Thank you everybody for coming tonight.

We are going to hear from Dr.

Christa Genebis with the Erie County HRC, the Human Relations Commission.

I asked for the study session as there are a lot of things that are happening in the world right now.

But there's been just a little bit of shifting and some of the things that are happening with the HRC, not to be confused with the other some of the other HRCs that we have recently talked about.

But I just wanted her to come give us some updates on the work that she's been doing and just some of the statistics and why this is such a critical resource right now in the city and how it can be an asset to the community members that we're serving.

All right, thank you.

Yeah, so I am the director of the Erie County HRC.

I started full time in June, so I've not been in this role for very long, but I feel like I've really hit the ground running and uh have done a lot and have a lot to share, and really want to get this in front of as many people as possible because I think there's a lot of work to do.

And I'm gonna talk a little bit about what we do and a little bit about the involvement that the city has, which you do.

Um you have a total of five appointments for either my commission and my advisory board.

Um a lot of the complaint and a lot of things that happen also occur in the city.

Uh so I'm not gonna read that to you, but what we do is we take in uh potential claims of discrimination, and on another slide I'll go over all the different classes.

There's over a dozen different protected classes for the ordinance here in Erie County.

And so we can take in those claims and we can move forward with an investigation and potentially a settlement, a mediation.

Uh this can go to trial if if deemed um necessary to do so.

Um, and we really are kind of a make whole agency.

We want if somebody is being discriminated against, we want what was lost, brought back.

So say they missed uh pay, we want that back.

Say they got evicted, we want that reinstated, or they're missing out on um, you know, AB and C could be multiple things.

A lot of times, not a lot of times, sometimes um it's not monetary uh at all what they're looking for.

Sometimes they just want acknowledgement or a policy change or an apology.

Um, so that is kind of the more official part of what we do.

The other part that the commission does is an educational outreach, uh, which I've been really, really trying since I've started here in early summer, is to have events in the community so people know what we do, how we can help.

Um, and we talk about human relations.

So we work with humans and the relations that are happening in the community.

Um so we do a lot of that too.

Uh important part of what we do is this is about discrimination three main areas, and I highlighted them.

Uh employment, housing, and public accommodations.

So it's discrimination in those three areas that we address.

Uh why is having a local HRC important?

And this is one that I think is necessary to talk about because there is a state HRC, PHRC, but our specific ordinance is more detailed.

Uh includes more classes, protected classes, and when you have a local HRC, you're gonna have more immediate care and more immediate attention to an issue.

Um so I put that on there.

Accessibility.

I mean, if you're talking about sending your complaint to the EEOC or to the PHRC, um they have a lot longer of a list that they're dealing with that they're working through.

Um so accessibility is tough.

Uh you can't just go to the PHRC here and Erie.

You'd have to the closest place to go is Pittsburgh.

Um so that that's a barrier.

We have community insight.

Uh I would like to think that I've worked really hard to make some connections with the community.

So when there is something going on in the community, I'm able to reach out to somebody and get an immediate answer or find out a little bit more.

Investigation on our end with a local HRC is faster because I could say, hey, you know what, I actually know somebody that works at City Hall.

So I I'm gonna call somebody.

Or I know somebody that works with you know social workers, I'm gonna make a call.

Um when you're talking about a statewide or uh a national agency, they definitely don't have that.

Um we provide local trainings, um, we provide local educational sessions, we provide panels so that people can talk about what's going on in the community and what their need is, round tables, things like that.

You're not gonna get that from a state or uh a national.

And there's accountability here where we can maybe move the needle and change things.

Uh so bottom line, I think uh local HRC is incredibly important, and we're lucky that we have one.

And I think the goal now that uh things are moving forward and uh with a good momentum is that we can really have some positive changes.

So these are all the protected classes that we have.

There is, I think 14 on that list.

Um of them are maybe the obvious ones that people they're the things that you can see, right?

But there's a lot that maybe you can't see or you don't think about that are on this list.

Um, some that are on this list that are not on others would be criminal history.

We have protections for folks with criminal history that is not at the state level.

I think that's really important.

Um we also have added protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.