It’s been a year since Rick Hite stepped into the role of executive director of the Indiana Civil Rights Commission (ICRC) after being appointed to the position by then-Gov. Mike Pence.
Hite says the year has been a time of transition — both within the ICRC and with the election of new state leaders — which has presented some challenges.
After touring the state to meet leaders at regional human rights offices, Hite began taking inventory.
“We had a very good director who left a legacy. We wanted to make sure to take the best practices and ideas he had and move forward with those, while fusing some of the new ideas the staff had,” Hite said of his predecessor Jamal Smith.
Hite said he set out to continue Smith’s focus on coalition building, seeking partnerships with organizations such as the Indianapolis Urban League and the Indianapolis Recorder.
Christine Meyer, deputy director of external affairs at ICRC, said the goal is to eventually build those partnerships across the state.
“As a state agency, we want to make sure we’re reaching all communities, not just Indianapolis. But it’s kind of nice that we can test things in Indianapolis,” she said.
Another focus, and one of the biggest challenges ICRC leaders said they’re up against, is getting the word out to the public about the agency, its role in the community and the resources it offers.
The ICRC serves two main purposes: enforcing the state’s civil rights laws related to credit, education, employment, housing and public accommodation; and educating the public and organizations about their rights and responsibilities under those laws.
Kimberly Simmons, ICRC’s director of intake and case management, spends some of her time leading workshops and training sessions for public education.
“We want to make sure we’re out there and we’re educating everybody so that if somebody has suffered some type of discrimination — they might not even be aware — we want to make sure we’re out there letting them know there is a resource,” she said.
Simmons said the agency typically sees an increase in inquiries and complaints after conducting education sessions or whenever the ICRC launches an advertising campaign.
Though most of the ICRC education sessions are done by request of a specific group, Meyer said they’ll be piloting a monthly forum series at the Avondale Meadows YMCA.
John Burkhardt, ICRC’s director of compliance and alternative dispute resolution, said in addition to informing individuals of their rights, the ICRC can work with businesses, schools and other organizations that want to make sure they’re following the law. And although the ICRC works tirelessly to investigate and resolve discrimination complaints from people who have been victimized, they also work to protect organizations from unfounded claims.
Every step of the way, Burkhardt said, the agency is gathering data to keep its finger on the pulse, so to speak. A new database will help ICRC leaders track every inquiry and complaint, which could inform future decisions and programs.
“When we are able to assess … education is needed, perhaps we’ll put out a white paper or something on that subject. The data we’re gathering will have a direct benefit to the public, because we’ll be converting what we learn into actionable guidance,” he said.
Right now, the pulse in the community is keeping the ICRC on its toes, forcing a different approach than its team is used to.
“We’re doing a lot of on-the-fly planning,” Meyer said. “This long planned out calendar that we’ve always worked from, where things were planned months in advance, the pulse right now is not allowing us to do that. We’re trying to be as agile as possible to help the community.”
Sometimes that agility means working beyond the scope of what the ICRC has traditionally done. For example, Meyer said the agency was recently contacted by a school with a large Hispanic population.
“They reached out to us and said we know there are a lot of fears, we’ve been talking to the parents. Can you help us out to answer some of these questions?” she said. “We’re not in immigration; that’s not what we do. But we went and met with them anyway.”
Meyer said she helped school leaders get in touch with people who work specifically in immigration law, and ICRC will also provide training to teachers regarding civil rights, bullying and conflict resolution.
“It’s not something we do, as far as we don’t have enforcement over anything immigration. But if a community is reaching out to us saying we have concerns, we’re going to see what we can do to help them.”
Hite said there is a lot of fear prompting concerns right now.
“Timing is everything. With all the talk about civil rights and moral wrongs, there’s been more attention being paid with marches and concerns people have raised around the country,” Hite said. Though the team at the ICRC is glad to be of service, the overall goal is to not be needed.
“The key is to work ourselves out of business,” Hite said.
In the meantime, Simmons said the ICRC continues to work.
“The staff here values every complaint we get,” she said. “Attention is given to every single complaint, every single investigation. I want the public to know the team does a very thorough job.”
