October 22, 2024
City Council
DATE: October 22, 2024
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Councilmember Willis, Vice Mayor Jimenez and
Councilmember Robinson
Subject:
Update on the Race Equity Action Plan
FINANCIAL IMPACT: None
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
December 15, 2020 and June 2021
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
The Richmond Race and Equity Team has worked to
update the Race Equity Action Plan and to develop a
Race Equity Training Series to improve race and equity
outcomes for employees and the community.
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
RECEIVE an update on the Race Equity Action Plan
and provide direction to staff on next steps – Vice Mayor Claudia Jimenez (510-620-6565), Councilmembers
Melvin Willis (510-412-2050), and Doria Robinson (510-
620-6568).
DISCUSSION:
AGENDA
REPORT
October 22, 2024
Government Alliance for Racial Equity (GARE) is a joint project of the Race Forward and the Othering and Belonging (formerly known as the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society) at UC Berkeley. In 2016, the Richmond chapter of GARE was established and a multiracial team comprised of an interdepartmental group of City staff and community partners who participated in a learning year cohort. The team has developed a draft Race Equity Action Plan (REAP) during the introductory learning year and has since worked to strengthen the REAP, promote equity work to improve racial outcomes within the City of Richmond through training and community outreach.
Background
The draft Race Equity Action Plan was initially created by city employees that volunteered to attend join the Richmond GARE Team and participate in the GARE Network Learning Cohort. The team from various departments used their experience from serving Richmond residents in their respective departments to create action items that could lead the city to achieve the four goals to increase racial equity outcomes in the City of Richmond.
Goal One: Internal Work – City of Richmond employees understand and are committed to achieving racial equity
Goal Two: Community Engagement – Richmond Residents View the Jurisdiction as an Effective and Inclusive Government that Engages Community
Goal Three: City Service Provision - City of Richmond is a Racially Equitable Employer and Promotes Racial Equity in Contracting and Procurement
Goal Four: Healthy Life Outcomes - Healthy life outcomes are increased and racial disproportionalities are eliminated
Seven to ten action items were created for each goal. During the community forums held in 2019 and 2020, participants were given colored sticky dots to prioritize their top four action items for each goal. The following action items rose to the top for the participants and employees that attended the forums.
Goal # Action Item Action
Item #
Goal 1 Meet with department directors to develop Departmental Racial Equity Plans: Discuss city-wide plan, analyze the need for specific strategies in the department to expand racial equity A4
October 22, 2024
work. Assign a minimum of one person to be the GARE team liaison to share info w/ dept.
Racial Equity Training: Establish a city-wide training program for employees and community partners consisting of Race Equity, Structural & Institutional Racism
A3
Use of a Racial Equity tool with Policies or Programs: Develop a racial equity toolkit to assess policies, initiatives, programs and budget issues.
A6
Goal 2 Inclusive Outreach and Public Engagement Training: Create relationships with community groups aiming to improve equity in Richmond. This also involves collaboration with community organizations to develop a shared vision for roles in shaping racial equity policy.
A2
Establish a Framework for Effective and Inclusive Engagement with Richmond's Diverse Communities: Improve equitable
outcomes of City services by using a racial equity tool to weigh impacts of programs on community.
A3
Community Engagement Taskforce: Strengthen the City's
community engagement efforts to increase transparency and trust to provide authentic spaces for information sharing.
A1
Goal 3 Training on Equitable Hiring Practices for All Hiring Managers:
Hold departments accountable to the incorporation of their Racial Equity Toolkit.
A4
Strengthen personnel policy and job descriptions- HR to review job specs & strategize to eliminate racial disproportionality in depts.
A2
Workforce equity in departmental Racial Equity Action Plans- Improve hiring and promotion equity to enhance and maintain a workforce representative of the community.
A1
Contracting and Procurement Policies and Procedures to
Eliminate Racial Equity Barriers: Create and implement the use of a Budget Map to assess funding distributions.
