Helping Communities Respond to Hate: Montana Human Rights Network & Love Lives Here Release a Rapid Response Guide

Love Lives Here is happy to release a new Rapid Response Guide that will help people across Montana access the support they need when they are the target of a hate incident, like graffiti, a white supremacist flyer, or a physical confrontation.

What is the Rapid Response Guide?

When communities are hit with a hate incident, they often don’t know what to do first — or what actions might be most effective.

Using the knowledge we gained after the troll storm hit Whitefish earlier this year, we put together a guide that would give people fast, effective guidance in these situations.

We want to empower people to take positive action.

Too often, people throw away hate literature or immediately clean up graffiti to get rid of the awful messages they broadcast. That’s understandable, but it also destroys valuable evidence.

How to use the Rapid Response Guide

Two-second summary: This guide tells you who to call and how to gather support after a hate incident.

Businesses should call their local police department and report the incident to Love Lives Here at info@loveliveshereflathead.org and/or the hate incident reporting tool at Montana Human Rights Network.

Individuals should report the incident and then find out how you can get involved with groups that promote diversity, equality and inclusion in your area. If you need help connecting with a group, let us know! We can help.

Please share the Rapid Response Guide!

• Please distribute this guide freely with friends, neighborhood associations, businesses, schools, police departments, and other organizations in your community that work to dismantle discrimination.
• Educate these organizations in your area so we can build a consistent method of reporting hate incidents across the nation.
• Other organizations around the nation and the world are free to adapt the Guide so their contact information is featured.

Love Lives Here is launching this Guide in coordination with the Montana Human Rights Network, which is often the first group that hears about hate incidents, wherever they happen in the state. They are prepared to support the targets of hate crimes and rally communities to find constructive, peaceful ways to respond.

To download the Rapid Response Guide, click here. We find it prints best on legal size multipurpose paper.

To read the official press release about the Guide, please click here.