The Hate Crime Victim Assistance & Advocacy Initiative

The Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations Hate Crime Victim Assistance & Advocacy Initiative seeks to strengthen hate crime awareness and reporting at the community level. The diverse citizenry of Los Angeles includes those who do not report hate crime because of linguistic and cultural isolation, lack of information, immigration status or distrust of law enforcement.

To support those anti-hate crime efforts, the Commission launched a program that funds grassroots organizations in communities that are hard hit by hate crime but lack resources to address this issue. They provide the following services:

• Educate specific underserved populations to recognize and report hate crime
• Assist victims in accessing culturally and linguistically appropriate services and ensuring that their cases are vigorously investigated and prosecuted as hate crimes
• Advocate on behalf of communities and victims for programs and institutional changes that can reduce hate crime
• The Board of Supervisors recognized the depth of the problem and provided additional funds to address the lack of victim assistance programs

Trained staff knowledgeable about the special concerns of hate crime victims offer assistance in times of crisis. The needs of hate crime victims range from financial compensation for medical bills or other expenses to counseling, emergency relocation, explanation of law enforcement and legal matters and other forms of support.

Agencies that participate in the Hate Crime Victim Assistance & Advocacy Initiative are:

L. A. Gay & Lesbian Center

McDonald/Wright Bldg.
1625 North Schrader Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Phone: (323) 993 7677
Fax: (323) 993 7653
http://www.laglc.org/

The L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's Anti-Violence Project has been combating sexual orientation and gender identity-based hate crime since 1988. As an Initiative grantee, the Gay & Lesbian Center has increased victim assistance and educational outreach to the Latino and Spanish-speaking lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community through the addition of a bilingual victim advocate, Spanish language literature, billboards, advertisement and a phoneline Special attention is being focused on building relationships with members of the Latino LGBT community who are marginalized, such as new immigrants, the homeless and transgender persons.

Asian Pacific American Legal Center

1145 Wilshire Boulevard,
2nd Floor, Los Angeles,CA 90017
Phone:(213) 977-7500 Fax: (213) 977-7595
http://www.apalc.org/

The Asian Pacific American Legal Center's Hate Crime Victim Assistance Project works with community-based organizations serving the County's diverse Asian and Pacific Islander populations. APALC produces educational brochures in 14 different Asian Pacific languages and holds training conferences in regions of the County with high concentrations of reported hate crimes, the center also supports victim assistance education as one of it's efforts to address the repercussion of the murder of Filipino American postal employee Joseph Ileto by a white supremacist.

CHIRLA

Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles
1521 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Phone: 213 353-1333
Fax: 213 353 1344
http://www.chirla.org/default.htm

A coalition of more than 125 Southern California based immigrant service and advocacy organizations, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) conducts hate crime education to immigrant communities through its "Immigrant Anti-Discrimination and Tolerance Program."

CHIRLA provides presentations, produces bilingual English/Spanish outreach materials and works with the media to raise public awareness about hate crime. CHIRLA places special emphasis on outreach to particularly vulnerable populations including day laborers, domestic workers and other low-wage earners.

SCLC-YEP

Youth Empowerment Project of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
4182 S. Western Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90062
Phone: (323) 290-4100
http://www.sclclosangeles.org

The Youth Empowerment Project of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) conducts countywide outreach to African Americans, the most frequent targets of race-based hate crime, and works with culturally diverse youth service organizations in South Central Los Angeles.

SCLC also amplifies its anti-hate crime efforts by working with the extensive network of churches and civil rights organizations of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

South Asian Network (SAN)

18173 S. Pioneer Blvd - Suite I, 2nd Floor
Artesia, CA 90701
Tel: 562.403.0488
Fax: 562.403.0487
Contact Kripa Upadhyay, Anti Violence Unit Program Coordinator
Email: Kripa@southasiannetwork.org
http://www.southasiannetwork.org/

The South Asian Network (SAN) is a community-based non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the health and empowerment of people of South Asian origin living in southern California. Founded in 1990, SAN's work on hate crimes is emblematic of its approach in all areas. The SAN Hate Crime program seeks to conduct proactive work to offer culturally sensitive assistance to victims of hate crime and other bias motivated incidents. The program began in 1998 when SAN offered victim assistance to a group of young Indian and Pakistani men who were assaulted in a hate-motivated crime in the heart of Southern California's "Little India," but quickly expanded to include a broad range of policy advocacy-with prosecutors, police, and elected officials-coalition-building, and community education. SAN assisted in the creation of hate crimes brochures in six South Asian languages, held a forum on hate crimes in the South Asian community, and has partnered with other community-based organizations. When Buford Furrow killed Joseph Illeto, a Filipino-American postman, and wounded school children at a Los Angeles Jewish community center, the agency worked in alliance with the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations and Filipino, Asian American, Jewish, Latino, African American and gay and lesbian groups to form a collective response to the violence. SAN's foresight on hate crimes positioned it well to respond to the wave of hate violence that swept Los Angeles and much of the U.S. after the September 11 attacks, in which hundreds of South Asians and Arabs have been attacked, racially profiled and detained.

Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC)

3010 Wilshire Boulevard, # 217
Los Angeles, California 90010
Phone (213) 383-3443
Fax (213) 383-9674
Contact: Hate Crimes Prevention Coordinator Sireen Sawaf
e-mail: sireen@mpac.org
http://www.mpac.org/

MPAC seeks to establish a vibrant American Muslim community that will enrich American society through promoting the Islamic values of Mercy, Justice, Peace, Human Dignity, Freedom, and Equality for all. Since its inception, it has been a constant advocate of promoting human dignity and freedom as instructed by the Quranic understanding of the respect of human life and human dignity. Hate crimes directed against people because of their ethnicity or national origin more than doubled from 354 in 2000 to 1,501 in 2001. This includes people of Middle Eastern origin or descent. In response to this rise, MPAC seeks to assist Muslim victims of hate crimes and to educate the community about hate crime issues.

Anti Defamation League

10495 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Phone: (310) 446-8000
http://www.adl.org/la/

For over 90 years, ADL has been combating anti-Semitism and bigotry of all kinds. ADL has long been in the forefront of national and state efforts to deter and counteract hate-motivated criminal activity. As a partner with the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, the Los Angeles chapter of the Anti-Defamation League provides legal advocacy, community education, and victim assistance.