Actions to Advance Racial Equity

Authors: Local and Regional Government Alliance on Race & Equity, Center for Social Inclusion

The Organizational Continuum self-assessment document will point to some of the specific actions listed below. These actions will form the basis of your initial Racial Equity Action Plan and will help your organization operationalize racial equity. Your Racial Equity Action Plan should have clear actions, timelines, people responsible for each action, indicators of progress, and processes for monitoring and evaluation. Your plan should include organization strategies, as well as work area-specific strategies. Staff should be engaged in the development and implementation of actions and strategies.

This document and the companion Organizational Continuum has been influenced by the Portland Coalition of Communities of Color, All Hands Raised Tool for Organizational Self-Assessment Related to Racial Equity; the City of Portland organizational assessment, and the City of Seattle Race and Social Justice Initiative structural racism curriculum. We express our gratitude and appreciation for this prior ground-breaking work.

Normalize

Developing a shared understanding

A. Provide introductory training on racial equity and inclusion, followed by ongoing dialogue, for all staff. Training concepts should include the social construction of race, the history of government and race, implicit and explicit bias, and individual, institutional and structural racism.

B. Provide introductory and ongoing racial equity training for key decision makers such as elected officials, management and policy staff. Training concepts should include the history of government and race, implicit and explicit bias, individual, institutional and structural racism, roles and responsibilities of leaders, and managing for racial equity.

C. Provide topic-specific racial equity training for staff. Training should include tools that focus on operationalizing equity, including use of a Racial Equity Tool, workforce equity, contracting equity, inclusive outreach and public engagement, and communicating about race.

Operating with urgency

D. Create an internal racial equity vision or mission statement.

E. Develop and implement a racial equity policy that prioritizes work on racial equity for the organization as a whole or within individual work areas.

F. Incorporate racial equity expectations into management accountability agreements.

G. Communicate a value for and vision of racial equity in communication materials (including web site and newsletters), workshops and trainings, events and other points of contact.

H. Work with other institutions and the community to identify, align and implement strategies for advancing racial equity (related to actions L and O).

Organize

Organizational Capacity

I. Develop a racial equity team, supported by leadership and with leadership representation, that is responsible for oversight and implementation of an organization-wide Racial Equity Action Plan.

J. Develop racial equity teams within work groups to lead implementation of Racial Equity Action Plans.

K. Support leadership development skills that advance racial equity, with an emphasis on employees of color.

Partner with others

L. Create a plan and implement ongoing strategies to engage communities of color and immigrant and refugee communities in the organization’s routine operations (related to actions H and O).

M. Align decisions about internal policies, practices, procedures, and programs with other institutions and community based organizations advancing racial equity (related to action G and N).

N. Assess your group’s ability to create structural change and complete a partner analysis: Who are your current partners? What are their racial and ethnic make-ups? How are they received and supported by communities of color? How can you partner to bring about structural change across and between institutions and systems?

X. Partner with the community and other institutions to develop and implement community-wide racial equity strategies with clear and measurable goals (related to actions H and L).

Operationalize

Tools

O. Use a Racial Equity Tool to assess policies, practices, procedures, programs and/or budgetary decisions (see GARE’s Racial Equity Toolkit).

P. Create and implement Workforce Equity policies and procedures so that the organization’s workforce reflects the demographics of the community across the breadth of positions. Complete an in-depth analysis of current racial representation, and focus not only on recruitment, but also retention and promotion, and the policies and practices that are creating any existing inequities. (See GARE’s Workforce Equity Issue Paper as a resource)

Q. Develop and implement Contracting and Procurement Equity policies and procedures so that the organization’s contracting and procurement investments benefit the full demographics of the community. Complete an in-depth analysis of current contracting and procurement, focusing not only on outreach, but also on structural drivers of current inequities, and the policies and practices that are creating any existing inequities. (See GARE’s Contracting Equity Issue Paper as a resource)

Data

S. Research the racial history of your community – what are the demographics, how have demographics shifted over time, what is the history of race relations and racialized policies and practices, what are the current racial inequities within your communities, what are the current successes? Communicate inequity data within historical and contemporary context to tell the full story of racial inequities and make the case for racial equity; center the lived experiences of people of color in analyses of issues and their solutions.

T. Create and implement a policy on how to collect data on the race / ethnicity of clients and customers; provide racial / ethnic categories that reflect the particular groups in your community; allow people to self-identify, choose more than one category, and choose “other.”

U. Collect evaluative data on the progress of your work, including an employee racial equity survey and community racial equity survey, as well as data tied to specific policies and programs, including satisfaction of your customers and partners; share the findings broadly and use the information to help inform action plans.