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OneOrange Racial Equity Framework Update.
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Staff: |
Department: |
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Loryn Clark, Deputy Town Manager |
Town 'Manager's Office |
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Shenekia Weeks, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer |
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Alysha Phanord, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program Analyst |
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Overview:
OneOrange is committed to creating a community where race no longer predicts life outcomes and has been working to institutionalize the OneOrange Racial Equity Plan's components within our jurisdictions. There are five mutually reinforcing pillars of the Racial Equity Framework. Each is represented by a multi-jurisdictional subcommittee led by at least one jurisdictional member and includes staff from each jurisdiction. The subcommittees are Training, Racial Equity Assessment Lens (REAL), Community Engagement, Racial Equity Index, and Evaluation and Accountability; the Plan is based on the work of these committees.
Staff will share how they continue operationalizing the OneOrange Racial Equity Plan into institutional processes that enable more equitable outcomes internally and externally.
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Recommendation(s): |
That the Council receives the update and provides feedback on OneOrange implementation strategies.
Background
In January 2021, the Government Alliance on Race & Equity Multi-Jurisdictional Task Force, OneOrange, established subcommittees to work on each section of the Orange County Racial Equity Plan: A Framework for Moving Forward. OneOrange includes staff from the Towns of Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, and Orange County.
In January 2022, all jurisdictions in Orange County received and adopted the OneOrange County Racial Equity Plan: A Framework for Moving Forward. Since January 2022, the OneOrange staff team has worked to share jurisdictional implementation strategies and design the Racial Equity Index. Additionally, we have socialized the Plan with potential jurisdictional partners; OWASA and Durham Technical Community College representatives attended a OneOrange staff team meeting to explore partnerships and the implementation of the OneOrange Plan within their respective organizations. Orange County Public Schools and Chapel-Hill Carrboro City Schools have also been informed and invited to participate.
Since the Plan was received and adopted, we have made the following progress:
OneOrange
• Orange County DSS Toy Chest Community Engagement Follow-Up
• Initiated Child Welfare Data Index with SAS
• Received Preliminary Equity Data from Carolina Demography
TOCH
• Implemented TOCH DEI Training Plan (Year-long DEI Training Schedule)
• Expanded the use of the Racial Equity Assessment Lens
• Piloted the Community Engagement Compensation Plan
• Hired a DEI Program Analyst
• Completed Results Based Accountability Training Nonprofit
• Completed RBA Training for Department Directors
• Concluded 1st Equity Lab Cohort
• Implemented Transgender and Gender Diverse Policy
Key Issues:
• The OneOrange County-wide Racial Equity Framework Catalyst for Moving Forward relies on developing and implementing five pillars: Training, Racial Equity Assessment Lens (REAL), Community Engagement, Racial Equity Index, and Evaluation and Accountability. See the development and implementation progress below.
Training & Organizational Capacity
1. OneOrange staff leads provided foundational racial equity training to elected officials on November 16 and December 8. The training, Advancing Racial Equity: The Role of Government, was based on GARE's training program. Elected officials from each jurisdiction participated. Feedback from elected officials who participated in the training was that the experience was beneficial to engage and converse with other elected officials on what they've been doing and what DEI goals they are looking to achieve.
2. Chapel Hill has partnered with Clear Impact and is offered a Results Based Accountability training on January 26 to nonprofits within Orange County. As an example of sharing resources county-wide, this training was made available to nonprofits throughout the county, not just those that serve Chapel Hill.
Each jurisdiction has continued to train employees to build internal capacity, and most are utilizing the Racial Equity Assessment Lens and training staff on how to use the tool best.
Customized Training for Town Departments
• Library & Community Arts and Culture
• Transit
• Public Housing
• Affordable Housing & Community Connections
• Department Directors
• Parks and Recreation (Youth Program)
• Public Works
• Community Facilitators Training for Engagement Gap Analysis
Community Engagement & Community Engagement Compensation Plan Pilots
1. The Affordable Housing and Community Connections (AH&CC) Department has been piloting paid engagement opportunities for historically under-engaged populations since 2020. Most recently, AH&CC incorporated paid engagement into their Engagement Study, which is focused on identifying populations currently under-engaged with the Town, deepening our understanding of reasons for this lack of engagement, and developing recommendations to support new engagement approaches prioritizing equity. The final phase of the Engagement Study involves the Town compensating community members for their work leading community conversations with friends, neighbors, and broader social networks. These Community Facilitators are all from historically under-engaged populations, as are the meeting participants, and both groups are being compensated for their time and expertise. The results of the study will be presented to Council in March.
