Unfortunately, I don't have anything very useful for you. Sorry. If I were in your position, I would probably not be willing to 'back' and deal with those people. I have a very limited tolerance for people whom I feel have mistreated me. Now, maybe those folks in your former community did not mistreat you, but merely 'disliked' you. I still would not want to deal with them. I would try to find a new and different way of doing my craft without them.

If you must and only deal with this group, you are probably going to have to prepare yourself for more discomfort. Those people have likely not changed very much. People usually don't.