Sioux City Human Rights Commission is an impartial governmental agency that primarily investigates allegations of

discrimination Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

. Other duties include community education and hosting events that promote diversity and the elimination of discrimination. Its tagline is "To Ensure a Fair and Equitable Community for All".

Background

The Iowa Civil Rights Act requires every city with a population of over 29,000 to have an independent commission in order to further its goals. The Commission is represented by eleven citizen Commissioners appointed by the City Council. The Sioux City Human Rights Commission currently has two full-time staff, one part-time secretary and four

AmeriCorps AmeriCorps (officially the Corporation for National and Community Service or CNCS) is an independent agency of the United States government that engages more than five million Americans in service through a variety of stipended volunteer work prog ...

VISTA Vista usually refers to a distant view. Vista may also refer to: Software *Windows Vista, the line of Microsoft Windows client operating systems released in 2006 and 2007 *VistA, (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) ...

Volunteers. The

Iowa Civil Rights Commission The Iowa Civil Rights Commission is the state agency that enforces the Iowa Civil Rights Act of 1965, Iowa's anti-discrimination law. Commissioners Executive Director *Kristen Stiffler Current commissioners *Marcelena Ordaz - Chairperson ...

currently has more volunteers than paid staff. Ralph Rosenberg, Executive Director of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, has referred to the VISTA Project as "a short-term fix for tough budget times". In early 2010, even this program was in danger due to increasing budget cuts. In accordance with the cost-sharing component of the AmeriCorps VISTA project, if the Sioux City Human Rights Commission's budget was not increased, the agency would have lost all of its AmeriCorps VISTA members. Eventually the City Council voted 3-2 in favor of adding $20,592 to pay the annual stipend for two AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers.

Jurisdiction

The Sioux City Human Rights Commission can only investigate incidents of alleged discrimination that have occurred within the last 300 days. The incident must have also taken place within

Sioux City Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...

. The areas in which complaints can be filed are

employment Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...

, public accommodations,

housing Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether it ...

, education, and credit. All discriminatory incidents must be categorized as one of Iowa's twelve

protected class A protected group, protected class (US), or prohibited ground (Canada) is a category by which people qualified for special protection by a law, policy, or similar authority. In Canada and the United States, the term is frequently used in connec ...

es: *

Race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

Color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

Religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

Creed A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets. The ea ...

Sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...

National origin National origin is the nation where a person was born, or where that person's ancestors came from. It also includes the diaspora of multi-ethnic states and societies that have a shared sense of common identity identical to that of a nation while ...

Age Age or AGE may refer to: Time and its effects * Age, the amount of time someone or something has been alive or has existed ** East Asian age reckoning, an Asian system of marking age starting at 1 * Ageing or aging, the process of becoming older ...

Disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, dev ...

(physical or mental) *

Marital status Civil status, or marital status, are the distinct options that describe a person's relationship with a significant other. ''Married'', ''single'', ''divorced'', and ''widowed'' are examples of civil status. ''Civil status'' and ''marital status ...

(in credit) * Familial status (in housing) *

Sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...

Gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

Complaint Process

A complaint form is filled out by a person alleging discrimination. Next, the party to whom the complaint is directed is notified and given an opportunity to respond to the allegations. Investigators then begin collecting information to make a fair and impartial evaluation. During the investigation, both parties will be asked to consider

mediation Mediation is a structured, interactive process where an impartial third party neutral assists disputing parties in resolving conflict through the use of specialized communication and negotiation techniques. All participants in mediation are ...

. Although after a complaint has been properly filed for 60 days the Sioux City Human Rights Commission may grant a "right to sue" letter and the person alleging discrimination may begin a lawsuit. In this event, the case will be closed. When the investigation is completed, commissioners will determine if there is reason to believe that discrimination happened with either a "probable cause" or "no probable cause" finding. If it is "probable cause", the next step is mandatory

conciliation Conciliation is an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) process whereby the parties to a dispute use a conciliator, who meets with the parties both separately and together in an attempt to resolve their differences. They do this by lowering te ...

. If an agreement is reached, the case will be closed. If not, commissioners decide to either close the case or go to

public hearing In law, a hearing is a proceeding before a court or other decision-making body or officer, such as a government agency or a legislative committee. Description A hearing is generally distinguished from a trial in that it is usually shorter and o ...

. If it is "no probable cause", the investigation is then closed. The person who alleged discrimination then has the option of suing the other party at their own expense.

Events

The agency is also known for its wide variety of events that promote diversity and offer educational

outreach Outreach is the activity of providing services to any population that might not otherwise have access to those services. A key component of outreach is that the group providing it is not stationary, but mobile; in other words, it involves meetin ...

. There are currently five annual events they put on: * "Faces of Siouxland"

Multicultural The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...

Fair * "

I Have a Dream "I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called ...

" Art Project * Students Promoting Equality * Universal Human Rights Day * Juneteenth Celebration In addition, the agency hosts forums throughout the year focusing on issues such as

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

disabilities Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, se ...

, and

fair housing Housing discrimination in the United States refers to the historical and current barriers, policies, and biases that prevent equitable access to housing. Housing discrimination became more pronounced after the abolition of slavery in 1865, typical ...

. Many are broadcast live on a public-access

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...

channel.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official Website

Official Facebook Page

Official Twitter Page
Sioux City, Iowa Human rights organizations based in the United States Civil rights organizations in the United States Organizations based in Iowa Organizations established in 1963 1963 establishments in Iowa