TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND FROM: Toni J. Taber, CMC
CITY COUNCIL City Clerk
SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: February 8, 2022
SUBJECT: Office of Racial Equity Work Plan Status Report
Recommendation
As recommended by the Neighborhood Services and Education Committee on January 13, 2022, accept the status report of the Office of Racial Equity from July to December 2021, and the roadmap for January to June 2022 which includes both immigrant affairs and racial equity work.
CEQA: Not a Project, File No. PP17-009, Staff Reports, Assessments, Annual Reports, and Informational Memos that involve no approvals of any City action. (City Manager) [Neighborhood Services and Education Committee referral 1/13/2022 - Item (d)1]
COUNCIL AGENDA: 2/8/2022
ITEM: 3.4
FILE NO: 22-112
TO: NEIGHBORHOOD SERVICES FROM: Zulma Maciel
AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: OFFICE OF RACIAL EQUITY DATE: December 21, 2021
WORK PLAN STATUS REPORT
Approved Date
01/06/22
RECOMMENDATION
a. Accept the status report of the Office of Racial Equity from July to December 2021, and roadmap for January to June 2022 which includes both immigrant affairs and racial equity work.
b. Cross-reference this report to the February 8, 2022 City Council meeting.
OUTCOME
The Neighborhood Services and Education Committee will be informed of the Office of Racial Equity’s accomplishments to date and path forward for FY 2021-2022.
BACKGROUND
On April 17, 2019, Councilmembers Arena, Carrasco, Esparza, Jimenez, and Peralez issued a memorandum proposing the creation of an Equity Fund and stressing the urgent need to address systemic inequities through the budget process, as well as within the City’s programs and processes. The memorandum launched important and overdue conversations about equity and initiated various public and community dialogues about local governments’ role in eliminating racial disparities. As a result, on June 6, 2019, the Mayor called for an “equity screen” to focus scarce resources for such services as blight eradication, pedestrian safety, parks rehabilitation, and crime prevention initiatives on the City’s most vulnerable neighborhoods. Furthermore, the City Manager’s Office was directed to organize a study session on equity, which subsequently evolved into two study sessions. The first session was hosted in Dec 2019 which included speakers from the National League of Cities, Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) and Dr. Stephen Pitti author of the Devil in Silicon Valley. The purpose of the session was to build a shared understanding of what equity work means in the context of local government, why NSE AGENDA: 01/13/22
ITEM: (d) 1
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it is important, and how to embed a framework that reduces inequities. The second session presented in February 2020, reiterated the importance of leading with race, and provided more information on the framework: Normalize, Organize, and Operationalize. The framework adopted from GARE is a theory of change that provides a roadmap with specific actions to institutionalize the work towards racial equity.
Weeks after the second study session, the world faced a global pandemic. It magnified the reality that people who were already struggling were deeply suffering, and it placed a spotlight on the persistent inequities that exist. On May 25, 2020, the world witnessed the murder of George Floyd, and there was a global awakening about racial justice issues.
The courageous conversations had by the Mayor and City Council throughout the previous year elevated the importance of centering equity to serve communities most in need and subsequently led to the creation of the Office of Racial Equity (ORE) in June 2020. The ORE was established for the purpose of working across departments to operationalize equity by explicitly identifying ways to improve outcomes for historically underserved and under resourced communities, such as but not limited to, Chicano/Latino/a/x, Black, Native American, Asian/Pacific Islanders (API), immigrants, refugees, undocumented, LGBTQ, formerly incarcerated, low-income, disabled, and unhoused people
. This includes integrating the critical work outlined in the Welcoming San José Plan 2.01 (WSJ) which aims to deepen the inclusion and belonging work so that all people thrive.
It is with this overarching vision that the ORE approaches the work within the City organization and San José community.
