Hannah Kimberley from the Gloucester Human Rights Commission speaks to Heather Atwood and Kory Curcuru about working in the community to ensure everyone’s human rights are respected. The commission was reinstated by Mayor Sefatia Romeo-Theken in 2019 but has continued to work under Mayor Greg Verga. The commission is looking for volunteers to serve on a sub-committee focused on disability rights. To learn more visit: https://gloucester-ma.gov/1117/Human-…
Kory Curcuru:
Welcome back to another edition of Cape Ann Today. You know, folks, Gloucester actually has a Human Rights Commission, and here to tell us all about it is the chair of the Human Rights Commission in Gloucester, Hannah Kimberley. How’re you doing, Hannah?
Hannah Kimberley:
Great. Thanks. Thanks for having me.
Kory Curcuru:
Yeah. Thanks for joining us today. So, okay, right off the bat, what is a human rights commission and why are you part of one in Gloucester? How did this all come about?
Heather Atwood:
And when did you start it too? We want to know that. Yeah.
Hannah Kimberley:
So the Human Rights Commission, we had one that… I don’t remember how long Gloucester had it because I wasn’t here, but it faded away in, I think, 1991. And then Mayor Theken restarted it in 2019. And so basically, she just asked for people to apply, send in their resume and a letter of intention. And then they went before City Council and were approved. So right now we have seven members in the community.
Heather Atwood:
And was this in response to something, Hannah, that Mayor Theken initiated this?
Hannah Kimberley:
I honestly don’t know. You’d have to ask her that. So for some reason she thought it was a good idea, and I agree.
Kory Curcuru:
So then what does the HRC do?
Hannah Kimberley:
So basically, it becomes public policy, right, of the city to protect and sort of promote constitutional, civil, and human rights for all the people who are in Gloucester. That’s basically the overall sort of mission. And so far we just started, I guess we’ve had a year together. We meet once a month. And so we just started off with reviewing the mission and developing sort of policies and procedures. What else? We’ve worked on, with Maiuza Alves, had a lot of discussion on the Driver’s License Bill that I know she talked to you all about. Just worked with the police department and established a relationship with them and the Gloucester 400 celebration. And then going forward this year, one of our goals is to become more aligned with other human rights groups in the area like the Gloucester Racial Justice Team and the North Shore NAACP. So those are our sort of forward moving goals for 2022.
Kory Curcuru:
Gotcha.
Heather Atwood:
So are you working to educate the city departments on human rights and what the actual laws are? Is that something that needs to happen, do you feel?
Hannah Kimberley:
Not necessarily, although that could be part of it. It’s very broad. But, for example, we also have a City Council liaison. So it used to be Jen Holmgren and now it is Jason Grow. So we work closely with the City Council, which is nice.
Heather Atwood:
And the point is what? What are you having conversations about when you have that connection with the City Council?
Hannah Kimberley:
So the liaison comes to all of our meetings and helps in terms of helping us decide what’s within our purview to do, comes to us with ideas. For example, Jen Holmgren came with the idea of language use for people who English is not their first language within City Hall, and are there enough translators in the clerk’s office? Things like that.
Heather Atwood:
Super practical. Yeah.
Hannah Kimberley:
Yeah, yeah.
Kory Curcuru:
And I know you brought up Maiuza Alves’ name earlier and what she is championing for are the rights for legal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses so they can work and travel and do all those sorts of things. So how does the rest of the commission help support that mission?
Hannah Kimberley:
So, that was just brought up at our last meeting, but we all have agreed to write letters on behalf of that bill and just the idea of bringing attention to it. So, that’s the way we supported that. We have another member, Michea McCaffrey, who’s on the commission, who’s also with the Gloucester Racial Justice Team, and she’s encouraged us to continue the Juneteenth celebration in Gloucester, which is now a state and national holiday, which is great, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. So we’re going to start working on that as well. And Mayor Verga has agreed to raise the Juneteenth flag along with the Pride flag in the month of June, which is pretty wonderful. So those are a few of the things that we’re working on. We also rewrote a Civility Resolution that City Council signs, and we’re working on a third draft of that now. So we did the second one and now we’re working on a third.
Heather Atwood:
And the City Council, when they are inaugurated, they sign the Civility Resolution. Is that right?
Hannah Kimberley:
Yeah.
