Human Rights Commission Fiscal Year 2015 Annual Report Copyright 2014
City of Dubuque Consent Items # 11.
ITEM TITLE: Human Rights Commission Fiscal Year 2015 Annual
Report
SUMMARY: City Manager transmitting the Human Rights Commission's
Fiscal Year 2015 annual report.
SUGGESTED DISPOSITION: Suggested Disposition: Receive and File
ATTACHMENTS:
Description Type
Human Rights Commission FY15 Annual Report-MVM City Manager Memo
Memo
Memo submitting DHRC FY15 Annual Report to City Staff Memo
Council
Human Rights Department FY15 Annual Report Supporting Documentation
THE CITY OF Dubuque
UBE I
erica .i
Masterpiece on the Mississippi 2007-2012-2013
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Human Rights Commission FY2015 Annual Report
DATE: January 25, 2016
Human Rights Director Kelly Larson is transmitting the Human Rights Commission's
Fiscal Year 2015 Annual Report.
zljii�� ' k�4 S4-,6�-
Micliael C. Van Milligen
MCVM:jh
Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Teri Goodmann, Assistant City Manager
Kelly Larson, Human Rights Director
THE CITY OF DUbyftbugquue
DUB E
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
January 25, 2016
TO: The Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
FROM: Kelly Larson, Human Rights Director
SUBJECT: FY2015 Annual Report
Attached please find the Human Rights Commission's Annual Report for fiscal year
2015.
The Commission is very proud of its accomplishments over the past year, and looks
ahead with excitement, as work towards the goals for this year is progressing. The
Commission appreciates and thanks you for your past and continued support of its
endeavors.
THE CITY OF
DUB E
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
Dubuque Human Rights Department
r
Annual Report - Fiscal Year 2015
July 1 , 2014 June 30, 2015
Mission Statement
The Human Rights Commission shall work to eliminate discrimination and
promote the quality of life for every resident in the city of Dubuque.
Human Righ6 Department Dubuque THECITY OP
City Hall Annex 7� �■7 7
1300 THim Strut m D _ E
Dubuque,Iowa 520(1
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fax
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humanigt�iyofdubuque.org
Honorable Mayor and City Council:
I am pleased to present you with this year's annual report. In these pages, you will find
the story of partnerships throughout the organization and the community with people who are
committed to a stronger local community.
One of the major efforts this past year involved our work with Inclusive Dubuque. Staff
were heavily involved in the process to develop a community equity profile, working on the
equity profile planning team and serving as facilitators of community dialogue sessions. Human
Rights Commissioners and individuals from the Intercultural Ambassador network also lent their
support to the efforts. As of the end of the fiscal year, the bulk of the data collection from local
and national sources, community dialogue sessions, and community surveys was complete. As
we moved into fiscal year 2016, we began the work of sharing the profile summary with the
community and seeking ideas for prioritization and action planning.
As an Inclusive Dubuque network partner, the City of Dubuque as an organization also
began to examine the ways in which we contribute to a more inclusive and equitable
community. To that end, staff met with leadership team members within each department to
assess current contributions and areas where we might focus moving forward. During fiscal
year 2016, we will revisit departments and work with them to put together their department level
equity plans. The work we have been doing to recruit and retain a diverse workforce has been,
and will remain, a strong component of these efforts.
We have made great progress this year on our community engagement work throughout
the organization. We have finalized a toolkit and begun to create a shared understanding of
what we mean by community engagement and how we might come closer to living up to our
democratic ideals when working with the public. We have begun putting our work into practice
on a series of projects, and results of those efforts will be available in 2016.
Finally, our collaborative work with Iowa Campus Compact, Loras College, and local
non-profits continues to encourage volunteerism as a way for residents to become involved with
addressing social concerns facing the community. We also worked with partners to launch
Neighbor to Neighbor as a way to encourage community building on a micro-scale, one block at
a time.
As always, thank you for your support of the work we do in our department.
