This past Sunday, January 20th, 2019, St. Columba's Youth piled into our youth minister's car to attend a Youth Advocacy Workshop in honor of Martin Luther King Junior. The workshop was put on by Kids 4 Peace Seattle who are an inter-faith youth organization dedicated to uniting divided societies into communities of lasting peace. The break-out session our youth attended was titled "Bystander Intervention Training" and was presented by CAIR-WA, an organization dedicated to defending the rights of American Muslims and challenging anti-Muslim hate. In "Bystander Intervention Training" our youth learned what it was like to be on all sides of the problem, role-playing as the aggressor, bystander, and targeted individual, our youth practiced non-violent intervention methods  to empower those who are being harassed to escape a situation. They learned how to quickly access their phone's video feature to document an event (often crucial in prosecuting hate crimes!), engaging a targeted individual while ignoring the aggressor, and offering to get help or escort someone away while also respecting the individual's wishes.

Here is The Seattle Times coverage of the event!