Community Relations Service

Daryl Borgquist
202/305-2966
www.usdoj.gov/crs

     WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service (CRS) will sponsor an awareness and protocol seminar for 800 law enforcement officers, support service workers, local officials and community leaders from the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan region.

     The seminar - focusing on Arab, Muslim, and Sikh awareness - will be held on September 25, 2003 at 8:30 a.m. in the auditorium of Prince George's Community College's Queen Ann's Fine Arts Building. Prince George's Community College is located at 301 Largo Road in Largo, Maryland. The welcome will be open to the media. In addition, there will be press availabilities before the morning session and at 12:00 p.m. The training session and "train-the-trainer" seminar in the afternoon are open to registered participants only.

     Remarks will be given by CRS Director Sharee M. Freeman, Prince George's Community College President Dr. Ronald A. Williams, Prince George's County Executive Jack B. Johnson, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Paul J. McNulty, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Thomas M. DiBiagio and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Roscoe C. Howard.

     This seminar is cosponsored and supported by the twenty-three local, state and federal agencies. These include:

• U. S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia
• U. S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland
• U. S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia
• Alexandria (VA) Office of Human Rights
• Arlington County (VA) Human Rights Commission
• Baltimore Community Relations Commission
• Coalition Opposed to Violence and Extremism (COVE-MD)
• Fairfax County (VA) Human Rights Commission
• Howard County (MD) Office of Human Rights
• Maryland Mediation & Conflict Resolution Office (MACRO)
• Maryland Association of Human Rights Agencies (MAHRA)
• Maryland Commission on Human Relations
• Montgomery Co. (MD) Office of Human Rights
• Prince George's Community College
• Prince George's Community College's Muslim Student Association
• Prince George's County (MD) Human Relations Commission
• Prince George's County (MD) Office of Community Relations
• Prince George's County (MD) State Attorney's Office
• Prince William County (VA) Human Rights Commission
• Southern Maryland Action Coalition, (SMAC-PG)
• Virginia Association for Human Rights
• Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights

     This seminar, one of the largest in a series of educational "train the trainer" awareness and protocol seminars, are sponsored by CRS as a continuation of its efforts to address issues affecting Arab, Muslim, and Sikh populations in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Community dialogues, forums, cultural awareness and protocol seminars have been effective in defusing racial tensions towards members of those communities.

     Community representatives from throughout the country will be attending this seminar. The cultural awareness presentations will be made by expert commentators of the Arab, Muslim, and Sikh communities.

     CRS is a unique federal component dedicated to preventing and defusing racial and ethnic conflicts. For more information about the Community Relations Service, a component of the U.S. Department of Justice, see its web site at: www.usdoj.gov/crs.

###