Respectfully submitted,
Kelly Larson
Human Rights Director
DUBUQUE HUMAN RIGHTS DEPARTMENT
FY15 ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REPORT
2015 Human Rights Commissioners
Anthony Allen, Chairperson
Susan Stone Tom LoGuidice
Sarah Fisher Tanya Engling
Miquel Jackson, Vice Chair Ashley Melchert
Fred Davis Shirley Vaughn
Administrative Staff
1
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From top center clockwise:Kelly Larson,Director, Carol Spinoso,Intake
Specialist, Nikola PavelM,Community Engagement Coordinator,
Manisha Paudel,Human Relations Specialist and Andre Lessears,
Training&Workforce Development Coordinator
2
HUMAN RIGHTS DEPARTMENT
Department Mission: to support the development of a stronger civic infrastructure,
which includes partnering to ensure equitable opportunities to be engaged in the
community and to access services to meet basic needs. In all we do, we treat
compliance with current civil rights laws as the bare minimum required, not the end
goal.
imstitutions
SUCCESS IS ABOUT PLANNING, PARTNERSHIPS AND PEOPLE LEADING
TO OUTCOMES
PEOPLE PLANNING
Reach-in strengthens relationships Departments throughout the
between City government and organization will be using the Equity
traditionally marginalized Profile results and information from the
communities for the purpose of Government Alliance on Race &
engaging individuals in governance, Equity to develop & implement
ensuring access to City services, department equity plans.
and supporting connections to other
community institutions.
PARTNERSHIPS
Inclusive Dubuque is a network of
people and institutions focused on
INCLUSIVE meeting the economic and cultural
needs of the community. The
INCLUSIVE Equity Profile will be completed by
NCI I I C the fall of 2015, with partners then
leading community action planning
d u b u q u e workgroups.
3
HUMAN RIGHTS DEPARTMENT
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Overview
Community Development involves building the capacity of various groups and organizations
within our community to ensure equal opportunity, fairness, engagement, and access to
government and other services that are necessary for residents to meet their basic needs. We
support efforts to create a community filled with residents who are better informed about
government and how to access government services, and who are actively involved to positively
impact significant and identified basic needs in the community and in the institutions to which
they belong. We pay particular attention to groups that are being disproportionately excluded
from opportunities.
Highlights of the Past Year
• Partnered with Inclusive Dubuque on Inclusive Community Action Planning through
development of a community equity profile.
• Continued to expand our Intercultural Ambassador Network through leadership
development workshops for community organizations
• Partnered with Project Concern, Operation New View, and the Circles Initiative to
support volunteerism to impact economic opportunity.
• Designed and implemented Neighbor to Neighbor, a pilot program to engage resident
leaders at the block level in creating and maintaining effective relationships among
neighbors.
• Developed and maintained a network of connections with recognized leaders in the
following community groups and organizations:
Marsha:111ese 0
o
>000
PP-Neighborhood®
0 Associations
. 4
The focus of the network is to support social and cultural diversity efforts in the community and
to develop partnerships to identify barriers to equitable access and delivery of services.
Future Initiatives
Inclusive Community Action Plan: serve on the equity profile impact council and assist with
community engagement for the action planning phase
• National IncidenttEvents: partner with Chief of Police and community members to
identify issues, review best practices, and prepare report with local options and
recommendations.
Performance Measures
Community Development —Activity Statement
Engage residents and organizations as partners in ensuring equal opportunity, fairness,
and access to government and community services around basic human needs
Goal: Economic Prosperity
Outcome#1: Improve economic prosperity for all through community partnerships
Project#f: Inclusive Dubuque Equity Profile —we worked with partners to develop and
implement a process to create a community equity profile. The process has helped to establish
a community baseline around conditions impacting economic prosperity, and has opened the
door to dialogue around equity and inclusion throughout the community. This is the first step
towards developing action plans.
FEB: ECONOMIC
WELLBEING • •
JUNE: SAFE 41-64
NEIGHBORHOODS
HOUSINGft
..
—
APRILORTATION
EDUCATION g
HEALTH a ®�
Race Generation Class Religion
Sexual Disabitity
Orientation
Ethnicity Gender Nationality Culture 5
Human Rights staff assisted with community engagement and dialogue sessions, with a
goal of reasonably representative participation across the community.