While recruiting and hiring for ORE personnel took some time, the Administration is happy to report, that in October 2021, the ORE filled the final two vacant positions and is now fully staffed with seven talented, experienced, multilingual and culturally diverse members. ORE offers the City organization a unique perspective about the way in which local government impacts the lives of San José residents, in particular communities who have been left out. Three members of the team are responsible for implementing strategies in the Welcoming San José Plan 2.0 and the Combating Anti-API Hate strategies, both adopted by the City Council last spring 2021. This body of work requires extensive collaboration and coordination with community partners and the County of Santa Clara. Additionally, two staff members are responsible for establishing the infrastructure, tools, capacity building, and coordination with all City departments to embed a racial equity framework within the organization. The Director oversees both streams of work and the Staff Specialist supports the entire team.
While operationally the teams are focused on the implementation of distinct work areas, strategically the ORE team aims to support departments in shifting policies, programs, practices
1 Welcoming San Jose Plan 2.0
https://www.sanjoseca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/75827/637635181505330000
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and resources so that race can no longer be used to predict life outcomes, and everyone can prosper and thrive.
To that end, the role of the ORE is the following:
• Implement and monitor a citywide racial equity framework. • Build organizational capacity to enable the organization to embed equity in culture, decision making, and practice
• Create and implement tools to facilitate equity, inclusion and belonging work • Be data-driven to measure the success of specific programmatic and policy changes and to develop baselines, set goals and measure progress towards goals. • Partner with other institutions and communities.
• Support the organization in operating with urgency and accountability This memorandum summarizes progress made over the first half of the fiscal year (July- December 2021) and outlines key milestones for the second half of the fiscal year (January-June 2022).
ANALYSIS
Advancing Racial Equity
ORE’s goal is to embed a racial equity practice in the City organization that will ultimately eliminate disparities experienced by the most marginalized residents so that all people can thrive and prosper.
The City, along with several local jurisdictions, has adopted the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) framework which in theory would create the environment to advance racial equity through normalizing, organizing, and operationalizing. It is designed to integrate explicit racial equity considerations in policies, practices, programs, and budgets. While the approach leads with race, it does not end with race, it considers intersectionality.
As with any new endeavor, there are stages of a “startup” that require deliberate efforts towards forming a solid foundation from which to operate on: seed stage, early stage, growth stage, expansion stage, and institutionalization. The Mayor and City Council’s leadership to establish an Office of Racial Equity in June 2020, provided the commitment of resources - the seed - to hire staff and consultants to commence the groundwork. Over the last year, the City administration has built upon efforts that were initiated in previous years. During this early stage of development, the ORE hired staff, integrated the Immigrant Affairs (IA) work, and began to form the infrastructure that would support and reinforce efforts in the long-term.
While departments are at varying levels of readiness, leaders, and managers are committed to learning, practicing, and refining decision-making skills so that policy recommendations, service
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delivery, community engagement, and distribution of resources promote equitable outcomes for San José residents. The growth stage will require more training, tools, and a shift in culture towards expanding the equity mindset into every layer and corner of the City’s core services, so that one day the practice of centering racial equity is truly institutionalized.
The tables below represent a look back at the first six months of the fiscal year and a look forward to the end of June 2022. The objectives are based on the initial workplan shared with the Mayor and City Council through Manager’s Budget Addendum #22 (May 2021). 2 Table 1: Framework, Objectives and Key Accomplishments, July-December 2021:
Normalize (Awareness and capacity building)
Objective
Develop and implement training and applied practice programs Key Accomplishments
• Organized two Senior and Executive Staff Racial Equity workshops. • Completed a Request for Proposal for Citywide Equity and Inclusion trainers ranging from topics such as Racial Equity 101 and Racial Equity for Law Enforcement. • Sponsored online trainings and special events hosted by external partners.
Organize (Sustainable infrastructure)
Objective
Build Office of Racial Equity Team and Citywide Infrastructure
Key Accomplishments
• Hired and onboarded one Assistant to the City Manager (Racial Equity Manager) and one Senior Executive Analyst.
• Created an internal Equity Council comprised of City leaders and Equity & Inclusion Managers and organized bimonthly meetings.
