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The Office of Equal Opportunity's (OEO) mission is to promote a discrimination free quality of life for Palm Beach County residents through educating and advocating a policy of nondiscrimination and enforcing local, state and federal civil rights laws.
OEO is responsible for investigating and resolving complaints of discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, marital status or familial status. Additionally, OEO provides human relations training and referral services. OEO is a federally recognized equivalent agency under the federal civil rights laws - Title VII (employment discrimination cases) and Title VIII (fair housing cases). Through OEO, Palm Beach County residents have direct access to protection of civil rights laws.
OEO also is responsible for the County's Disability Accessibility program. This program assures that County government and countywide organizations and public facilities maintain compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act by enforcing the County's Handicapped Parking Program and helps to remedy discrimination against persons with disabilities in housing, access to facilities and services, employment and all other areas of equal access.
The Human Relations Camp program is administered by OEO in conjunction with the School District of Palm Beach County. The program is designed to promote interracial and intercultural understanding among students by providing training in human relations, leadership and communication skills. Weekend retreats are utilized and provide an excellent framework for achieving interracial and intercultural understanding among high-school students from varied backgrounds. Program exercises, facilitated by a team of adult and junior counselors from varied racial and ethnic backgrounds, stress human relations, cooperation, leadership and decision making skills. The students are recruited from the public school system or may be referred by parents or community groups. An effort is made to ensure a diverse representation of racial, religious, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.
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