Although Together in Our Valley has been around for a year, the organization that works to prevent hate is still like a malleable piece of clay —— ready to be molded into the shape that can be most effective.

These days, that shape is taking the form of an umbrella, said Wendy Hammarstrom, a founding member who lives in Murrieta.

"We're just starting to organize around making a roster and contacting all the like-minded organizations in the area," she said. "We're kind of looking at ourselves as an umbrella organization —— bringing all these groups together so we can be more effective."

The group's ultimate goal is to create a rapid response to any hate crimes that occur, spread awareness about them and support the victims, said Jean Stayton, another founding member who lives in Lake Elsinore.

The rate of hate crimes in Southwest Riverside County varies depending on the area.

In Temecula between August 2004 and the present, there were 28 hate crimes, which includes any crime committed against someone based on their race, said Lt. John Anderson with the Temecula Police Department. In the previous year, during the same time frame, there were 41, Anderson said.

Together in our Valley has grown to about 15 core members and has a much larger list of people who attended early meetings and are now on a mailing list, Stayton said.

One of the concrete things it has done in the past year is create an interfaith committee that includes people of diverse religions. The committee is an example of seeing a void in the community and filling it, Stayton said. The goal is to foster more understanding among various religions and to eradicate misconceptions about them, she added.

"I come from a community that had been very successful in having interfaith Thanksgiving, where people share what their beliefs are about in a positive way," Stayton said. "It was somewhat informative and educational and, perhaps, fun."

The group's background

Together in our Valley evolved from PeaceWorks!, which was more politically oriented, Stayton said. Some PeaceWorks! members heard about a series of hate crimes in Montana, where Jewish people with menorahs in their windows were targeted, and watched the film that profiled the incidents. The hate crimes spawned a movement called "Not in our Town," where the entire community came together to fight an increasing number of hate-based crimes.

"That's when we said, 'We could do something like that,'" Stayton said.

The group was originally called Not in our Valley, the same name as the Montana documentary. It was changed to Together in our Valley to have a more positive connotation, Stayton said. The group tries to prevent a broad range of hate crimes, including crimes against gays and lesbians, transsexuals, and crimes perpetrated by gangs, she said.

Group member Stephen Roper, who is also involved with organizations such as the NAACP and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, said he is impressed with the diverse members of Together in our Valley.

"I'm happy to see that people can put aside their differences and try to work together," he said. "If you want a good example of it, you can look at South Africa and see what they've done."

Interfaith committee

One example of group members bridging their differences is the interfaith committee, which evolved out of a group representing different religions that used to get together on the eve of Thanksgiving for a service and also gathered food for some local food pantries, said Rev. Randy Leisey with United Church of the Valley in Murrieta.

That grew into more continuous interaction among some of the committee members, Leisey said. When Together in our Valley members checked to see if there was an interfaith group in the area, the committee members stepped forward, he said. The committee now includes Christians, Buddhists, Bahais and Mormons, he added.

The area is becoming more varied —— both culturally and religiously —— and the committee would like to foster peace and respect among people of different backgrounds, he said.

"The hope is just to enable people of varying faiths to get together, get to know one another and perhaps even agree on some social service projects in the area and just develop good relationships amongst the different religions in our valley," he said.

How the group functions

The group meets once a month at a church in Murrieta. Most of the meetings are devoted to organizing, Hammarstrom said.

Some of the philosophically aligned organizations the group is inviting to come under its umbrella are school district human relation committees and the NAACP, Hammarstrom said. Group members would also like to work with the police and other groups seeking to foster better racial relations and understanding of ethnic issues, she added.

Group members are also making an effort to be visible in the public eye for people to approach and discuss hate-related experiences, Stayton said. One instance where they did this was at Temecula's Fourth of July festivities. On that day, group members handed out anti-hate buttons and literature, she said.

"We have had a number of people come to us with their causes and one of the things we would be willing to do is to write letters or call people (on their behalf)," Stayton said.

One person the group has just started to help is a black man who was pepper-balled by sheriff's deputies in 2003 for allegedly threatening them with a knife. Together in our Valley is helping the man's mother and stepfather by providing information and resources to them, Roper said.

"Sometimes an issue comes to us, sometimes it's too late for us to do anything so (at least) we're aware of it," Stayton said. "So if someone says, 'There's nothing like that in our community,' we can say, 'Oh yes there is.'"

The group is also in the midst of creating questions to ask people who run for public office, Stayton said. The group would love for young people to join because they have been told that there is a problem with intolerance of different races and sexual orientations in the schools, she said.

Contact staff writer Deirdre Newman at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2623, or dnewman@californian.com.