• Coordinated with City GARE group and GARE workgroups (Public Safety, Workforce Equity, Community Engagement, Data Equity).
Operationalize (Practice, iterate, expand)
Objective
1. Embed equity in the budget process
2. Support the Reimagining Community Safety project
3. Support the Community and Economic Recovery work
2 Manager’s Budget Addendum #22:
https://www.sanjoseca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/73627/637578151287070000
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Key Accomplishments
• Partnered with City Manager’s Budget Office and completed two Results Based Accountability Training sessions focused on City budget performance measures for ORE, City Manager’s Budget Office, City Auditor’s Office, departments of Transportation, Library, Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services, Police, Human Resources, Environmental Services, and Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs.
• Completed 25+ ad-hoc consultations with City departments related to racial equity initiatives.
• Revised and launched a Budgeting for Equity tool for FY 2022-2023 in partnership with the City Manager’s Budget Office.
• Promoted racial equity principles and implementation in response to COVID-19 recovery efforts.
• Developed a Community Engagement framework.
• Advisory and Leadership Team engagement in Trauma Informed Resilience Oriented Culture implementation.
• Supported the initial stages of the Reimagining Community Safety project.
Table 2: Framework, Objective, and In-Progress and Key Milestones by June 2022:
Normalize (Awareness and capacity building)
Objective
Develop and implement training and applied practice programs In-Progress and Key Milestones
• Develop training videos for City staff on racial equity terms/concepts. • Host 2 racial equity workshops for Senior and Executive Staff. • Coordinate and launch Citywide Racial Equity training and educational opportunities.
Organize (Sustainable infrastructure)
Objective
Build Office of Racial Equity Team and Citywide Infrastructure
In-Progress and Key Milestones
• Execute two Master Consultant Agreements for Citywide Racial Equity 101 Training and Racial Equity training for law enforcement.
• Partner with Human Resources and complete a Citywide training and organizational development procurement for July 2022-June 2025.
• Continuous bimonthly internal Equity Council meetings. • 100% Departments complete a racial equity action plan. • 50% Departments form a racial equity action team.
• Scope and selection process finalized for proposed Equity Roundtable.
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• Leadership and Advisory team engagement in Trauma Informed Resilience Oriented Culture implementation.
• Develop a mechanism to support and track progress of Citywide GARE/workgroups.
Operationalize (Practice, iterate, expand)
Objective
1. Embed equity in the budget process
2. Support the reimagining community safety project
3. Support the community and economic recovery work
In-Progress and Key Milestones
• Consultations on Budgeting for Equity worksheets (20 hours). • Technical assistance on department specific racial equity action plans (60 hours and 7 departments).
• Technical assistance on department specific racial equity action teams (20 hours). • 5 Complete Results Based Accountability “Turn the Curve”3 plans with City departments.
• 100% Departments submit a Budgeting for Equity worksheet. • Initial implementation of Community Engagement Framework. • Explore the feasibility and resources needed for an organizational assessment.
Shifting organizational culture and mindsets to facilitate the application of racial equity tools and practices requires long-term investment and commitment. Racial equity requires deep commitments from both management and staff to encourage capacity building and normalizing conversations around race and impact. Considering that the City is a large and dynamic organization providing various programs and services, lack of capacity, vacancies, competing projects, and increasing workloads are a challenge to fully operationalizing racial equity practices. However, the City also recognizes the years of systemic oppression and injustices that many marginalized communities face, and it is with this lens that the City pursues strategies and actions to overcome these challenges at every opportunity.
Although City departments are at different levels of implementing racial equity practices, there have been several departments and service areas that have been working to provide better outcomes for Black, Indigenous, Latin/o/a/x, and other communities of color. One significant and coordinated effort is the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With support from the ORE, the City is ensuring that a racial equity lens is applied to decision-making and communities that
3 Turn the Curve Core Questions:
1. How are we doing?
2. What is the story behind the curve?
3. Who are the partners who have a role to turn the curve?
4. What works to turn the curve?
5. What is our action plan to turn the curve?
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have been the most impacted are being prioritized. Examples include COVID-19 outreach and vaccination sites, food distribution, and childcare.
