The Baha'is of Sodus Point invite community to a meeting on December 11, 1984 to "...appreciate and recognize the equality of all men."

Purpose: To build racial unity by establishing "...an independent (permanent) task force..." "whose aim would be eliminating barriers of ignorance and prejudice."

Purpose: Under the leadership of John Joyce, Kay Embrey and Kathy Fox (aka Kathy Castania), the original initiative of the Baha'is of Sodus Point was complimented by soliciting the help of the staff of the Cornell Migrant Program to launch the effort.

The initiative adopted the name of Wayne Action for Racial Equality and adopted their mission to improve race relations in Wayne County by acting as an education, support and action group.

Sub-committees for process, minority arts, recruitment, Black History month, publicity, education, parent and funding were formed.

Self-study was launched, because there were "...strong feelings that just as we need to educate, we need to be educated, just as we need to advocate, we need to support and get to know each other." In addition, it was agreed that we needed "...to understand how racism impacts all. Inter and intra oppression shared equal attention. It was suggested that we study how racism develops in us, how internalized oppression takes hold, how both subtle and overt forms of racism emerge." (from meeting notes).

Partnerships: WARE applied for tax-exempt status after first linking closely with The Wayne County Minority Arts Project (aka Wayne County Multicultural Arts Project, Inc.). Other close link: Wayne County/Ontario County Chapter(s) of the NAACP.

Support:

- WARE begins a series of meetings in local predominantly African-American churches with parents. School officials attend to hear parents' concerns.

- WARE encourages several people of color and allies to run for school board. Eventually, successful appointments and elections lead to increased representation on the boards in NRW, Lyons and Sodus.

Action:

- WARE launches a successful campaign to push local hiring of youth of color with pressure on Paton's Big M Grocery Store in Sodus.

- WARE leads campaign to seek justice from Wal-Mart and the Newark Police Dept. for police brutality and erroneous assault against local Haitian farmworker.

Education:

- January, 1986: The work of WARE's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Planning Committee culminates in the Wayne County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration & March.

- Cooperation with WFL BOCES to sponsor workshops and courses in multicultural literature, African-American History and American Civil Rights. Prominent workshop leaders and course teachers included Dr. David Anderson, Gordie Shay and Dr. Robert Harris.

- May, 1988: Completion of WARE's Multicultural Educational Resources Packet (V. Alford, L. Alton, G. Battle, D. DeValk, K. Embrey, K. Fox, J. Hyland, R. Henderson, A. Hallinan-Garland, J. Joyce, J. Wood)

- 1989: WARE members lobby with others for the adoption of the Curriculum for Inclusion (a state-wide multicultural curriculum to inform educational practice) by the NYS Education Department. The effort fails, but much of its content is eventually integrated into the NYS Social Studies Curriculum adopted in the late 1990s.

- May, 1989: Tim Barber Memorial Scholarship Fund reaches goal with first winner awarded for the 1989/1990 academic year.

Support/Education:

- WARE Mentor Committee (multiple members) formed to support students of color to complete high school and pursue higher education. WARE's annual Senior Recognition Dinner for graduating students of color begins.

- WARE members become advocates to assist with resolving parent-school forums to redress parental concerns in (at least) NRW, Newark, Sodus, Williamson and Lyons School Districts.

- WARE's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Planning Committee continues with the Wayne County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration & March.

Action:

- 1991: WARE Job Bank established to increase hiring of people of color in local schools and area businesses. This begins the push for increased recruitment efforts and record keeping of results (V. Alford, D. DeValk, P. Ogletree, J. Wood).

May, 1991: WARE calls public attention to Wayne County School Districts' low percentages of staff of color.

January, 1992: WARE coordinates meetings with Wayne County school superintendents to study, discuss and act upon ways to increase staff of color and meet the needs of students of color. Workshops are conducted with SUNY Oswego and Ithaca City School officials, recruitment trips are conducted and local job fairs arranged in cooperation with Wayne County Civil Service.

March, 1994: WARE leads the effort to create an Intercultural Coordinator position as a resource for seven Wayne County School Districts. WARE is joined by the superintendents of Newark, NRW and Sodus who take the lead with involvement of Lyons, Williamson, Clyde-Savannah and Pal-Mac. WARE leader, John Joyce. is hired as the Intercultural Coordinator.

WARE begins to attract regular media attention for its efforts.

Support:

- WARE reorganizes with the creation of a Steering Committee. A Strategic Planning Retreat is conducted to rejuvenate and set future direction for WARE.

- A WARE Newsletter begins publishing twice a year to better communicate with the WARE membership.

Action:

- WARE continues to coordinate meetings with Wayne County school superintendents to study, discuss and act upon ways to increase staff of color and meet the needs of students of color.

Education:

- WARE's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Planning Committee continues with the Wayne County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration & March.

- WARE deepens its partnership with the Wayne County Multicultural Arts Project, Inc. (WCMAP. Inc. by making WCMAP, Inc. a sub-committee of WARE.

- WARE leads parent-school forums to redress parental concerns in Sodus and Lyons.

Support/Education:

- A WARE Newsletter continues publishing twice a year to better communicate with the WARE membership.

- WARE's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Planning Committee continues with the Wayne County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration & March.

