SPRINGFIELD – The 15th annual Fair Housing and Civil Rights Conference will begin on April 13. This is the second year the conference will be hosted virtually due to COVID-19. The conference will run for three days and will feature a variety of keynote speakers. Its goal is to bring together people who share a commitment to protecting and furthering the rights of all Americans, both regionally and nationally.

The conference is free and open to the public. Those interested in the event may include people involved with social justice and civil rights. Past attendees included groups such as government workers, attorneys, police officers, advocacy groups, nonprofits and more. The three-day event will cover topics such as human trafficking, the impact of COVID-19 on women and housing equity.

Dr. Tiffany Manuel will be the keynote speaker on April 13. Manuel is the president and CEO at TheCaseMade and is involved with many civic action groups. She works to help motivate community groups and empower those interested in change.

On April 14, the speaker will be Deborah Archer. Archer is from the New York University School of Law and was recently appointed president of the American Civil Liberties Union. She is the first woman of color to become president.

Jeanine Worden will speak on April 15. Worden is the acting assistant secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity and is an advocate for disability rights.

The conference is sponsored by Way Finders, the Massachusetts Fair Housing Center, the Western New England University School of Law, the Boston Housing Authority, and the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

According to H. John Fisher, fair housing coordinator for Way Finders, hosting the event virtually has allowed it to grow.

“At this point it’s kind of grown from a regional thing to a national conference,” he said. “It’s turned into a pretty big exploration of fair housing rights and civil rights.”

The 2020 conference had over 1,000 attendees from both the East and West Coast.

Fisher said he is most excited for the conference to discuss ideas of change and look ahead to the future.

“I think probably, for me, the most exciting thing is that we are in a number of ways entering into a new era. We’re just beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel as far as COVID-19 is concerned. It’s a new era and I think in some ways people are starting to realize that problems of equity, problems of equal opportunity aren't something that went away 12 years ago with the election of Barack Obama. You’re seeing people starting to become much more sensitive to what’s been happening all along, but it’s getting noticed more,” he said. “Everyone is rethinking how we are going to do things and how we are going to handle them. This is a chance for us to look at where we’ve been and where we can go next, what we can do next.”

The conference will be hosted via Zoom. Those interested in attending may register for it at https://www.fhcrconference.com/2021-conference-workshops.