Outcome
3b, A3
Goal 4 Equitable Housing Opportunities- HiAP 4F efforts to protect displacement of residents.
A4
Improve access to healthy food in neighborhoods- HiAP 3B to review liquor store permits and develop healthy food corner store program.
A2
October 22, 2024
Neighborhood Safety – Data Taskforce to work with depts to assess programs that increase neighborhood safety ie. street lighting, abandoned houses.
A5
To-date, the Race and Equity Team has worked to improve the understanding of race equity and methods to improve equitable outcomes for employees and the community.
Since the inception of the Race Equity Team, the Race Equity Action Plan (the Plan) has been shared with staff, community groups, and the Richmond City Council. The revised versions of the Plan have been presented to the City Council in 2020, and 2021.
The 2024 version of the plan includes the input from the community that was gathered from the twelve-month Community Buzz Cafes held in 2022.
To continue revising the Plan, the team would like to move forward with sharing the plan with the departments to receive input on the proposed action items that are associated with their respective service areas. The plan will be revised to incorporate the input from the departments to refine the action items.
The Management Leadership Team received a presentation in June and October of 2024 on the status of the program and how they can support race equity efforts.
Department Heads have been asked to assign staff person(s) to join the city’s Race Equity Team and to encourage staff to attend the Race Equity Training Series.
Race Equity Team
The team ceased meeting in October of 2023 with the intention of resuming in early 2024. In order to resume regular meetings, the participating staff members need to have authorization to dedicate 3-4 hours a month to team activities.
In the past, employees joined the team, but only a select few were able to engage in the work outside of the meetings. Subcommittees were formed to work on specific areas of the Plan, but consistent participation was limited. We hope to start incrementally resuming the monthly meetings in November.
Staff will be empowered to participate in this work if they receive authorization, education on why this work is important and receiving the tools to do so. To that end, a training series has been established.
October 22, 2024
Race Equity Training Series
Why Diversity and Inclusion Matters for Leaders October 8 Why Diversity and Inclusion Matters for Staff October 16 Implicit Bias October 22
Advancing Race Equity – The Role of Government January 30, 2025 Using a Race Equity Toolkit – Part One March 6, 2025
Using a Race Equity Toolkit – Part Two March 7, 2025
Cross-sector Organizing TBD - 2025
Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership TBD - 2025
Highlight of Accomplishments
City Council adopted Resolution 93-18 in December of 2018 Held Implicit Bias Training in 2019
Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership Workshop 2020 Richmond Ambassadors and LEAP staff held a Y-Plan Cohort Established an Advisory Committee in 2021
Surveyed staff liaisons on diversifying boards and commissions Monthly Community Buzz Cafes facilitated by HCC in 2022 HCC incorporated input gathered from the Community to the REAP Presented at the California Reparations Task Force Meeting in June of 2023 Established a training series – 2023/24
Goals for 2024/25
Continue the Race Equity Training Series
Depts. to create equity statements and help to revise the Race Equity Action Plan
Use Race Equity Toolkit to develop departmental budgets and programming Departmental Race Equity Audits
Hire or assign staff to solely work on race equity projects
As previously reported to the Richmond City Council, a dedicated staff person is needed to execute the work. Other jurisdictions that are actively doing this work have established an office or hired an officer to develop and implement the goals of the jurisdiction. The importance and complexity of this work calls for a dedicated staff person that solely works on race and equity projects.
October 22, 2024
Staff is requesting direction from the Richmond City Council on establishing a timeline on benchmarks within the draft racial equity plan, a dedicated staff member to solely work on race and equity projects, and to establish a directive to prioritize race equity work to increase staff capacity to work on goals.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 Race Equity Action Plan v2024
Attachment 2 Management Leadership Team Presentation
Attachment 3 Resolution 93-18 Systematically and Deliberately Applying a Racial Equity Lens in Decision-Making
Attachment 4 Report from the Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership