Strategic Priorities & Goals

1. PUBLIC SAFETY: Enhance public safety through prevention of and planned response to hate crime and discrimination.
2. OUR YOUTH: Equip youth with the knowledge and skills to improve intergroup relations in a multicultural society.
3. CAPACITY BUILDING: Build or strengthen the capacity of local government and other key institutions to more effectively handle human relations issues in the region.
4. CRISIS RESPONSE: Lead in responding to crises threatening intergroup relations due to civil unrest, war, terrorism and other critical incidents.

The Human Relations Commission seeks to harness the strengths of culturally diverse Los Angeles communities by strategically engaging schools, community organizations, law enforcement, faith communities, local governments, youth and major institutions in intergroup relations initiatives.

We envision a county where our many ethnic, religious and cultural groups can interact, and where they can be of a common mind to seek compassion, understanding and mutual respect, and to seek justice, equity, opportunity and accountability for all the residents of this great metropolis.

Our more than 64 years of human relations experience have taught us that words are more potent than swords, that collaborations and networks build friendships and trust, and that people who can work together, can develop positive programs and strategies to enhance their lives and that of their neighbors. Learning to negotiate and teach non-violent conflict resolution builds an effective, inclusive and caring multicultural society.

Our major objectives in 2007-2008 are to implement the zerohour initiative at the current schools that are part of the pilot program. We want to advance a human relations program and infrastructure that can achieve lasting success in each of these schools, and support their efforts to become distinguished zerohour human relation model schools for their districts. It is our objective to create a climate in each of these schools that can reduce and prevent inter-group tensions and hate violence, and to transform students into "peace-makers", able to teach what they have learned in the classroom to others in the larger community.

Our major objectives in 2007-2008 are to implement the zerohour initiative at the current schools that are part of the pilot program. We want to advance a human relations program and infrastructure that can achieve lasting success in each of these schools, and support their efforts to become distinguished zerohour human relation model schools for their districts. It is our objective to create a climate in each of these schools that can reduce and prevent inter-group tensions and hate violence, and to transform students into "peace-makers", able to teach what they have learned in the classroom to others in the larger community.

We have launched a racialized gang violence prevention initiative as part of the countywide effort to reduce gang violence, and we want to continue to promote coordination between law enforment suppression activities and community gang violence prevention/intervention resources.

We provide key leadership in the area of gang prevention, and we have introduced a new civic organizing strategy for the development of youth and the diminishment of violence. We want this to be a potential model for other communities, especially those with high-need.

We continue to produce an annual hate crime report, and we have two commission websites, one covering all agency programs, activities and services, and the zerohour.com site focusing on youth-oriented human relations activities at the six zerohour high schools. As a result, the number of website visitors nearly doubled from 88,000 to more than 161,000, and 700,000 more website hits were registered, totaling more than 1.6 million hits during FY 2006-07.