Furthermore, the Library Department has developed equity and inclusion quality standards into their programming. Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services hosted several learning opportunities for their staff to engage in conversations centered around race and identity. The Department of Transportation is engaging in strategies to increase pavement conditions for identified communities of concern.
In addition to FY 2021-2022 Objectives, staff is actively working on two Council-directed projects: 1) sunsetting the Human Services Commission and replacing it with a community advisory board, and 2) the development of racial equity definition specific to San José.
1. New Community Advisory Body: In January 2021, Councilmember Sylvia Arenas provided direction to staff to examine and align the scope and work of the Human Services Commission with the work of the newly formed Office of Racial Equity. Based on this direction, the ORE researched several advisory groups in other cities and jurisdictions that were connected to equity-type offices. As such, in June 2021, staff met with Councilmember Arenas to propose an alternative advisory body that would be representative of the community and functioned in a way that would provide meaningful input to the City.
Staff recommended to explore an alternative external body that would focus on equitable engagement and provide input on City policies that would benefit historically marginalized communities. In addition, staff volunteered to engage organizations and community members familiar with racial equity concepts, to help design a new advisory body that would enhance the City’s ability to advance racial equity. Staff was given approval to proceed and initiated a community co-creation process.
The purpose of a co-creation process was to engage in community discussions that would inform a framework, scope, and selection process for this new advisory body tentatively titled: Equity Roundtable. The initial framework, scope, and selection process for the Equity Roundtable will be discussed by the Neighborhood Services and Education Council Committee on January 13, 2022.
2. Definition of Racial Equity: staff is currently drafting a citywide racial equity definition based on feedback and guidance from City Council in November 2021 and input from two community dialogue sessions in December 2021. Staff aims to present a proposed racial equity definition for City Council consideration and approval in late January 2022.
Given constraints and challenges, ORE finds that the organization has several areas of opportunities and will continue to build capacity, iterate, and grow. Staff will continue to emphasize capacity building through offering training opportunities and engaging with senior
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and executive staff on a regular basis. Additionally, ORE will continue to partner with the City Manager’s Budget Office on implementing equitable budget practices and institutionalizing a results-based accountability methodology. As the ORE team is now fully staffed, it will be able to support departments in technical assistance and subject matter expertise in Citywide efforts advancing racial equity. Lastly, staff will continually engage with community partners and members in dialogue to better inform ORE’s strategies.
Advancing Immigrant Inclusion and Belonging
While the Office of Immigrant Affairs no longer exists as a separate entity, the work of the Immigrant Affairs (IA) team is closely embedded into the framework of the Office of Racial Equity which collectively recognizes that immigrant justice is racial justice and that these two concepts are inseparable. The IA team is tasked with advancing initiatives and activities to help build a welcoming City for the nearly 40% of residents who were born in another country. The central goal of this work is to assist immigrant communities, long-term residents, and the City itself to build a welcoming community — in words, action, policies, and programs. The vision is to facilitate and accelerate immigrant inclusion in civic, economic, linguistic, and social aspects of life in San José, while ensuring that all immigrant and refugee communities, regardless of their backgrounds or countries of origin are engaged, respected, and have opportunities to reach their fullest potential. As conveners, connectors, supporters, facilitators, and advocates, staff helps to move forward the powerful work of our community partners and to influence City systems to be more welcoming and accessible to the immigrant community.
