Long Island Wins is collaborating with SUNY Old Westbury’s Community Action Learning and Leadership program (CALL) on a new project called Communities Against Hate. Long Island Wins has created a new radio show called Safe Talk that will open up a safe space for the community to discuss hate crimes and incidents as well as chronicle the progress of the program.
Our role in this project will be one of communications, to both promote healing and a sense of community/solidarity, and to help prevent incidents of hate by building this sense of community. Safe Talk is designed to empower community members to resist the spread of hate by offering a safe space for dialogue and also an effective way to disseminate tools and resources to strengthen protections of targeted populations. The show will also educate and inform a broader community about incidents of hate and bigotry that are happening in their own community and provide easy-to-access tools, resources and information to immediately and effectively respond.
Listen to our first Safe Talk show here:
The CALL program focuses on racial healing and trains students in groups known as ACTion Teams to lead discussion groups that will create opportunities where people can have a voice on issues that affect their community and quality of life. The program will also provide resources and tools that will help communities of color respond to hate, bias and incidences of racial inequality.
The CALL program believes that giving students an opportunity to be an integral part of the solution is transformative and focuses on Long Island communities where there appears to be an immediate need for services, and select schools and afterschool programs where students have relationships.
In collaboration with the CALL program, Safe Talk will also report on the work that the SUNY Old Westbury students are doing in the community. It will highlight to the community-at-large that there is a large-scale movement to resist hate and bigotry on Long Island, allowing target populations to know they are not alone and that there are tools and community members who support them.
Safe Talk will interview victims of hate incidents as well as elected officials and community leaders, address hate, bias and incidents of racial inequality in the community, speak with professionals and advocates who offer tools and resources to combat hate and racial inequality, and offer a public space where community members feel safe to discuss the concerns.
You can listen to Safe Talk on OWWR Old Westbury Web Radio on alternate Thursdays at 2pm. We will also be posting these radio shows on our website.