COMMUNITY 1,995 24
ENGAGEMENT Community members Facilitators have been
completed online surveys trained as of July 1
6 0 Communiy 584 305
dialogues have
been held Community members Community members have
attended dialogues signed up to stay connected
The following information details the demographics of
DEMOGRAPHICS community members who participated in the online surveys
OF PARTICIPANTS and community dialogues as of August 11,2015.When
available, a comparison to the demographics of the City of
Dubuque is included.
RACE/ETHNICITY EQUITY PROFILE CITY OF DBO
EQUITY PROFILE CITY OF 13130
■White 83.95% 93.4%%
■Black/Afr.American 11.54% 5.0%
■Hisp./Latino 2.39% 2.4%
■Asian/Pac.Islander 1.57% 1.5%
■Native American 0.55% 0.7%
NEIGHBORHOOD
HOUSEHOLD INCOME ■Point 4.43%
■South End 9.49%
50%
■North End 11.52%
■Equity Profile
40%---- City --_-- _-_--- --- ■Hill/College/Hospital 14.72%
NCI
■Downtown 15.51%
30%- ----------- -- ------ ----- ■Outside Dubuque 18.35%
■West End 25.80%
20% ME
10% - -- -- -- --.
0
<$25K $25-$49K $50-$99K $100K+ -
A10
6
Project#2: My Brother's Keeper is a network of non-profit organizations and volunteers
who are working to support youth of color and low income youth of various ages to
improve school achievement, graduate from high school, and proceed to college and/or
a career.
Local college students
HighSc� tutor and mentor
younger students,
Futural Talk participants serving as role models.
learn job skills and earn
a science credit.
Dream Center's In Your
Life mentoring develops
individualized plans for
academic and
St. Mark Heroes behavioral success
Academy increased or
maintained literacy skills
for 88%of students who
participated
"Don't be a stereotype. 1 was a stereotype
myself because 1 thought that people in
the community wouldn't give us a chance, L J Futu►e
but then again they did." p„e,,,,
Work Crew
Future Talk Participant Furore Talk working for v;,,. i I'l
Youth learning to identify their Youth learning how to "dress for
leadership skills. success."
7
Project#3: Volunteering for economic opportunity is a collaborative project involving
Iowa Campus Compact, AmeriCorps VISTA, and three non-profits receiving City funds
— Project Concern, Operation New View, Circles Initiative. These non-profits are
focused on supporting residents towards self-sufficiency by stabilizing their housing,
providing education and employment skills, and increasing household income.
• Number receiving financial literacy
• Number receiving job training and other skill development
• Number with improved financial knowledge
r
• Number mentored
• Number community volunteers hours
$134,192 = Fiscal value of volunteer service
$283,084 = Federal & State EITC returned to ..
83% = Homeless program clients to permanent housing
0 . = Circles participants employed .
8
Als Goal: Social/Cultural Vibrancy
Outcome #1: Continue to become an inclusive community in which all feel
welcome and included, with no one left behind.
Project#1: Information and referral: This year, 262 people contacted us with specific
questions about discrimination complaints or questions about meeting basic needs.
INQUIRY DISPOSITION
■Education/Counseling ■Referral to Another Agency ■Declined to File ■Filed Co.plaint
The most frequent areas where people were seeking assistance related to employment
and housing needs, and more than half of the contacts did not involve allegations or
concerns of discrimination.
2015 Inquiries - Breakdown by Area
■Employment ■Housing ■Public Accommodation Education Credit ■Other
1Y
O
10YO
0%.19
9
2015 Inquiries - Breakdown by Basis
16%
7%
1%
53% o
0
6%
4%
1%
2%
1%0%
■Disability Sex ■Gender Identity ■Race
■Retaliation Age ■Sexual Orientation ■National Origin
Familial Status Religion ■Other
The public also connects with us through the internet, where they are able to learn
about everything from legal requirements to upcoming programs.