Since the adoption of the Welcoming San José Plan 2.0 by the City Council in June of 2021, the staff worked on the implementation of community-identified strategies across the four pillars that comprise the WSJ Plan: Leadership & Communications, Access & Engagement, Educational & Economic Opportunity, and Safe Communities. In the intervening months, these 23 initial strategies have also been joined by emerging challenges, crises, and opportunities which have enhanced and broadened the scope of the IA team’s work in response to real-time changes in the immigration landscape. Throughout this entire process, the efforts and impacts of this work have been monitored, measured, and evaluated in order to ensure that key objectives and results are met and critical data is collected and analyzed. A comprehensive monitoring and evaluation plan was developed alongside the creation of the Welcoming San José Plan 2.0 in order to ensure that strategies were not just aspirational, but also measurable, trackable, and assessable for impact in the community. An overview of the evaluation plan and a sample component is attached to this memo for reference. (Attachment A)
Leadership & Communications
The objective of the Leadership & Communications pillar is to establish equitable systems, policies, and practices throughout the City that create a welcoming and inclusive environment that allows immigrants, residents of color, and all people of San José to thrive. The strategies within this pillar represent a broad swathe of activities ranging from internally focused work in collaboration with the Racial Equity team within ORE, Council offices, and City departments to
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intergovernmental relationships, working with counterparts across all levels of government both locally, statewide, and nationally. As examples of these efforts, over the past six months the IA team has:
• Hosted, sponsored, and facilitated events such as Welcoming Week and the Mosaic Silicon Valley Festival.
• Monitored, analyzed, and/or supported over 100 federal bills and 10 state bills as well as 25 major administrative/regulatory immigration policy changes. The IA team also facilitated 5 Mayoral sign-on letters supporting issues such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Temporary Protected Status, and Afghan resettlement and drafted and supported the introduction of Councilmember Esparza’s resolution in support of pathways to citizenship in the budget reconciliation bill. • Established bi-weekly immigration briefings for Mayor, City Manager, and Council Members to provide regular updates on policy changes, community activities, and resources and tools related to immigration.
• Established working relationships with 6 diplomatic missions to coordinate services and support for immigrants (India, The Philippines, South Korea, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras).
• Designed a framework to expand Refugee Quarterly Consultation meetings to include local stakeholders and representatives from City departments. • Launched educational campaigns in support of the re-launch of the Central American Minor Program and Documented Dreamers.
• Led regional efforts to coordinate the local response to Afghan refugee resettlement in San José and throughout the South Bay, liaising with local congressional offices during the evacuation, hosting the first South Bay Afghan Town Hall with elected officials and community leaders, and coordinating service provision through established relationships and networks for newly arriving refugees.
Access & Engagement
The objective of the Access & Engagement pillar is to improve immigrant access to City information and services, and augment immigrant participation in civic life. The strategies within this pillar touch on broad issues such as community engagement and language access as well as civics, citizenship and naturalization services, and the relationships and connections between immigrant communities and the City, as well as one another. The IA team has:
• Supported the development of an internal needs assessment of City community engagement staff on outreach to immigrant communities and language access needs. • Completed the transfer of Language Access to the Communications team and offered preliminary support for the creation of a framework for tracking metrics for citywide usage of language services used/needed per department.
• Established a monthly Facebook Live series to amplify priority immigration issues and the work of local and national service providers on those issues.
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• Partnered with the San José Library to re-evaluate the Citizenship Corners partnership and explore the expansion to all library locations.
• Developed initial partnership with US Citizenship and Immigration Service to provide immigration workshops and webinars for City employees and their families, including exploring the implementation of the New American Workforce program within the City. • Cultivated and established relationships with organizations representing smaller or newer immigrant communities, with a focus on Black immigrants (including African, Afro- Caribbean, and Afro-Latino/a/x groups).
Educational & Economic Opportunity
The objective of the Educational & Economic Opportunity pillar is to advance educational and economic opportunities among immigrants and refugees through job skills training, strengthening career pathways, promotion of entrepreneurship, small business retention and growth, and financial literacy. As both on an ongoing challenge and as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold, it is fundamental to an equitable recovery that immigrant communities are provided with the support and resources they need to build resiliency and regain a foothold. To that end, the IA team has:
• Conducted a preliminary assessment of adult schools, labor unions, and partners to evaluate programs being offered and create a framework for a more efficient referral network.
