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.