231
• Main Web Page
534
•City Life Web Page
• Resources Web Page
646 . Equity Profile Web Page
• Dubuque National Service Partnership
_ • Facebook Likes
• Notify Me Subscribers
289
24 37 70\
Most popular on facebook:
• City Life
• Celebrity story: misunderstanding depression
• Intercultural Competency Workshops
• Inclusive Dubuque Dialogues
• Dubuque a 4-STAR community 10
Outcome #2: Increase civic responsibilities by having citizens be part of the
solution.
Project#1: Neighbor-2-Neighbor is a resident led and City supported pilot program
focused on creating safety through knowing the neighbors on your block.
• Block 4 Block
Leaders Leader
Recruited Sponsored
• Events
"1 don't want my neighbors to call the Police when
my son plays the music too loud. I want them to call
me or come over. I think this program will help us
get to that. resident
"1 am excited to get to
know my neighbors
through this, and not be
scared when they knock
on my door."
- block leader
Project#2: Reach-in is an outreach approach focused on building sustainable relationships with
community members and empowering them as agents of inclusion and integration. Group
members participated in various ways this year:
Facilitated Inclusive Dubuque dialogues
Members Hosted school dialogue on student concerns
• m nine Served in advisory • - with Police
resident
Planned . • hosted annual Dr. King Breakfast
groups
Connected friends &family with community resources
11
Project#3: Intercultural Workshops are offered to community members annually.
This year, 18 people
participated in our Customer Evaluations
annual Board and 7
Commission training, 6
160 participated 5 6.2
through our °
3
Hempstead and 2
Senior High School 1
program, and 25 Provide a better Will use information Trainer effective in Satisfied with overall
people participated in understanding received making info quality oftraining
our 32-hour understandable
workshop.
Those who have participated in the 32 hours workshops are part of our Ambassador group and
serve as trainers and resources in their organizations and the community. This group now
consists of the following:
- • 21 People from 12 Departments
• 28 People from 6 Institutions
• 10 People from 2 High Schools
• 23 People from 17 Institutions
• 6 People from 3 Institutions
- - • 13 People
HUMAN RIGHTS DEPARTMENT
Organizational Development
Overview
Organizational Development includes building the capacity of other City Departments to ensure
equal opportunity, fairness, engagement, and access to government services. We partner in
efforts to develop and support a diverse, inclusive, and engaged workforce that is effectively
engaging and serving each other and all members of the public.
12
Highlights of Fiscal Year 2016
• Assessed mutually reinforcing activities of City organization as a Mission Partner in
Inclusive Dubuque
• Workforce Recruitment & Retention: development of intranet, implementation of
orientation workshops
• Community Engagement: core team developed toolkit and shared
understanding/process for CE, Toolkit implemented to revise budget, con plan, City Life
• Equity: department assessments, FH training, cultural voices work with depts, Al and
action plan
r
Human
® Rights
.-..
We support departments in their efforts to recruit and retain a high quality, diverse workforce, to
ensure equitable access and delivery of City services, and to engage the community in
decision making so that services are responsive to community needs.
Future Initiatives
• Environmental Stewardship/Community Resiliency Commission: assist with community
engagement in designing the purpose, size, staffing, support, and funding for the
Commission.
• Police Best Practices: support the identification of best practices and opportunities for
Dubuque and the preparation of action plan with options for City Council review and
direction.
13
Performance Measures
Organizational Development— Activity Statement
Partner with other City Departments to ensure equal opportunity, fairness, engagement, and
access to government services
Goal: Financially Responsible City Government and High
Performance Organization
Outcome #1: The City is providing services responsive to community needs
Program #1: We lead a core group focused on creating a culture of community engagement
with government. This year, we worked with staff to develop a community engagement toolkit,
create shared meaning, and develop a consistent process. We are working to infuse a
philosophy and tools into how we do business, measuring our progress and making
improvements along the way.
Project#1: Upon experiencing low
attendance at earlier City Life sessions,
we engaged the public in reworking our _
City Life program resulting in the
following changes:
r
• reducing the program length from
10 weeks to six week,
• increasing the number of tours
from 1 tour to 7 tours, and oisCovlk iHimon �u�u3�
• adding three additional public
buildings as meeting locations.