• Developed a list of entrepreneur and job training programs within San José for more effective and efficient referral.
• Worked with the Intergovernmental Relations team to monitor and support federal and state legislation credentialing & re-certification bills. • Began development of a verified list of local ESL courses (including civics courses) to provide better referral and reference for immigrant communities. • Evaluated opportunities to collaborate with the SJ Library to support job training and employment opportunities.
• Developed initial collaboration with the Community & Economic Recovery team to begin aligning recovery work within immigrant communities. • Building on KQED’s recent series “San José: The Bay Area’s Great Immigrant Food City,” began development of an initiative to spotlight immigrant-owned businesses from more than 40 countries (and counting).
• Collaborated with the Mayor’s Office of Technology and Innovation to design a scalable pilot project to support a resume preparation and job mentoring program for newly arriving Afghan refugees.
Safe Communities
The objective of the Safe Communities pillar is to foster trust and communication between law enforcement, local government, immigrants, and the community at large. The strategies under
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this pillar encompass a broad understanding of public safety, going beyond law enforcement to include other public safety bodies such as the Fire Department and Office of Emergency Management. These strategies also involve close coordination and collaboration with external partners such as the American Red Cross and community organizations which provide services to foreign victims of human trafficking. Over the last six months, the IA team has:
• Facilitated and provided logistical support for the Rapid Response Network retreat and the expansion of Rapid Response Network services to include legal and rental assistance clinics and workshops.
• Established a partnership with the Police Department Crime Prevention Unit to provide laws and safety trainings during refugee cultural orientations. • Partnered with the American Red Cross to begin development of a regional strategy to expand Red Cross community preparedness training courses to immigrant communities and to support the expansion of Red Cross Latino Engagement Teams. • Assessed the network of providers for foreign victims of human trafficking and began initial planning for an educational campaign on available support services through organizations such as the International Rescue Committee.
The Safe Communities pillar is also the home of the community-identified strategies to combat hate crimes against API which were approved by the City Council in May of 2021 and represented a significant expansion of the work plan. Staff has managed the implementation of fifteen (15) distinct, but interconnected, strategies related to addressing hate crimes and violence against API communities. The implementation of these strategies has been done in conjunction with the activities of the San José Police Department. The work of both ORE and the Police Department over the last six months has largely focused on Immediate Response & Preparedness and Engagement & Consultation. Given the urgency of the situation and the continued rise in incidents of hate directed at API communities, particularly vulnerable members of these communities such as the elderly, priority was placed on first advancing strategies that would provide immediate support and assistance to community residents through both material support and training, tools, and resources. These efforts included:
• Allocating $8,000 to develop and purchase a San José-specific version of the “How to Report a Hate Crime” handbooks for distribution throughout San José. To date, ORE has ordered 2,000 handbooks in five languages (Vietnamese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean), and distributed over 1,000 handbooks to community centers, senior organizations, schools, and businesses in neighborhoods such as Japantown. Distributions are ongoing and will involve collaboration with Council offices in future waves to ensure widespread coverage. An additional order for handbooks in other common Asian languages, such as Tagalog, is also planned for the coming months. • Allocating $20,000 for the procurement of 800 safety kits for distribution to City Senior Nutrition Program participants and community partners serving API seniors. The kits include a variety of items including whistles, bungee coil key, small flashlight, pepper gel spray, self-defense personal sirens.
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• Tracking and supporting Assembly Bill 600 which clarifies that "immigration status" is included in the scope of a "hate crime" based on "nationality," and provides this is declaratory of existing law. The bill was signed into law by Governor Newsom in September.
• Participating in and supporting the planning of Attorney General Bonta’s roundtable discussion on hate crimes in San José in November.
