Washington, DC---Mayor Dontario Hardy, Kinston, NC has been invited to participate in a  workshop on enhancing city responses to the local impact of global crises, which will take place  at City Hall in Bratislava, Slovakia, from 6 - 7 March 2024. Discussions among city officials on  both sides of the Atlantic will examine pressing challenges they are facing in the current  geopolitical climate as well as identify good practices for mayors and local governments to address  threats to social cohesion and local democracy and to respond to and recover from hate- or  extremist-motivated violence. The workshop is being financed by the U.S. Department of State.  

The event is part of Strong Cities’ Transatlantic Dialogue Initiative (TDI), which facilitates  cooperation among mayors, local governments, and practitioners in Europe and North America in  preventing hate, extremism, and polarization that can lead to violence and addressing the  disinformation and conspiracy narratives that not only exacerbate these threats but threaten local  democracy.  

The workshop also builds on the Network’s ongoing efforts to support cities as they seek to  maintain community cohesion in the face of global crises – from climate change to international  and regional conflicts to migration – that are having increasing local impacts.  

Conference themes will include: 

• The impact of global crises on social cohesion: how international conflicts, affect community relationships and social cohesion in local communities and how cities can  mitigate their negative effect. 

• The consequences of disinformation in global crises: how disinformation during global  events intensifies disputes and undermines social trust and how cities can respond.

• The rise of hate speech related to global conflicts: how international conflicts impact local communities, with a focus on the rise of hate speech and its implications and what  local leaders and governments can do to stem the rising tide of hate in their cities.

• Resilience in the aftermath of conflict and violence: city-led response, recovery, and  rehabilitation.