COSTA MESA : Committee to Repeat Dialogue Program

The city will host several “Living Room Dialogues” in April to prevent tensions among racial, ethnic, cultural and religious groups in the community, officials said.

More than 400 city residents attended similar sessions in 1987 that were sponsored by the City Human Relations Committee. The panel recently decided to repeat the program.

Assistant City Manager Rick Pickering said panel members “just felt it was time to do the program again.”

The committee is looking for people to attend, host and lead discussions for the sessions that will be held in residents’ homes. People who volunteer to lead discussions will receive training from the Orange County Human Relations Commission.

The sessions will be held April 17-19 in the mornings, afternoons and evenings. A group of about 10 people of different cultural, language and religious backgrounds will be assigned to each session, Pickering said.

“That’s the purpose of this, to get people of different backgrounds talking to one another,” he said.

The city has sent out 39,000 flyers to try to reach every home. It has also sent press releases to the county’s ethnic newspapers.

An information meeting will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday at the Neighborhood Community Center, 1845 Park Ave.

For more information, call the city manager’s office at (714) 754-5327. For information in Spanish, call (714) 642-2342, and in Vietnamese, call (714) 540-1072.