Heather Atwood:
Yeah. So if there is an individual or even a group in the city that feels their civil rights have been violated somehow, could they come to you? Would they come to you? Could you help them in any way?
Hannah Kimberley:
They could, and then we would point them in the right direction of where to go. In other words, we’re not law enforcement officers, for example. Right?
Heather Atwood:
Right.
Hannah Kimberley:
People do come to the meetings when they have concerns and raise those with us. Early on, there was a couple of people who were concerned over the Gloucester 400 celebration in that it wasn’t as inclusive as it could be of all the people who have existed in Gloucester for the past 400 years. And so we worked to reach out to the UU Church and members there to work with the Gloucester 400 folks. So, that’s another example. We’ve also had the police chief come in and talk to us about their work in community outreach and problems of addiction. We have discussions over racism and antisemitism within the city. So those are just a few of the things. I hope to continue to do a lot more.
Kory Curcuru:
So, Hannah, when you said there’s a group of seven of you and then you work in concert with City Counselor Grow, where are you meeting?
Hannah Kimberley:
Now we’re meeting on Zoom. For a few times we met at City Hall. And maybe we’ll get back to City Hall. That would be nice. And the meetings are always posted in advance. So people can go to the Gloucester Human Rights Commission right on the city website. We have a page there.
Kory Curcuru:
Oh, okay. Yeah, gloucester-ma.gov. Yep.
Hannah Kimberley:
Yeah. And I also should say that we have a sub-commission under the Human Rights Commission that’s known as the Gloucester Disability Rights Commission. Yeah. It’s a sub-commission, and no one is on it. So-
Heather Atwood:
So we need people on that.
Hannah Kimberley:
We need people on it, yes. A majority of the commission members should be people with disabilities. One of the members can be a member of an immediate family member of a person with a disability, but I would love to see those seats filled. So if anyone is interested in doing that, please apply. They can send an email to Mayor Verga. That would be great.
Kory Curcuru:
Hannah, so when you’re in a meeting together, have people brought issues to you, or are the commission members bringing issues to the platform to discuss?
Hannah Kimberley:
Both. Both of those things happen. So at our last meeting, I got three or four emails from different folks in the community who were concerned about the city ordinances for renting, right? And so we brought that to the table. We’ll be looking at that again at our next meeting. So, yeah, people can bring things, people can bring concerns and then we do as well. So there’s, for example, hate graffiti that people find in the city. Our members have brought that up. Yeah, so it’s a mix.
Heather Atwood:
It sounds like you’re a good board to keep everybody thinking about humans’ rights and the many ways they could be violated or just maybe misunderstood or ignored. So it seems like it has a good purpose. Yeah.
Hannah Kimberley:
Definitely. Definitely. And like I said, I hope in the next year to work closer with more alignment with other groups.
Heather Atwood:
So what got you interested, Hannah, in this work?
Hannah Kimberley:
I think I’d probably always just been interested, just ever since I was young. I think I was in high school when I went to my first protest. I skipped school to do it and ended up on the news and then everyone knew I skipped school. But I don’t know, I think that’s just been a part of who I am for forever.
Kory Curcuru:
And I want to know, Hannah, why do you think it’s important for Gloucester to have a Human Rights Commission?
Hannah Kimberley:
Because human rights are important, right? And I think it’s important to recognize that it’s not necessarily a universal thing, right? It’s not universal that everyone is treated the same, while it should be, but it’s not. And I think the more attention that we place on that, on that notion, the closer we can come to having everyone have the same enabling world rights.
Kory Curcuru:
And like we said, if people want to learn more about the Human Rights Commission, they can go to the City of Gloucester’s website, gloucester-ma.gov, or contact Mayor Verga if they’d like to participate in a different way, or I guess, bring an issue to the forefront.
Hannah Kimberley:
Absolutely. And we have an email there that they can contact us as well, right there on the website, the little contact page. And please apply for the disability sub-commission. That would be awesome.
Kory Curcuru:
Cool.
Heather Atwood:
That’s great.
Kory Curcuru:
Yeah. Well, cheers to you, Hannah. And thanks to the commission for all your hard work. It’s been good getting to know a little bit about it, and we look forward to chatting and learning more about this in the weeks and months ahead. Thanks for your time.
Heather Atwood:
Thank you.
Hannah Kimberley:
Thanks, Heather. Thanks, Kory.
Heather Atwood:
Thank you.
