Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Importance of preventive work and raising awareness
1:06:08
ยท
4 min
CCHR representatives emphasize the importance of preventive work and raising awareness to prevent discrimination and law violations. They discuss their efforts to increase CCHR's visibility and conduct outreach to various communities and businesses.
- CCHR focuses on preventive work to educate both potential victims and those with obligations under the law
- The agency aims to raise visibility through community outreach and partnerships
- CCHR conducts roundtables in all five boroughs and meets with business owners and stakeholders
- The Community Relations Bureau prioritizes prevention work through various outreach methods
Annabel Palma
1:06:08
have in New York City and the penalties that they may face, that it would actually prevent someone from potentially violating the law or more people coming to the agency to file a complaint.
1:06:23
You know, proactive work for us, preventive work is is important.
1:06:28
We don't want anyone to be discriminated against, but we also recognize, right, that it happens.
1:06:32
It happens every single day to to many individuals who call New York City home.
1:06:38
Obviously, we don't want anyone violating the law, and so preventive work for us is not only for New Yorkers to know how to protect themselves, but also for individuals who have obligations and responsibilities to know what they are responsible and obligated under the law.
1:06:54
And so we want to ensure that in the you know, that if anyone thinks about violating the law, they should know that they we take these matters seriously.
1:07:06
They will be investigated.
1:07:09
And, yeah, the civil penalties we want the civil penalties to serve as deterrents.
1:07:14
Obviously, that's not that that's not something that is guaranteed, but it's something that we strive for.
Nantasha Williams
1:07:22
Yeah.
1:07:22
One thing that I found, like, really impactful from meeting with your commissioners is their deep concern for the preventative work.
1:07:33
And so when somebody now is assessed with the penalty, That means they did something and now they're being penalized for it.
1:07:41
And I was just really struck by a lot of the things that they discussed.
1:07:44
And so again, like I think the community engagement bureau is pretty much the the arm of preventative work for the agency and so that's really the question.
1:07:57
It's like if people actually had the information then essentially you'd agree that they may not find themselves in violation.
Annabel Palma
1:08:07
And and madam chair, as you know, it has not been a secret that ever since I was charged with leading the agency that my main goal has been to raise the visibility of CCHR, especially to the community bureau.
1:08:23
And so we continue to do that on a daily basis.
1:08:26
I know that I've always spoken about our legal enforcement, which is one of the best tools that we have, but equal to that is the work that we do through our community relations bureau, which allows us to do that preventive work.
1:08:43
Right?
1:08:44
So the more New Yorkers we're reaching, the the the more the word gets out, the and and when I talk about New Yorkers, I'm I'm not only talking about those who be could be discriminated against.
1:08:55
I'm talking about individuals who I don't want, you you know, I wanna arm with the information so that they don't violate the law.
1:09:02
Right?
1:09:03
And so we've been doing that by creating round roundtables in all five boroughs.
1:09:09
We've been going out with into the communities.
1:09:14
When when I go out with the community relations bureau, I I call it community service week.
1:09:24
We're in the community meeting with business owners, meeting with stakeholders.
1:09:30
Right?
1:09:31
Not only again, not only letting New Yorkers know how to protect themselves, but also letting New Yorkers know what their rights and obligations are under the law so that they don't break the law.
Kajori Chaudhuri
1:09:42
And if I may add to what the commissioner mentioned is we agree.
1:09:47
Like, in our community relations bureau at CRB, we do prioritize prevention work because that's really critical exactly as you mentioned, commissioner I'm sorry, madam chair.
1:10:01
Few things that we do.
1:10:03
So as I mentioned earlier, the Fordham partnership is an example of that.
1:10:07
The other thing that we do is we ensure like, it's not everyone can come to a training.
1:10:13
So we are there to meet New Yorkers where they are, and a perfect example is our business corridor outreaches where we are taking information on, like, the sexual harassment posters that are mandated to be posted in businesses.
1:10:27
Right?
1:10:27
And and we created a tool kit for business owners on what they need to know to be part of to ensure that they are complying with the obligations part of our law.
1:10:38
Those are we do regular business outreaches with our other subleg agencies to get the information out.
1:10:46
So both in terms of one on one outreaches, but also use the training as a tool as well.