2. Shaping Our Future Initiative with Planning and Transit provided an additional opportunity to pilot the Community Engagement Compensation Plan. We engaged with 29 organizations with over 300 person-hours and approximately 250 person-hours for organizations' constituents to participate. Neighboring Concepts has allocated $12,000 to compensate organizations.
3. Last year, we came to the Toy Chest, Orange County Human Services annual gift, and holiday support event to ask the community for help identifying priorities for OneOrange Racial Equity Plan. In December 2022, the One Orange team returned and shared data about the priorities. We also asked the attendees for additional help understanding why these problems exist in our communities. We interrogated the top three priorities of Education, Housing, and Employment. See Toy Chest Data attached.
4. Chapel Hill Diversity, a website, was created as a tool and resource to help support, promote, and connect BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) businesses in Orange County. This tourism-related work started during the COVID lockdown in 2020 when a committee of our Visitors Bureau board agreed to develop a diversity-focused campaign after the Visitors Bureau continued to receive comments from meeting and event planners on increasing gentrification and lack of diversity. The committee consists of Sharon A. Hill, Spring Council, Lilli Englehardt, Nancy Largent, Shenekia Weeks, and Lauri Paolicelli. On October 1, the website launched <https://chapelhilldiversity.com/>
Racial Equity Assessment Lens
The Equity Lab has remained a place for Town staff to continue normalizing race in conversations about programs, policies, and procedures. The Equity Lab, currently with seven members representing five town departments, meets twice a month. The first half of the meeting is dedicated to normalizing conversation on race, and the second half is devoted to applying the Racial Equity Assessment Lens. The Racial Equity Assessment Lens is an extensive tool delving into historical disparities, social determinants of health, community engagement, and benefits and burdens.
The application of the REAL tool requires time and diverse perspectives. Centering equity should always be prioritized; however, the team has learned that these tools are time-consuming, so the following Racial Equity Pocket questions can be used to center equity:
1. What are the racial impacts?
2. Who is or will experience a burden?
3. Who is or will experience benefit?
4. What are the root causes of inequity?
5. What might be the unintended consequences of this action or strategy?
Internal REAL Lens Applications:
• Public Life Study Survey Questions
• Community Survey Questions
• Human Services Funding Process
• Board and Commission Recruitment
• Splash Pad Feasibility
• ARPA Grant Process
• Public Library Weekly Schedule
• Shaping Our Future Community Engagement
• Admission and Continued Occupancy Policy
• Housing Choices LUMOTA
• Complete Community Checklist
Strategies Under Development
• The Racial Equity Index informs community-level outcome measures and jurisdictional racial disparity reduction strategies. On August 24, 2022, the Orange County Department of Social Services SS leadership team, One Orange racial equity officials, data management personnel, and a SAS data scientist gathered for the first Racial Equity Analytics Summit. The purpose of the Summit was to create a shared understanding of the best use of operational child welfare data to understand and promote racial equity in Orange County. To this end, Summit participants created a consensus Value Vision, defining the project's overall goals. Through this process, Carolina Demography provided Orange County disaggregated data. See attachment.
• The Racialized History and Reckoning Document is essentially a truth-telling document to guide the Town's approach to building and repairing community relationships, addressing harms done to the community, and avoiding additional harm when making decisions. Once completed, this document will facilitate the use of the Racial Equity Assessment Lens by providing information about how our jurisdictions knowingly or unknowingly contribute and perpetuate disparities. Based on community engagement efforts, the jurisdictional leads suggest starting with the top three issues identified by the community: Education, Employment, and Housing.
• Evaluation and accountability will measure the implementation of county-wide and jurisdictional racial equity initiatives once all mutually reinforcing levers are fully operational.
Fiscal Impact/Resources: Each jurisdiction is asking for $20,000.00 to begin work on the Data Index and Racialized History. Now that SAS has piloted racialized child welfare data, the jurisdictional leads are ready to seek a vendor to complete a Racial Data Index by which we can anchor our work as a community. Additionally, the Racialized History is vital to understanding institutional and systemic racism. The work of OneOrange supports the implementation of the Reimagining Community Safety Recommendations. The Prevention, Crisis, and Post-Crisis recommendations speak to many of the disparate impacts of people of color. We plan to use funds from the RICS budget to support this work. Connecting this work and viewing it through a racial equity lens will ensure evaluation and accountability.
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Attachments: |
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• Draft Staff Presentation |
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• Carolina Demography Racialized Data |
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• Toy Chest Data |
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The Agenda will reflect the text below, and/or the motion text will be used during the meeting. |
presenter
PRESENTER: Shenekia Weeks, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer
The purpose of this item is to provide an update and receive feedback on OneOrange implementation strategies.