Human Rights and Equity Commission outlines work plan, invites Bend accessibility committee to collaborate

On April 24, 2025, representatives of the Human Rights and Equity Commission gave a high-level overview of the commission’s work plan and formally invited the City of Bend Accessibility Advisory Committee to collaborate on policy advocacy, community engagement, education and awareness, and shared events.

The presentation, led by Agatha Ventura of HREC and Andres Portela, the city’s Equity and Inclusion Director and staff liaison to HREC, described a timeline running through December 2026 and emphasized aligning HREC’s council-level recommendations with the advisory work that the accessibility committee provides to the city manager. “Intersectionality reminds us of our identities, race, gender, ability, class, language, and more,” Portela said in the presentation, adding that those intersections “compound injustice and make up lack of access.”

Portela said HREC’s policy advocacy subcommittee will work to institutionalize an equity lens into decision-making and to produce a consistent set of questions and recommendations to present to city council. He described three operational goals for the policy advocacy work and invited members of the accessibility committee to participate in subcommittees to help craft and deliver those recommendations. “Kobach was created to give city manager recommendations. HREC was created to give council recommendations,” Portela said, noting the two bodies can be complementary levers for change.

HREC identified four focus areas: advisory role (policy recommendations to council), community engagement (trust-building and meeting people where they are), education and awareness (equity-centered trainings and public campaigns), and policy advocacy (analyzing and recommending policy changes). Portela said the commission will institutionalize processes so presentations to council and staff are evaluated against a shared equity framework rather than relying only on individual perspectives.

Committee members discussed concrete touchpoints where the two bodies could cooperate, including the city’s Walk & Roll event, Sprout Festival participation, CityFest, lunch-and-learn sessions for staff, and the practice of sending letters of support to council. The committee agreed to extend invitations: Chair Liz Woodfin agreed to attend HREC’s next meeting, and Portela confirmed HREC’s meetings occur the last Wednesday of each month, typically 4:30–6:30 p.m.

The presentation closed with an open invitation for joint meetings and shared programming to align messaging and outreach. Portela and Ventura encouraged committee members to join subcommittees or participate in shared events.