Goals
- Eliminate systemic causes of racial disparities in City Government.
- Promote inclusion and full participation for all residents of the City.
- Reduce race-based disparities in our communities.
Race and Equity Working Assumptions
(adapted from Annie E. Casey Race Matters Toolkit)
- Race matters; almost every indicator of well-being shows troubling disparities by race.
- Disparities are created and maintained, often inadvertently, through institutionalized policies and practices that contain barriers to opportunity.
- It’s possible, and only possible, to close equity gaps by using strategies determined through an intentional focus on racial disparities and their root causes.
- If opportunities in all key areas of well-being are equitable, then equitable results will follow.
- Given the right message, analysis and tools, people will work toward racial equity.
Race and Equity Change Process
- Cultivate advocates and their capacity to focus on equity, build infrastructure and political will to support the change, employ new skills/tools to make changes, track and recognize progress
- Increase awareness of racial inequity, it’s root causes and how it is perpetuated by institutions and systems.
- Mobilize advocates to organize support for furthering a shared vision of racial equity through institutional leadership, equity teams and staff engagement in change efforts.
- Develop strategic plans and tools for analysis and resources for advancing racial equity goals, including specific racial equity outcomes.
- Train staff to apply pro-equity tools to change structures, policies, practices and procedures to further institutional transformation.
- Establish baseline disparity data, targets/benchmarks and processes to track and report outcomes.
- Collaborate with community and other institutions/partners to identify and address cumulative impacts of institutional and structural inequity in Oakland.