Engaging and Building Partnerships with Muslim and Sikh Americans

Engaging and Building Partnerships with Muslim Americans and Engaging and Building Partnerships with Sikh Americans are three-hour, in-person trainings designed to increase community awareness and build relationships between law enforcement, government officials, and Muslim and Sikh American communities. The trainings also help participants create an action plan to strengthen engagement with their local Muslim and Sikh American communities.

In these trainings, participants learn about the beliefs, practices, customs, and cultural aspects of Muslim and Sikh Americans. The trainings define key terms, highlight hate crime trends and their impacts on the Muslim and Sikh American communities, recommend appropriate language and conduct when engaging with members of these communities, and provide best practices for engaging Muslim and Sikh communities and individuals.

Training Goals

• Speak with and about the Muslim- and Sikh-American communities in a way that improves communication and enhances public safety for those communities
• Increase public awareness of civil rights-related issues that impact the Muslim- and Sikh-American communities
• Identify misconceptions that impact the prevention of and response to hate crimes
• Use recommended tools, processes, and best practices to increase communication and collaboration with the Muslim- and Sikh-American communities and jointly develop a community outreach plan

Training Overview

• The Importance of Community Awareness
  Community awareness is the first step in effective community engagement. This lesson explains why learning about other communities is critical for successful community engagement and describes the issues impacting Muslim Americans or Sikh Americans.
• Building Awareness and Understanding
  This lesson talks about the faith and practices of the Muslim-American community or the Sikh-American community and explains how those practices and beliefs influence their daily interactions. It also provides tips for how to interact with community members in a way that avoids misunderstandings and stereotyping.
• Planning Community Engagement
  This lesson identifies community engagement strategies that advance best practices on how to cultivate and further relations with Muslim Americans or Sikh Americans and highlights the benefits of creating partnerships between law enforcement, public officials, and the Muslim-American or Sikh-American community.