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About United Against Hate Week
United Against Hate Week (Nov. 13-19th, 2022) is a call for seven days of local civic action by people in every community to stop the hate and implicit biases that are a dangerous threat to the safety and civility of our neighborhoods, towns, and cities.
United Against Hate was created by civic leaders in direct response to the sharp rise in expressions of hate in our communities. We want to empower local residents to take action in their local communities and alter the course of this growing intolerance.
When cities and their residents work together against hate, we can restore respect and civil discourse, embrace the strength of diversity and build inclusive and equitable communities for all.
You can post signs, host events, share stories, attend rallies, and connect with schools and neighborhood civic institutions. Nothing is too small, because working united in each community is what will defeat hate in all communities. Learn more at unitedagainsthateweek.org.
The below events are sponsored by Santa Cruz County United for Safe and Inclusive Communities (SCCUSIC), Temple Beth El, The Resource Center for Nonviolence (RCNV), Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) and the Santa Cruz Public Libraries (SCPL).
Panel Discussion
Youth Panel: Perspectives and Needs for Wellbeing
Thursday, November 17th, Capitola Branch Library, 2005 Wharf Rd, 6:00 - 7:30 PM, In-person and Online. Register Here.
Calling-IN Workshop
CALLING PEOPLE IN: Having difficult Conversations about Racism and White Supremacy
Saturday, November 19th, 11am - 12:30pm online.
Hosted by SURJ of Santa Cruz County (Showing Up for Racial Justice) Register Here.
Film Screening and Discussion
Repairing the World: Stories from the Tree of Life
Sunday, November 20th, 7-9 pm at the 418 Project (former Riverfront Theater).
Santa Cruz County United for Safe and Inclusive Communities (SCCUSIC), in partnership with Temple Beth El, the Resource Center for Nonviolence, and the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, presents the documentary REPAIRING THE WORLD: Stories From the Tree of Life. Join in the discussion after the movie with filmmaker Patrice O'Neill and panelists Rabbi Paula Marcus, Don Smith, Marci Dupraw, and Mayor Sonya Brunner. Click here to see the trailer.


Free Bystander Trainings
Bystander Intervention to Stop Police Sponsored Violence And Anti-Black Racist Harassment.
Monday, November 14th, 10-11:15 am online.
Presented by Right to Be (formerly Hollaback). Register Here.
Stand Up Against Street Harassment
Tuesday, November 15th, 11am-12pm online.
Presented by Right to Be (formerly Hollaback). Register Here
Bystander Intervention to Stop Islamophobic And Xenophobic Harassment
Thursday, November 17th, 2-3pm online.
Presented by Right to Be (formerly Hollaback). Register Here.


Resources:
Santa Cruz County United Against Hate Week School Toolkit 2022 (created by the Santa Cruz County Office of Education)

BY HUGH MCCORMICK
POSTED ON DECEMBER 18, 2018
GOOD TIMES SANTA CRUZ
​War took 13-year-old Lejla Bratovic and her family by surprise.

The atrocities that befell their formerly peaceful home country of Bosnia and Herzegovina would become the worst act of genocide since World War II. While their beloved hometown of Sarajevo smoldered, the Bratovic family tried to escape. The Bosnian Serb Army started an ethnic cleansing, and incidents of mass rape shook the country.

Bratovic’s parents pushed their daughter onto a plane bound for the West, one of the last aircrafts to leave the country. Alone and on a plane for the first time in her life, Bratovic felt shocked as she stared out the window of the 747, replaying scenes of her family’s flight and the conflict raging in her homeland. In the U.S., she found herself lost in a labyrinth of awkward interrogations, paperwork and a nearly impossible language barrier, recalls Bratovic, who is now the executive director of the nonprofit Conflict Resolution Center (CRC) of Santa Cruz.

Bratovic applied for a tourist visa and was denied multiple times before earning political asylum in America. Bratovic moved in with a host family in Kansas, joining more than 120,000 Bosnian refugees resettled in America. She began working diligently to learn English, piecing words and phrases together from popular songs and television shows. She wondered if she would ever see her family again.

The experience strengthened Bratovic, giving her the tools to find her true calling: mediating and resolving contested matters. In a life largely defined by conflict, the job came naturally to her. “The work chose me. Actually, I don’t even consider it work. It’s really just a path in life,” says Bratovic, 40, who finally reunited with her family after several long years, once her parents received visas as part of a U.S. program.

RECONNECTING COMMUNITY

Bratovic—brown-haired, with piercing blue eyes—says that conflict resolution work is based on empathy. Her unique personal history, she says, gives her the ability to remove herself “from a conflict, and see all sides, always having empathy for people who are suffering.”

At the CRC, Bratovic manages a staff of four, plus an army of 45-50 volunteers who offer a variety of services to county residents. Programs are either inexpensive or totally free and include community mediation, victim-offender dialogues, restorative justice dialogues, parent-teen mediation, workplace mediation, and law enforcement-community dialogues.

The center, which is participating in this year’s Santa Cruz Gives holiday campaign, has helped thousands of clients, partners, organizations and businesses find solutions to difficult problems in their homes, neighborhoods, court settings, and workplaces. Bratovic says the staff and volunteers like to say that they “get people unstuck.”

Bratovic says funds from this year’s holiday giving campaign will cover conflict resolution trainings, as well as the development of a youth violence prevention program. The CRC, which has been around for four decades, will embark on a community-wide engagement campaign in 2019 to promote the use of peaceful dialogue through facilitation, mediation and education.

The CRC holds monthly community events to bring people together and have difficult conversations. Bratovic says the center, which has a modest annual operating budget of $140,000, hopes to hire more staff soon to create more visibility and exposure for the organization.

Programs address conflict at all stages, including prevention and early intervention. They also provide alternatives to hostility, violence, and litigation. “Conflict will always be here,” says Bratovic. “We need to offer alternative ways to going to court, having violence and living in hate and animosity.”

A modest stipend gets each visitor a three-hour mediation session with two CRC employees who facilitate a restorative and healing dialogue. “Any more and you’ll burn out,” admits Bratovic. Most parties only need one session to resolve their conflicts and move on amicably, she says.

Bratovic says that she is happy to have found a home with the CRC in Santa Cruz, where she feels the community here is so active and caring.

“They’re always giving back and taking a stand,” she says. “The group at the CRC—staff, board and volunteers—are all committed to creating a more peaceful community and giving back. We are resolving conflicts. That is what I love.”