Mediators beyond borders, international, on behalf of the trust network, proposes a $999,428 project to help communities understand, address, and heal from hate speech and hate crimes

The U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance has awarded a $999,428 Project Grant under the Community-Based Approaches to Advancing Justice program (CFDA 16.047) to Mediators Beyond Borders, International, on behalf of the Trust Network. The project aims to help communities understand, address, and heal from hate speech and hate crimes. The key products and services to be delivered include:

Identifying 10 dispute resolution centers in high-risk "corridors of hate" in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Alabama, and linking them to the Trust Network's nationwide early warning and response system. The centers will conduct community listening sessions to build local partnerships and map resources to address hate incidents. The Trust Network will then train the centers to support their communities in reporting and responding to hate speech and hate crimes. Additionally, the Trust Network will upgrade its existing nationwide hate crime data collection and analysis platform, including developing an AI-based system for participatory data collection, trend analysis, and information sharing with communities.

Through its existing data collection and analysis platform, the trust network (TN) has identified corridors of hate, particularly in pennsylvania, michigan, and alabama, where hate groups and hate crimes are prevalent and proliferating. The TN will identify 10 dispute resolution centers in cities along these corridors that are most impacted by hate and link them to the TNS existing nation-wide early warning early response network. The TN will support those centers to undertake community listening sessions to build diverse local partnerships (religious organizations, police, city and state officials, schools, etc.) to map local resources and gaps for addressing hate incidents, and then train those centers to support their communities to report and respond to hate speech and hate crimes. The TN will also help these communities create and share tools and strategies for addressing hate, such as reporting protocols and DE-escalation training. Underpinning all this local action, the TN will upgrade its existing nation-wide hate crime data collection and analysis platform. Specifically, IT will work with the vendor to develop an AI based hate crime data analytics platform capable of participatory data collection, scraping digital trace data, dashboarding and analyzing data. This will create a robust data collection and analysis feedback loop. Communities will report incidents of hate speech or violence, as well as activities of hate groups, into the TNS national data base. The TN will analyze trends and share information back with communities for advance warning about rising tensions. Communities will be able to adjust strategies and create more tools for preventive, responsive, and healing action. Deliverables include mous with 10 dispute resolution centers in corridors of hate; tools and strategies developed by communities to combat hate and promote community cohesion; AI-based analytical platform, EW bulletins, crowdsourced data; stakeholder mapping; data sharing agreements.