Vision

The Human Rights Education Institute offers proactive education programs that teach human rights, acceptance, respect for diversity, and cultural humility. Our programs, activities, and events seek to reduce racial prejudice and increase understanding in our community.

We are on a journey to promote human rights for every person in the Pacific Northwest, serving primarily Eastern Washington, Northern Idaho and Western Montana. The institute addresses a wide range of diversity issues including race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic class, age, sexual orientation, religion, disability, and job and life circumstances.

Impact  

• HREI served more than 22,000 K-12 students in the 2019-20 school year
  
• HREI serves 55 school districts in the region
• Beyond individual classroom requests, HREI programs support a Teen Human Rights Symposium, an Advocacy Camp for middle school, 3 elementary school break camps, and many community multicultural day celebrations annually
• In the first third of the year 2020, 50 HREI volunteers served 1487.5 hours
• In 2019, 39 HREI volunteers served 4864.8 hours
• As of May 2020, HREI and Love Lives Here have signed over 150 businesses to their Kindness Campaign
• HREI partners with North Idaho College Diversity to support the Annual Diversity Symposium
• HREI is the proud sponsor of the annual Lakes Middle School Multicultural Fair
• HREI has produced 5 Human Library Events and 227 personal stories have been shared through reading books
• HREI partners with higher education to provide a great learning environment to interns, and partners with the community to match mentors with interns
  • North Idaho College, Lewis Clark State College, University of Idaho, Boise State University, Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, Arizona State University
  • Since 2017, we have served 24 student internships completing 1621 hours in the following disciplines: Marketing, Program, Finance, Accounting, Information Systems, Administration, Resource Development, Environmental Justice and more

Through December 2017, $217,263.90 has been spent remodeling and improving the building to meet the needs of the organization. To date, HREI has spent $844,100.99, which includes $396,835.64 budgeted funds for the programs and $447,265.53 for that portion of salaries and benefits that were directly tied to program development and implementation. Through this, the Human Rights Education Institute has become recognized in the Inland Northwest as a unique cultural institution that hosts world-class exhibits, develops programs for children, sponsors events celebrating diversity, and provides workshops and training for community members, business leaders, and educators.

Commitments  

In order to have a world that is just for all, we must come together as individuals, as organizations and businesses, and as community leaders, to be an active part of the change.  We must take this moment to examine personal biases and relationships, and educate and equip ourselves to be vigilant in a unified course of action.  This will ensure equitable communities.    

HREI COMMITMENT: 

• WE ARE COMMITTED to remembering and reflecting on historical and recent tragedies, while developing supports and education, so that they may never again occur in the future.
• WE ARE COMMITTED to fighting for equality for all, especially those most harmed by a system that historically dehumanizes people of color.
• WE ARE COMMITTED to continue to investigate our own privilege so that we can embed racial equity into our work.  
• WE ARE COMMITTED to always speak in the language of love, unity and empathy because systemic racism silences the voices of so many.We will uplift these voices to be amplified, and we will listen intently with love and compassion to seek understanding.For only then, can change occur.
• WE ARE COMMITTED to hold open the HREI space for inclusive, safe conversations that are the building blocks of new systems and create a culture that values justice and humility for everyone.
• As leaders in the community, WE ARE COMMITTED to hold ourselves accountable to help create the infrastructure to reduce poverty, increase access and resources to health care and education, and provide for restorative justice for underserved people while working to change the social and economic system that was designed to perpetuate oppression.  
• WE ARE COMMITTED to ensuring that our local law enforcement entities are engaged in cultural humility training and implementing racial equity practices in all of their work.
• WE ARE COMMITTED to providing educational opportunities that will increase understanding in our communities and reduce racial prejudice.
• We believe that educators have a key role to play in lifesaving anti-racist work.Therefore, HREI IS COMMITTED to encouraging other members of the academic and scholastic system to join us in collaborative advocacy of these commitments.
• WE ARE EXPLICIT in these commitments and oppose any form of racism, discrimination, violence and hateful acts in our communities that seek to destroy our mission and vision and that of the work in which we engage.

In an interview on Face the Nation (June 7, 2020), Condoleezza Rice, former United States Secretary of State, shares, “Focus on education is a way to break through the barriers of prejudice. Education is not a shield against prejudice. But it gives people a fighting chance.” 

History

Acknowledgement of Lands