April 2, 2024
City Council
DATE: April 2, 2024
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Trina Jackson, City Council Liaison
Subject: Race Forward Training Series
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The proposed two-year contract starting in 2024 through 2026 is for a total amount not to exceed $55,000. The
funding is included in the approved 2023/24 budget (City Council Office 01917090 400322)
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
12/15/2015 – Directed to join the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE); 02/28/17 – Received an
update on GARE; 12/4/2018 – Adopted Resolution 93-
18; 12/15/2020 – Received an update on race equity
activities.
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
The City of Richmond has been a member of the
Government Alliance on Race and Equity since 2016. As
part of the goals of the program, a training series will be conducted to broaden the knowledge and awareness of
best practices related to increasing equitable outcomes for employees and residents.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
APPROVE a sole-source two-year contract with Race
Forward to conduct a series of race equity trainings for employees, public officials, and community partners not to exceed $55,000, for a term beginning April 2024
through December 2026 – City Council Office (Trina
Jackson-Lincoln 510-620-6581).
AGENDA
REPORT
April 2, 2024
DISCUSSION:
The City of Richmond has been a member of the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) since 2016. The initial Richmond Race Equity Team drafted the first version of the Race Equity Action Plan while taking part in the learning cohort in 2016.
Since then, on the draft Race Equity Action Plan.
Over the last several years, Richmond’s Race Equity Team, consisting of staff from various City departments and community partners, has studied and provided input on race and equity activities to improve the draft Race Equity Action Plan.
The team has held learning sessions, community forums, healing sessions, and presented to community partners and the City Council. In collaboration with Richmond’s Race Equity Team, Healthy Contra Costa led monthly Community Buzz Café workshops in 2022 to share the action items and receive input from participants.
Richmond staff will continue to work on incorporating the recommendations and bringing the updated draft to the City Council.
Starting in 2024, a training series will be offered to employees, community partners and public officials. These training sessions will help the City of Richmond and community partners to move closer to Goal One of the Race Equity Action Plan which is to ensure “Richmond employees understand and are committed to achieving race equity.”
Race Forward, is an organization created to help operationalize strategies that drive sustainable change towards racial justice at all levels of society. More information about Race Forward can be found at https://www.raceforward.org. As part of the City of Richmond’s membership with the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE), Race Forward will conduct the training sessions specific to their training program over the course of two years. Four sessions will be conducted: Advancing Racial Equity, Using a Race Equity Tool, Leading for Race Equity, and Cross-Sector Organizing.
The series will be offered to Richmond elected officials, public officials, employees, resident ambassadors, and community partners. Race Forward training sessions present core racial equity concepts and focus further on content and application to support training participants in bringing key ideas into their daily work. This series is an extension of training sessions previously facilitated by Race Forward for Richmond employees, officials and community partners in 2019. Each session will be offered to employees first with reserved spaces for officials and community partners. Each session has a capacity of 50 attendees for virtual sessions and 40 for in-person sessions. The training series package includes:
Advancing Racial Equity: The Role of Government (6-8 hours) – This workshop provides an orientation to the role, responsibilities and opportunities for government to advance racial equity. We focus on normalizing racial equity as a core value with clear definitions of key terminology, operationalizing racial equity via new policies and institutional practice, and organizing, both internally and in partnership with other
April 2, 2024
institutions and the community. We introduce a racial equity tool that can be used in decisions relating to policies, practices, programs and budget and share effective communications strategies. Participants gain increased understanding of racial equity terminology, including implicit and explicit bias and individual, institutional, and structural racism; gain skill at identifying and addressing institutional and structural racism; and increase capacity to advance racial equity in the workplace.
Using a Racial Equity Tool (6-8 hours) – This workshop provides instruction and practice on how to use a racial equity toolkit within policy, program and budget decision- making processes. Participants will gain skills by using the tool with their own topics they would like to assess from a racial equity perspective.
Leading for Racial Equity (6-8 hours) – This workshop provides a common language and explores the tensions that RSJI leaders must address to be effective in working for race and social justice, including adaptive / technical, transactional / transformational, and formal / informal leadership. Participants focus on increasing understanding of key racial equity terminology, motivating change, developing skills at effectively communicating about race, and developing concrete action steps.
Cross-sector Organizing to Advance Racial Equity (6-8 hours) – This workshop provides information on eliminating racial inequity and increasing results for all requires multiple organizations to be addressing institutionalized racism within their own institutions and partnering with others to eliminate structural racism. This rigor and focus will ultimately maximize impact in the community.
Race Forward has reduced the fee for the sessions by $11,000. The courses are regularly priced at $15,000 each. The Advancing Race Equity course has been reduced to $10,000 and the other courses have been reduced to $12,000 each.
Trina Jackson-Lincoln, Project Coordinator, will serve as the project manager for this contract.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – Contract
Attachment 2 – December 15, 2020 Agenda Report
Attachment 3 – Resolution 93-18