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Human Relations Commission <br />Report to the Board of County Commissioners <br />May 20, 2014 <br />The purpose of this report is to provide a report/update on the Human Relation Commission's <br />role in addressing the equitable treatment of women. <br />The HRC was created by the Board of County Commissioners to promote the equal treatment of <br />all individuals and prohibit discrimination in Orange County based on race, color, religion, sex, <br />national origin, age, disability, familial status, and veteran status. In October 2010, Tara Fikes, <br />former director of the Housing, Human Rights and Community Development Department, <br />reported to the County Manager that the HRC planned to merge with the Commission for <br />Women (CFW) which was disbanded in 2010 and effectively sunset in April 2011. By <br />appointing the former CFW chair to the HRC, the mission of the HRC would ideally include <br />CFW's mission of promoting the growth and development of all Orange County women by <br />serving as the official advisory body on the status of women to the BOCC. With regard to <br />outreach efforts that were previously conducted by the CFW, including the Celebration of <br />Women's History Month, these were undertaken by the Compass Center for Women and <br />Children. <br />In the years following the HRC /CFW merger, the HRC has created opportunities for issues of <br />specific concern to women to be presented to the HRC for consideration or appropriate action. <br />Such efforts included providing opportunities for the former CFW chair to present issues for the <br />HRC to consider, as well as sending invitations to the Executive Director of the Compass Center <br />for Women and Children to present such information. While no specific issues of the equitable <br />treatment of women were presented, the HRC acknowledged the importance of including <br />women - specific topics in its outreach or programming activities. Thus, the HRC contacted the <br />County Library in June 2013 and requested their staff to feature books, DVDs and other medium <br />in honor of Women's History Month in March 2014. The Library honored this request and <br />compiled a list of recommended items and made a corresponding display encouraging its patrons <br />to check these items out. <br />The HRC is planning other events geared towards creating awareness of women's rights. These <br />planned events include submitting a resolution to the Board of County Commissioners to <br />acknowledge Tuesday, August 26, 2014 as Women's Equality Day, and hosting a correlating <br />Community Read with a selected book and discussion on the topic of the equitable (or <br />historically inequitable) treatment of women. The proposed topic of the 2015 Human Relations <br />