‘Implicit bias’ is focus of Conference for Human Rights Feb. 3 at OC

PORT ORCHARD — The 26th Annual Conference for Human Rights, originally scheduled for Dec. 9 but rescheduled due to snow, will take place Feb. 3 in the Bremer Student Center of Olympic College, 1600 Chester Ave., in Bremerton.

Registration begins at 8 a.m., with the conference concluding at 4 p.m.

Through panel discussions, workshops and networking, the Kitsap County Conference for Human Rights has a goal of bringing people together to educate and foster communication, understanding and collaboration, organizers said.

Tickets are available for the event through Brown Paper Tickets. All tickets purchased for the cancelled December event will be honored.

Ticket prices for the rescheduled conference will remain the same: $40 for adults, $25 for youth and students. The price includes breakfast and lunch.

The conference will feature keynote speaker Barbara Lawrence-Piecuch, who will talk on the subject “Implicit Bias Toward Native People of the Puget Sound Region.” She is a Suquamish tribal elder and storyteller who serves on the Suquamish Tribal Higher Education Board and as chairwoman of the Suquamish Tribal Elders Council.

Dustin Washington, the keynote speaker on “How Implicit Bias is Hurting our Communities and our Children,” also will speak at the conference.

He is director of the Community Justice program with the American Friends Service Committee, core trainer with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond and Clinical Faculty at the School of Public Health at the University of Washington.

Workshops also will be presented from Dispute Resolution Center of Kitsap County, the NAACP Bremerton branch, Civil Survival, Kitsap Safe Schools, the North Kitsap School District, Living Life Leadership and the Kitsap Immigrant Assistance Center.