• Working with community leaders, local historians, and Councilmember Peralez’ office to draft and introduce the City Council resolution formally apologizing to Chinese immigrants and their descendants for the role of the City of San José in acts of violence, discrimination, and injustice toward the Chinese community, in addition to supporting the planning and organization of the official public ceremony for the resolution. • Organizing the City’s participation in United Against Hate Week in November by supporting the introduction of a City proclamation by Councilmember Arenas and hosting a virtual community conversation that explored the intersectionality of hate directed towards API communities, including issues such as anti-LGBTQ discrimination and Islamophobia and other religious-based hate.
Next Steps
Over the coming months, staff will continue to implement activities related to the strategies contained in the four pillars of the Welcoming San José Plan. With the team fully staffed, there will be increased capacity for the expansion of ongoing initiatives as well as the launch of ambitious new activities that will further support immigrant communities. The last six months have laid a firm foundation for the critical work of the team (both internally and externally) and many of the previously noted activities will be carried forward into Q3 and Q4 and further expanded. These will also be joined by new objectives and activities, some of which include:
• The launch of new educational campaigns and support services around issues such as foreign victims of human trafficking.
• Ongoing monitoring, analysis, and support for immigration-related legislation, particularly with the start of the state legislative session in January. • Cultivation and support of immigrant advocacy and grassroots leadership development efforts through platforms such as the Immigrant Day in Sacramento and the creation of a San José Immigrant Advocacy Day at City Hall.
• Expansion of subnational diplomacy efforts between the City of San José and other countries through increased collaboration and partnership with diplomatic missions, including organizing a consular corps visit of San José and supporting consular efforts to combat anti-API hate crimes.
• Support for major naturalization events in San José through the New American Campaign and other citizenship collaboratives.
• Promotion and support of programs such as the Immigrant Rising SEED Grant for immigrant entrepreneurs and Dreamers for Tech.
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• Assessment of mass care and emergency response planning to ensure linguistic and cultural capacity and immigrant inclusivity.
CONCLUSION
The Office of Racial Equity drives two critical bodies of work across the City organization to operationalize equity by explicitly identifying ways to eliminate disparities experienced by the most marginalized residents so that all people can thrive and prosper. The collective work of ORE and engagement of City staff will deepen the organizations’ understanding of racial equity, inclusion and belonging and ways in which every department can make deliberate progress towards creating a San Jose that works for everyone.
ORE is laying the foundation for the marathon ahead and sustainable long-term change management, while simultaneously supporting the City with the urgent needs, such as Budgeting for Equity and applying an equity lens on priority areas as those delineated in the City Roadmap.
There are already many bright spots throughout the organization where staff are thinking critically about the impacts of program design and service delivery, embarking on a learning agenda, rethinking data sets both qualitative and quantitative, skill building on equitable community engagement, building a trauma-informed and resilience-oriented culture, improving access for people with disabilities, and so on. The implementation of the Welcoming San José plan is an excellent example of “operationalizing” racial equity – centering the experiences of immigrants and refugees and approaching the work with humility and ongoing learning.
All areas of the equity framework described in this status report are in motion; steadily moving the organization from early stage to growth stage. While there is much more work to do to eliminate racial disparities and reverse the effects of redlining on communities forced to live there, the City is making progress towards that end.
EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
Staff will continue to set quarterly benchmarks, track progress, and report out through regular meetings with City Council offices. In addition, the ORE will release an information memorandum that captures objectives and key results at the end of FY 2021-2022.
CLIMATE SMART SAN JOSE
The recommendation in this memorandum has no effect on Climate Smart San José energy, water, or mobility goals.
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PUBLIC OUTREACH
This memorandum will be posted on the agenda website for the Neighborhood Services and Education Committee meeting for January 13, 2022.
COORDINATION
This memorandum was coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office.
COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION/INPUT
No commission recommendation or input is associated with this action.
CEQA
Not a Project, File No. PP17-009, Staff Reports, Assessments, Annual Reports, and Informational Memos that involve no approvals of any City action.
/s/
ZULMA MACIEL
Director, Office of Racial Equity
For questions, please contact Zulma Maciel, Director, at [email protected].
Attachment A: Welcoming San Jose Plan 2.0 Monitoring and Evaluation Plan