Project#2: We engaged the public in
reworking the community input portion of the annual budget process, resulting in the following
changes for the FY17 process:
• hosting additional public input sessions with the City Manager in different neighborhood
locations,
• developing marketing materials and surveys,
• locating kiosks with surveys and background information throughout the community to
increase informed participation.
Participants appreciated the session design for both of the above projects, strongly agreeing
with the following statements:
14
importantThere was sufficient opportunity for me to express my views
about what I thought was
There was sufficient opportunity for me to exchange views
. learn from others
and/orT here was sufficient opportunity for me to develop joint
views - . - . . others
participantshe facilitators provided a safe and well-managed environment
for
Participants also agreed that the meetings reflected the diversity of people and views in
our community.
Outcome #2: The City is hiring and retaining a top quality workforce
Program #1: We lead a core group focused on recruiting and retaining a diverse
workforce. This past year, we modified our recruitment process and developed
recruitment checklists and tips to support managers in their efforts.
Current workforce demographics are:
Active Employees Total as of July Am
2015 Asian Black White Hispanic Indian Male Female Total
Total 5 33 950 17 1 633 373 1006
0.00% 0.03% 0.94% 0.02% 0.00% 0.63% 0.37%
Full Time Employees 1 10 522 6 1 411 129 540
0.00% 0.02% 0.97% 0.01% 1 0.00% 0.76% 0.24%
Part-Time 1 10 145 4 0 75 85 160
0.01% 0.06% 0.91% 0.03% 0.00% 0.47% 0.53%
Seasonal 3 13 283 7 0 147 159 306
0.01% 0.04% 0.92% 0.02% 0.00% 0.48% 0.52%
15
Project#1: Working with other staff, we designed and implemented employee orientation
workshops and developed an employee intranet based on last year's training needs
assessment.
A Total of 32 staff attended new
orientation workshops this year, and 34 "Learning different styles in how people think and
staff attended 10.5 hours of intercultural interpret things helps to provide different ways to
foundations workshops. approach and handle situations out of the norm."
Participant in staff intercultural workshop
"1 was surprised by the general bits of information about
the City 1 never knew—policies relevant to my job, how
our taxes are spent engagement sessions happening."
-Staff orientation participant
Outcome#3: There is easy access to City information and services for all
Program #1: We lead a core group focused on equitable delivery of City services, and
participating with community partners to impact equitable outcomes in the community overall
through mutually reinforcing activities. This year we met with leadership teams in every
department to:
• present on Inclusive Dubuque,
• assess the current status of equity work within the departments, and
• begin to develop action plan areas for each department
We also:
• developed an equity tool and shared language around racial equity,
• and began to identify action plan areas for each department.
16
Project#1: City Life is a program that connects community members and City staff so that
participants can discover relevant information about local government structure and services.
Participants in City Life have
come from a variety of racial
and ethnic backgrounds, "NOW I UNDERSTAND HOW COMMUNITY-DRIVEN DUBUQUE IS
have ranged in age from their ANDTHAT THE DEPARTMENTS NOT ONLY WANT MY INPUT BUT
20s to their 60s, have THEY RELY ON IT."
represented numerous City Life Participant
professions, and have lived
in Dubuque from afew
months to their entire life. Op
I HAVE A MUCH BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF HOW EACH
DEPARTMENT FUNCTIONS AND AFFECTS THE CITIZENS."
OM CCity Life Participant
le
Jez
Project#2: We arranged for Fair Housing training for 109 City staff members to insure staff has
an awareness of the legal requirements underlying fair and equitable delivery of City services,
including the concept of disparate impact.
Project#3: We partnered with the Housing and Legal Departments to complete the analysis of
impediments to fair housing and develop an action plan. Items set forth in the action plan will
inform department level equity plans in FY16-17.
Project#4: Community members in a group
called Cultural Voices met with members of
the Police Department and Housing
Department to increase awareness and
understanding of how department service
delivery may be impacting immigrants and
refugees. v_--a
17