Be the Change: Skills for Stopping Hate

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Be the Change: Skills for Stopping Hate

North Hempstead, NY – North Hempstead Town Council Member Veronica Lurvey is pleased to announce that the Town is partnering with Defend Yourself to host a free virtual Bystander Skills training session for residents of the Town on Wednesday, November 9 at 6:30 p.m. The training session will be held on Zoom. Council Member Lurvey spearheaded this initiative, after having co-created and met with the Town’s Asian American Advisory Committee.

The Town will be working with Defend Yourself, an organization devoted to social-justice, and empowering citizens to learn how to recognize situations of intolerance, prejudice, and hate. The organization trains individuals in effective techniques to respond, depending on the situation. Defend Yourself has over 25 years of experience training over 35,000 people in defending themselves and others.

“Over the last several years, we have witnessed an unfortunate uptick in hate crimes throughout the country and right here in North Hempstead,” said Council Member Lurvey. “It is imperative that the residents of my district and throughout the greater North Hempstead community are well-educated regarding hate crimes and how to act when witnessing one. It is my hope that residents will take advantage of this Bystander Skills Training, as it is an opportunity to educate themselves on how to assess and potentially interrupt a harmful situation.”

The workshop will focus on:

  • A social justice framework for understanding the role of bystanders in interrupting oppression
  • Reasons to intervene when you see a problem, and reasons not to
  • Overcoming barriers to intervening
  • The five steps of bystander intervention
  • Four tools for intervening
  • Practicing the lessons and techniques taught at the workshop

The Bystander Skills training will be held virtually on Wednesday, November 9 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. via Zoom. Each individual participant must use their own device with their camera turned on. To sign up, please call 311.

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