Patricia: Service Coordinator and a Human Relations Commissioner
Patricia: Service Coordinator and a Human Relations Commissioner
At SCI, our Service Coordinators and Supports Planners are dedicated and go above and beyond to help the people they support pursue their ideal lives. Sometimes, their work goes beyond the individuals they serve at SCI and impacts communities with outreach and community education.
Patricia is an SCI Service Coordinator who also serves as a member of the Human Relations Commission, where she will sit through 2025. The commission is a seven-member group responsible for safeguarding equal opportunity for all people and promoting ways that people in the community can learn to get along.
In addition to meeting monthly, the commission:
- Adopts and implements a comprehensive education outreach and action plan;
- Receives housing discrimination complaints;
- Provides information sharing, staff training, community education, mediation, and cultural literacy;
- Works with federal and state agencies with similar goals;
- And more.
As a member of the Human Relations Commission, Patricia helps with community outreach, such as an annual Fair Housing Free Workshop. Here, landlords and community members can learn more about the commission and listen to guest speakers as they discuss fair housing.
These events can have a real impact on the community. For instance, last year was Patricia’s first as a member of the commission, and she helped organize the Fair Housing Workshop. The theme was Service Animals vs. Emotional Support Animals. It was a topic that hit close to home for her, as during that time she was working with an individual whose landlord didn’t want him owning an emotional support animal.
Patricia was able to invite the landlord to the fair, and the landlord learned more about landlords’ rights versus tenants’ rights.
It’s in moments like these that Patricia recognizes how the Human Relations Commission can help build a world where everyone belongs.
“I am very honored to sit as a commissioner,” she says.