Iowa City Human Rights Commission members on Wednesday discussed setting aside grant funds to pay for commissioners or community members to pursue an online human-rights consultant certificate.

Commissioners said the training would help commission members better serve community members and act as a continuing-education resource for new appointees. “It's about, you know, exactly know what you're doing with the community members and, you know, define what a human right is,” one commissioner said, adding they would share a link to the program by email.

The idea emerged after a commissioner said they had identified multiple online programs offering certificates and recommended the commission consider designating some grant money to cover course costs. “It was mainly, like, hours, a hundred something hours, but it was, like, on your own base that they provide the materials, the links, you know, the webinars,” the speaker said.

Commission members discussed options for sources of training, including the University Center for Human Rights certificate program, and suggested collecting a short list of vetted programs. “If anyone is interested, there are some really great listservs that anyone can join from human-rights focused organizations that include kind of up to date resources,” another commissioner said, offering to share resources by email.

No formal motion was made at the meeting. Commissioners agreed to gather sources and links for staff (Stephanie) to circulate and to consider a budget request if members want the commission to underwrite course costs.

The commission asked the member who found the programs to email the links to staff so the materials can be reviewed and potentially included in a future meeting packet.