More than 20 community members gathered at the Center for Independent Living of South Central Pennsylvania for a lively discussion about civil rights through a variety of perspectives during a Tuesday afternoon event.

This was a stop on the ongoing “PHRC on the Road: Building a Beloved Community” tour by the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission — the commonwealth’s top civil rights enforcement agency — in their effort to hold listening sessions with residents across the state.

Chad Dion Lassiter, the commission’s executive director, said that the Beloved Community concept is a framework to recognize the inherent humanity and value of individuals across identity distinctions.

“The Beloved Community says ‘come in,'” Lassiter said.

Civil rights and their protections prescribed by law are for everyone, not just a particular group or race of people, he said, and that the Beloved Community framework and the commission as a whole is for all Pennsylvanians.

The goal of the ongoing tour is to visit all 67 counties in the commonwealth, explain the commission’s work and hear from residents in order to produce a master report with data gathered from the experience sometime in September 2025, Lassiter said.

While some people may believe that discrimination has been eliminated from society, he said, it is still present in several facets, including housing and employment discrimination, among others. This discrimination necessitates the existence of the PHRC, which fosters intersectional dialog, shares critical resources and enforces civil rights law in the commonwealth.

Community feedback

The centerpiece of the event was an open discussion mediated by Lassiter on how the various forms of discrimination affect life in central Pennsylvania.

According to one participant, there is a lack of locally

-available resources for people experiencing housing insecurity, and a dearth of landlords who accept supplemental funding sources like Section 8 vouchers.

One participant, who is a teacher, said that a persistent lack of substitutes has led to some of her colleagues forgoing doctors appointments because they cannot find someone to cover their class.

Several participants decried the “gaps” in public education funding that leave arts programs and other school services without resources.

Unequal distribution of city funding has left several neighborhoods with dangerously deteriorated sidewalks, one attendee said, which creates an impediment to public transportation and a hazard for people who utilize wheelchairs.

Planting a seed

George Palmer, executive director for the Center for Independent Living of South Central Pa., said that through the tour, the state commission is metaphorically taking on the difficult work of breaking up the hard earth so new things, new ideas, can grow.

“(Lassiter) is pulling the plow all over Pennsylvania,” Palmer said. “Now we can help grow some seeds.”

The work of the PHRC is “very complimentary” with the mission of the center, Palmer said.

Blair County NAACP Executive Committee Chairman Tracy Brown said that the PHRC visit was “very much needed.”

Commission representatives attended multiple Blair County NAACP events in 2024, he said.

“We have the top civil rights organization in the state to support and follow up behind us, and give us more of a solid backbone moving forward,” Brown said. According to Lassiter, the Beloved Community tour is now needed more than ever.

This includes seeing the inherent worth and dignity of all people, because the framework invites everybody, even people who may disagree politically, into the community.

“No matter what the climate is at the present time, the Beloved Community is that space that welcomes in even the dissenters,” Lassiter said, “… and when those people show up, we see their humanity.”

This mission is fundamental to the human relations commission.

“What the Beloved Community does, is it reframes the conversation of civil rights and human rights no matter what is happening at the federal level,” Lassiter said.