Aurora’s Human Relations Commission has been around for 58 years, but current members are worried people still don’t know about it.
During the last calendar year, the Illinois Department of Human Rights received 30 complaints from Aurora. The local Human Relations Commission received two or three, according to Ryan Maley, the longest-serving member of the commission board.
“So we’re working this year to spread the word that we are here,” Maley said.
He was addressing the City Council this week during its Committee of the Whole meeting, saying the commission wants to provide a local resource for people who might have issues with equality, fairness or inclusion issues, or be a liaison to other local resources.
Maley said the commission looks to mediate problems and find solutions, rather than focus on punishment. It also seeks to educate, as focus groups the commission has held on a number of issues would indicate.
The commission held a series of events through 2021 and 2022 on a number of issues. The events were designed to bring more awareness of the commission.
“That was a primary point of the event series, so we need to do more,” Maley said.
The Human Relations Commission was created by Mayor Jay Hunter in 1965 at the urging of iconic local civil rights leader Marie Wilkinson.
Maley said most of the complaints lodged with the state last year were employment issues regarding physical disability.
He added that he is unsure if 30 complaints for a city the size of Aurora is a lot or not, in large part because the commission does not know what kind of complaints other area cities get.
The exception is Chicago, where the Human Relations Commission makes its number of complaints public, and he said Aurora’s complaints are “proportional” to its size.
City Council members told Maley they would be glad to help get the word out through their individual programs and newsletters to ward residents.
People can find out more about the Human Relations Commission at www.aurora-il.org/1078/Human-Relations-Commission on the city’s website. On that page, people can download a complaint form in both English and Spanish, and submit it through email to [email protected].
