Los Angeles residents are wanted to discuss race, ethnicity and diversity through a program called embRACE LA.

LA leaders kicked off the program Thursday at City Hall, where councilmen Herb Wesson and Mitch O’Farrell touted the importance of the effort, which aims to foster stronger race relations by engaging residents across the city through dialogue and activities.

“When you look at the rise of hate crimes in this city then there is without a doubt a need for us to do something,” Wesson said, speaking at the Rick Orlov Memorial Media Center at City Hall. “As a child of the ‘60s, I know what it’s likely to turn a community around, a city around, a state around, a country around, and you do that by having an uncomfortable conversation about what is going on.”

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Added Councilman O’Farrell: “As city leaders, it is our responsibility to engage in these conversations. To move toward the issue and not run away from it. The dialogue between people and institutions the fundamental mechanism we use to become a better and more inclusive city.”

The pilot program starts with an online survey, which residents will be invited to fill out. The city’s Human Relations Commission plans to go door-to-door in the 9th Council District (which includes L.A. Live and Exposition Park) with a longer interview survey.

The survey would end in December and the commission would report its findings to O’Farrell’s Arts, Parks and LA River Committee. During the assessment, the commission will advise on what happens next – which is to include poetry slams, art programs, mural installations, roundtables on race equity and community forums.

The effort was the next step stemming from a City Council motion in August 2015 instructing the Human Relations Commission “to engage in conversation and activities throughout the city with regard to race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, diversity and multiculturalism,” said Commissioner Courtney Morgan-Greene.

That led to meetings with city departments and community leaders, and ultimately to the launch of the program, which came Thursday.

Los Angeles Police Department Assistant Chief Beatrice Girmala said the program was important to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, and in line with department’s tenets of building and continuing the build public trust, community relationship building and constitutional policing.

“The department is committed to supporting this project and looks forward to the feedback we get,” Girmala said.

Adela Barajas, founder and executive director of the non-profit Life After Uncivil Ruthless Acts (L.A.U.R.A.) organization, said she hoped the program could help everyone come together as one.

“Latinos are not here to take anyone’s job or anyone’s opportunity,” said Barajas, whose organization’s website mission statement is enhancing the quality of life of the residents of South Central Los Angeles. “That fear needs to go away. I hope that survey really focuses on removing that fear that Latinos or Mexicans are here to take anyone’s opportunity away from them.”

The effort comes on the heels of a Human Relations Commission hate crime report in September that showed such crimes against African-Americans, Latinos, Jews and transgender women rose sharply across Los Angeles County in 2015, especially around downtown and Los Angeles’ Westside.

The report found that hate crimes such as vandalism, aggravated assault and intimidation grew by 24 percent in 2015 compared with the year before.

Half of the 483 crimes reported were racially motivated, with 58 percent of the attacks targeting African-Americans. Most of those crimes were committed by Latinos, many of them affiliated with gangs, according to the report. Latinos also saw more racially motivated attacks on them in 2015.

The program also comes in the wake of recent officer-involved shootings in South L.A., which over the span of the first weekend of the month left two dead.

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The shootings prompted anger at recent Police Commission meetings, calling for more LAPD transparency and better training for its officers.

The Police Commission recently approved a review of a cluster of use-of-force policies.

To learn more or to volunteer, contact the city’s Human Relations Commission at 213-808-8431 or hrcinfo@lacity.org.