COSTA MESA : Meetings to Focus on Ethnic Diversity

A three-week series of community meetings held in residents’ living rooms returns this year with the goal of improving relations between ethnic groups in the city.

The Living Room Dialogues, sponsored by the city’s Human Relations Committee, will begin March 24. Participants will be able to ask each other about their cultural backgrounds and customs in three consecutive meetings.

“It doesn’t hurt as long as people are talking and you understand each other better,” said Marvin Kravitz, co-chairman of the Living Room Dialogues program. “There’s never going to be complete understanding, but you have to reach out and understand where other people are coming from.”

The meetings last year attracted 280 residents, with some people dropping out between meetings. To keep as many people as possible involved in the three sessions this year, the committee has scheduled the meetings in consecutive weeks.

Organizers hope to use information collected at the meetings to prepare a profile of various groups that make up the city.

The theme for this year’s dialogues is “Seeking Common Ground.”

“Last year it was about diversity, and in our committee meetings we talked about the purpose” of the talks, Kravitz said. “We know there’s diversity. Now, how do we change diversity and blend it a little bit? We came up with seeking common ground. It puts it in front of everybody to say: ‘Let’s talk about reaching for the same things.’ ”

Residents will be asked to attend a group meeting on three consecutive Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays from March 24 to April 9 in day or evening time slots.

For more information or to obtain registration forms, call the Human Relations Committee at City Hall, (714) 754-5329, or call Marvin and Jacque Kravitz at (714) 642-1162.