute to every student, every student’s family, and every employee of the school district.
• Develop a range of corrective actions for those who violate school hate-prevention policies.
• Adopt The Respect Pledge or create a version that works for you:

1. I will quit laughing when other people are put down.
   
2. Then, as my courage grows,
   
3. I will stop telling bigoted jokes.
   
4. When someone else tells a bigoted joke, I will speak up and say, Not around me.
   
5. For the rest of my life, I will go out of my way to get to know people who appear to be different.

• Analyze your achievement, discipline and drop-out data, what does it indicate?
• When a hate incident occurs, tend to the victims AND the victimizers. Is this a teachable moment for the school?
• Establish policies where respect and acceptance are considered the standard of behavior.

Other recommendations:

Create and maintain a non-biased curriculum. Ways to accomplish this:

• Establish a task force to examine curriculum and teaching materials for bias and stereotypes.
• Help children develop a critical eye for bias and stereotypes.
• Provide contrasts to stereotypical representations found in curriculum.
• Adopt and incorporate Diversity curricula into all subject areas.
• Identify a Diversity resource specialist in each building.
• Increase and make available Multicultural materials and resources.
• Assign projects that require students to explore history and culture from multiple perspectives.
• Expose students to Diversity through field trips, speakers, collaboration with other schools, and the Internet.
• Initiate annual arts contests on the themes of Multiculturalism and Diversity.
• Be vigilant!

Communities & Municipalities

Challenges: How can we...

1. address the impact of national, regional, and local demographic trends?
2. connect to the outside world ?
3. address fear of change, and of things that are different ?
4. address the general intolerance of differences in many communities?
5. generate an interest in making changes?
6. address the challenges that people with disabilities face?

Recommendations:

As a community...

• Teach children not to interact with hate mongers, e.g. not to take their literature, and not to confront them.
• Make relevant parenting programs available to the community.
• Create public forums for discussion of change in demographics.
• Create a multi-cultural task force that:
• -encourages representation of different groups and perspectives
  - plans multi-cultural events
  - is a resource to the community when questions arise or incidents occur
  - is a voice for under-represented community members at meetings, etc.
• Launch a community-wide campaign of respect and acceptance
• Create programs and groups that bring people together surrounding shared interests and common goals e.g. improving public spaces, schools, quality of life improvements.
• Hold regular multi-cultural dinners/round tables where folks are encouraged to talk about community challenges.
• Invite speakers from under-represented groups to share their stories at town meetings
• Recognize that problems will grow, not disappear, if ignored.
• Recognize the conditions that feed hate and inter-group tensions. Is yours a community at risk?
• Remember that isolated incidents are often symptoms of larger problems.
• Be firm and clear when condemning hate, responding to discrimination and taking corrective action against offenders.
• Create partnerships on various projects: for example, plan human relations training programs with the police; work with the school board to create a multi-cultural diversity committee; advocate for an office to assist victims of hate crimes; co-sponsor a bias prevention forum.
• Hold the media accountable to deal with stories thoughtfully, comprehensively and responsibly.
• Persuade elected officials and government leaders to take a forceful, public stand against intolerance and equally strong stand in favor of unity/ and diversity.
• Encourage the school board to support a curriculum that enhances intergroup understanding, cultural awareness, conflict resolution, and relevant training for all staff.

As individuals...

• Make a conscious effort to get to know people of other races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, socio-economic groups, sexual orientation, etc.
• Raise your concerns about comments or actions that appear prejudicial, even if you are not the target of these actions.
• Support policies, institutions, and businesses that promote inclusion.
• Participate in a community project to reduce disparities in opportunity and well-being.
• Visit other areas of the city, region, or country that allow you to experience parts of other cultures, beyond their food.
• If you are a victim of a hate crime, report every incident. Speaking to the press might be effective also.
• Know your legal rights.
• Do not attend hate rallies. Instead, create alternatives such as unity rallies and community picnics.
• Do not debate white supremacist or other hate mongers on conflict-driven talk shows or public forums. Your presence lends them legitimacy and publicity.
• Lobby politicians, business and community leaders to take a stand against hate.

Recommendations for municipal officials:

• Make acceptance and inclusion of those who are different a visible cause in the community (advertising campaign).
• Encourage and support inclusive policy making.
• Provide financial and public support to community leaders and efforts that engage in the promotion of inclusion and acceptance.
• Provide diversity training to all municipal workers.
• Communicate with the public on diversity-related issues through hearings, advisory committees, newspaper columns, interviews, and one-on-one contacts.
• Communicate openly and frequently with the public. Make it a point to get to know your constituents personally.
• While in many circumstances hate speech is protected under the First Amendment, know that the best response to hate speech is your public declaration affirming equality, diversity and non-violence.
• Publicly recognize and reward institutions and businesses that model inclusion.

Faith Community

Challenges: How can we...

1. address the we/they dichotomy?
2. foster respectful relationships?
3. address stereotypes?

Recommendations:

• Create inter-faith, inter-church, and inter-congregational programs.
• Develop outreach opportunities for your congregants. Foster hands-on service opportunities within the community.
• Use the pulpit to promote respect for those who are different in any way.
• Teach acceptance and inclusion of those who are different to children in Sunday school.
• Welcome and work with prejudiced members of the congregation.
• Provide opportunities to learn and talk about prejudice, acceptance and conflict resolution through programs like Help Increase the Peace Project (H.I.P.P.) and Study Circles.
• Identify religious and corporate leaders who are committed to promoting diversity and inter-group relations. Encourage them to make their views known.
• Hold religious forums for leaders to discuss race, diversity and faith.
• Model inclusion by inviting members of other groups to visit your congregation, and vice versa.
• Partner with organizations with expertise in these areas.

Business

Challenges: How can we...

1. address the lack of minority employment opportunities?
2. address harassment or discrimination in the workplace?
3. engage upper management in diversity issues?

Recommendations:

• Market services and products in ways appropriate to a diverse community.
• Seek input on business decisions from diverse constituents.
• Understand the direct link between diversity and the bottom line. Hold forums to discuss economic benefits of having a diverse workforce.
• Identify best practices concerning recruiting, hiring, and retention of a diverse workforce including:
• -advertising appropriately for members of different groups,
  -creating a climate of acceptance in the workplace,
  -linking diversity issues to performance evaluation.
• Create an inclusive working environment by providing employees and management with diversity training, and creating and upholding diversity-related policies.
• Strengthen networking between majority-owned and minority-owned companies in order to strengthen entrepreneurship in minority communities.

Law Enforcement

Challenges: How can we...

1. Ensure that decisions are made based on behavior, not on racial, ethnic or other identity factors?
2. Better deal with people from different cultures?

Recommendations:

• Spend time, money, and effort to address racial profiling among law enforcement officers.
• Provide ample training for interaction with people of diverse backgrounds.
• Enforce consequences for officers who perpetrate racial profiling and unequal treatment of community members.
• Launch an awareness campaign for community members regarding civil rights.
• Create and support community-based mediation centers.
• Expand data collection and analysis.
• Eliminate the perpetuation of racial stereotypes through education and training.

Media

Challenges: How can we...

1. Make under-represented communities more visible to mainstream culture?
2. Report issues occurring in the minority communities accurately and fairly?
3. Develop trust between minority communities and reporters?

Recommendations:

• Acknowledge the problems.
• Develop balanced reporting. Include positive community portraits, not only crisis reporting.
• Find out from community members what stories they would like told
• Incorporate a diversity angle into every story.
• Take hate crimes seriously and display them prominently. When the Klan rallies, don’t just focus on the hate group, focus on the alternatives such as unity rallies and picnics.

Diversify staff.