In this month's "Let's Talk Human Rights" blog:
- DHR's Role in Building a Championship Future
-
Honoring our Unsung Iowa Sheros by Telling Herstory by Kristen Corey
DHR's Role in Building a Championship Future
As we celebrate
U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of Iowa as the #1 state in the country, we
know it is more than our infrastructure, our healthcare, and our education that
distinguishes Iowa from other states. It
is our people that make Iowa a place where others want to live, work and
invest.
State
initiatives like Future Ready Iowa direct our attention and align our resources
to areas that still need our work and allow us to continue building on that
success to stay at the top of our game. The Iowa Business Council’s 2018 Competitive Dashboard measures how Iowa competes
nationally. This report shows an Iowa of
great economic promise and the need to help Iowans embrace and grow our
diversity in order to fulfill that promise.
At its core,
the Iowa Department of Human Rights’ mission is to unleash opportunity for all
Iowans – for everyone to have the chance to be a full participant in our
state’s ongoing prosperity. In doing
this, we represent the future - the change. We are at our best when we set our
sights on being more than separate ethnicities, races, beliefs, genders and
thoughts. We can achieve so much when we
see ourselves as distinct and integral parts of an interconnected system
balanced for the success of us all.
The
Department of Human Rights has a very unique place in the world today. We are a place where all people, even people
who disagree, are brought together to share information and solve common
problems. Connecting our diverse
populations to our state is important work and foundational to Iowa’s continued
success. Our results may be hard to
touch and feel in the short term, but they are vital infrastructure for our
future growth in business, education and innovation.
How does our
state build the human and social capital, the new ideas and talent that
guarantee a thriving future? We do it by creating a sense of community commitment
and belonging that transcends anything that divides us. Here at the Department, we share the
responsibility to build an Iowa that has an unlimited number of championships
in its future.
Honoring our UnSung Iowa Sheros by Telling Herstory
Women’s History Month is celebrated in March every year as a
way to honor women who have paved the way for those of us still forging ahead.
Honoring women’s contributions during Women’s History Month is a way to reflect
on and acknowledge the accomplishments of our past, but it’s also a way for us
to reflect on how far we have yet to go. It’s a way to honor those women who
are paving the way for other women and girls every single day in their lives –
whether they are an educator, a leader in their community, a business owner, a
mother, a volunteer, etc. For Women’s History Month, we want to honor some of
the women in Iowa who work every day to make things better for all of us.
In honor of Women’s History Month during the month of March,
I invite you to read the stories of some of these women who are changing Iowa
for the better by visiting our Facebook and/or Twitter pages this month.
We celebrate you, #UnsungIowaShero.
Written by Kristen Corey, Office on the Status of Women
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