Support/Education:

- A WARE Newsletter continues publishing twice a year to better communicate with the WARE membership.

- WARE's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Planning Committee continues with the Wayne County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration & March.

Action:

- WARE becomes lead advocate to investigate whether a hate crime had been committed in the murder of Bernard Allen. A Wayne County Grand Jury acquitted the defendant John D. Gueli. WARE supported/advised the White (mother) and Thrash (partner) families during the process, coordinated community prayer vigils and petitioned the FBI and the US Department of Justice to reopen the case.

- WARE forms Wayne County Court Watch to visit local Wayne County town courts and report on how they conduct business with special attention to how they protect accused citizen's rights.

Support/Education:

- A WARE Newsletter continues publishing twice a year to better communicate with the WARE membership.

- WARE's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Planning Committee continues with the Wayne County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration & March.

- Fall, 2004: WARE members lead the Wayne County Cultural Diversity Committee. The committee is charged by the Wayne County Board of Supervisors to fulfill its "...obligation to ensure proper and equitable treatment of all its citizens in delivery of services, employment and benefits." in the context of its recognition that Wayne County has a "...rich and diverse population of cultures, ethnicities and peoples..." WARE members consult in the development of updated anti-discrimination and anti-harassment policies and the necessary compliance training required by federal policy guidelines and law.

Action:

- January, 2005: WARE moves to intercept Ku Klux Klan memorabilia to be auctioned off at The Great American Auction House. With funding from the Buffalo Historical Society, local funding and the cooperation of the NYS Museum in Albany. WARE is able to acquire all items except one and donate them to the Buffalo Historical Society and the NYS Museum. WARE is protected in their actions by agents from the FBI and officers from the Wayne County Sheriff's Department.

- During the time period: WARE supports the activities of its partner organization, Migrant Support Services, a grass roots organization formed to fill the vacuum created by the loss of the local Cornell Migrant Program. Activities include *Church Watch, a two year effort to prevent the US Border Patrol and agents from Immigration & Customs Enforcement to arrest and detain local farm workers who come or are brought to Wayne County to harvest crops, Periodic rallies and demonstrations at the Oswego and Rochester Border Patrol facilities to raise community awareness of incidences of agent's racial profiling, violation of undocumented immigrants' constitutional and human rights and op-ed, letters, research and articles to draw attention to the problems encountered by farm workers in Wayne County.

Border Patrol resistance: The Sodus Church Watch Program. Members and other allies act to protect farm workers from US Border Patrol harassment by standing up for farm workers as they attend church service each Sunday at the Church of the Epiphany in Sodus, NY. Primary to the action is to call out, video tape and push back verbally against all Border Patrol actions in the village of Sodus on Sunday mornings. The program remains in effect until the local Spanish language mass is transferred to another church further away from the Border Patrol surveillance network.

Support/Education:

- WARE supports numerous groups to sponsor Candidate Forums every two years to allow the public an opportunity to listen to our Congressional District's candidates respond to the WARE Public Policy Platform.

- WARE's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Planning Committee continues with the Wayne County Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration & March.

- September, 2009: WARE members continue to lead the Wayne County Cultural Diversity Committee as it is re-charged by the Wayne County Board of Supervisors.

- 2009: WARE reconstitutes its Wayne County Court Watch to visit local Wayne County town courts and report on how they conduct business with special attention to how they protect accused citizen's rights.

- 2014: The Tim Barber Memorial Scholarship (TBMS) Committee. launches its drive to reach a new fund raising goal of $20,000. New committee member, Eric McNair, co-winner of the 1995 TBM Scholarship, provides $500 in annual matching funds and joined by long-time WARE member, Jim Wood, begins an annual drive to reach the goal. The first year of the drive begins with a successful fund raising dinner in February that raises over $9000.

- August, 2014: WARE re-visits its mission, vision and sets its course for the future with another Strategic Planning Session. The core focus of its Mission is re-labeled: Direct Action, Advocacy and Community Education and Engagement.

- January, 2015: WARE members with county officials begin the process of coordinating the transformation of the Wayne County Cultural Diversity Committee to address racial disparities in health, education and employment outcomes and access to equitable criminal justice and housing opportunities. Subsequently, the committee is effectively disbanded when WARE withdraws its support due to lack of commitment to its charge by county officials.

Action:

-June, 2011: WARE members and leadership found the Greater Rochester Coalition for Immigration Justice (GRCIJ) which broadens the work of Migrant Support Services (MSS). The GRCIJ intensifies MSS efforts legislatively and politically by educating, pressuring and advising local, regional, state and national institutions (government, police, ICE, media outlets, etc.). Recent successes include changes in local and state policing of undocumented immigrants as well as the development of local procedures for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) workshops and support to applicants to those programs.

- During the time period: WARE continues networking with several other organizations to stage a series of demonstrations (i.e. WARE members support a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) protest at the Williamson State Police Station on November 2, 2014) and influence law enforcement to change immigration enforcement policy to lower cooperation with federal authorities except in the case of actual criminal activity. Continuous informal and formal talks with the Wayne County Sheriff as well as officials from the New York State Police Department, ICE and Border Patrol result in policy changes, favorable executive orders from the NYS Governor's Office and local law enforcement that "tone down" harassment of people from farm worker communities and from Latino/a (Hispanic) backgrounds.