Outreach and Education

The Commission's mandate to eliminate and prevent discrimination through education and advocacy continues to be an important part of our work. During FY 92, the Commission fulfilled requests for 53 non-housing presentations, 33 for the public sector and 20 for the private sector. This outreach was made possible by the participation of professional staff in scheduling and preparing for these events. However, during the last quarter of the fiscal year, we were not able to fulfill speaker requests because of the shortage of staff and the priority of case processing. It also became necessary to ask that groups or agencies requesting our services pay travel expenses for staff to fulfill requests outside the Des Moines area.

Agency staff is available to present programs on such topics as preventing sexual harassment, non-discriminatory employee selection, overview of civil rights laws, fair housing practices, and other civil rights topics. During the year there was an increase in the number of requests for programs on sexual harassment. There was also an increase in requests for programs on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), in anticipation of that law taking eff ect July 26, 1992. In addition, staff responded to hundreds of calls and letters asking for general and specff ic information on civil rights and related topics.

It was also necessary to cut back on the number of publications produced and distributed because of the reduced budget. The Annual Report and one issue of the newsletter, the Communicator, were published during the year. Distribution of educational materials and loan of video programs already in stock continued throughout the year.