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Human Rights Commission calling on volunteers to help with College Beach Weekend

The Human Rights Commission is looking to form an "observer team" of 120 Virginia Beach residents at the Oceanfront during the event. They will work two-hour shifts to assess the safety and people's experience and the city's services.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WVEC) -- Raj Islam is the chairman of the Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission, an advisory board for City Council. As chairman, Islam and the commission’s members have taken a proactive approach to improve community relations during College Beach Weekend.

College Beach Weekend takes place the last weekend in April right before for final exams. While it's not an official event, it is heavily promoted on social media. In the past, thousands of partygoers flooded the Oceanfront for the event which has caused traffic, crowd control issues and outbreaks of violence.

This weekend, the commission is looking to form an “observer team” of 120 Virginia Beach residents at the Oceanfront during the event. They will work two-hour shifts to assess the safety and people's experience and the city’s services.

"We are there as an advocate for human rights for the residents of Virginia Beach if we find an issue or a topic that we need to identify our city leadership about," said Islam.

The commission is calling on volunteers from various backgrounds to join in their observation efforts during College Beach Weekend 2018. They are looking for people from various faith-based organizations, the African-American community and those affiliated with Greek fraternity and sorority organizations.

Their goal is to gather information about what's working and not working during the event and present that to City Council in a report.

"That data will help us for the future. Working together to ensure that we put our best foot forward when making future decisions for the Oceanfront," said Islam.

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