Culver City hosts workshop series for United Against Hate Week

A series of events meant to recognize "United Against Hate" Week begins in Culver City tonight with a three-part immigrant-focused workshop held at the Culver City Senior Center from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

This Bystander Intervention: Support for the Immigrant Community event is the first of three workshops being held by the city this week for United Against Hate Week, a nationwide movement of civic action to fight implicit biases in local communities.

Each event is focused on a different section of the Culver City community, with tonight's event looking at the immigrant community and its recent struggles under the pressures of the federal government.

A community conversation similar to one held around the Israel-Gaza War is the first of three parts of the event, where residents can share their stories or listen to the experiences of those who have been impacted by immigrant-related discrimination, harassment, or targeting by federal agencies.

Bystander Intervention Training will make up the second part of this three-hour session, where attendees will be taught how to intervene safely in instances of anti-immigrant hate or rhetoric through simulations of real-life scenarios, interactive exercises, and group discussions. The training was pioneered by nonprofit Right to Be, which aims to give people the tools to intervene in harassment, discrimination, or other potentially harmful incidents.

Following this training, the city will host a resource fair to inform participants about the various resources available to them through the city of Culver City.

The second programming piece will also be held at the Senior Center, with an event titled Resilience: This Moment and Beyond on Wednesday at the Senior Center from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Dubbed an "experiential learning-based and interactive training," this session is also taken from Right to Be's model of preventing and confronting harassment, discrimination, and/or trauma.

According to Right to Be's official website, the framework of this Resilience training is based on three main pillars: sit with what is, create your story, and be in choice. Its goal is to give people the tools to accept and confront the pain or trauma they have felt and live their lives past it.

"[It starts] by talking about what resilience really is, and how it's different (and harder) than self-care," the Right to Be website says of their training. "Using guided practices, [participants will] learn how to hold [their] pain and still find joy."

Held at the Culver City Teen Center on Thursday from 7 to 8:30 p.m., the final United Against Hate event in the city focuses on its youth. This Youth Upstander Training workshop has a similar purpose to tonight's training: equipping kids with the tools to intervene and de-escalate bullying or harassment incidents they encounter.

At the core of this approach is what Right to Be dubs "The 5Ds" of bystander intervention: distract, delegate, document, delay, and direct. Prioritizing one's own safety is another key point of the training, particularly when focused on youth and school settings.

These events are free to the public. To register and for more information, visit the city's website here.