DISCUSSION
DRAFT March 22, 2011
Equity Office
Concept and Creation
Who:
(recent history of how we got to this point)
·
The idea to create an Equity office represents a convergence
of many voices – community members, elected officials and city staff – that all
came to the conclusion that governments working in the City of Portland, and
the city as a whole needs to take steps to ensure we are a more equitable
place.
·
A few of the voices that worked to initiate the creation of
an office include:
o
o Coalition of
Communities of Color
o Urban League
of
o Center for
Intercultural Organizing
o Oregon Public
Health Institute
o Upstream
Public Health
o Mayor Adams
and
o Many more have
contacted us since the announcement to express their support and excitement for
this effort.
·
Data sources that support the request for an equity
initiative include:
o Vision PDX
Report
o Immigrant and
Refugee Task Force Report
o The State of
o Coalition of
Communities of Color Disparities Study
o Making the
Invisible Visible
o IRCO Community
Needs Assessment
o Coalition for
a Livable Future’s Equity Atlas
Mayor
Adams and
The
Mayor and Commissioner soon will convene a creation committee, focus groups,
and community meetings to provide advice on the function and structure of this
office.
A
Community Forum will be held May 18, 2011, 6:30 – 8:30
p.m., to share information and discuss the proposal. Contact sara.hussein@portlandoregon.gov for
details and location.
Initial
thinking on concepts of function and structure:
Some
City positions will move from their current bureaus to the new Office. For instance, it is envisioned that the staff
positions in the Office of Human Relations will be incorporated into the Office
of Equity. Other positions in the City
might be formally tied to the Office of Equity but stay located in another
bureau. New positions will also be created in the Office of Equity. Likely,
there will be an initial start-up in FY 2011-12 followed by expansion in
2012-13.
The
relationship between the Office of Equity and existing Commissions, committees,
boards and community partners, and any new advisory groups, is to be
determined.
What:
·
Equity is when everyone has full and
equal access to opportunities necessary to meet their essential needs, advance
their well-being, and achieve their full potential.
·
Neither the City of
·
Equity includes the broadest possible factors for
consideration, including but not limited to age, gender, race, religion,
national origin, socioeconomic status, geography in the city, disability,
sexual orientation, gender identity, etc.
·
Initial scoping will include reviewing the proposal from the
Portland Plan’s Equity Initiative, the letter from the Urban League and other
cosigners, and the letter from the Coalition of Communities of Color and
cosigners. We will assess how and
whether the Office can meet each of their recommendations in the short and long
term.
·
The Portland Plan Equity Initiative proposes to:
o Establish an
ongoing Office of Equity to accomplish approved goals. The Office would be
tasked with:
§
Evaluating government processes and programs, and holding
bureaus accountable to set equitable goals.
§
Assisting bureaus in setting metrics, designing data
collection and developing accountability reports.
§
Publishing regular progress reports.
§
Working with private sector and community partners in a way
that supplements, complements and supports the good work already under way.
·
The Urban League proposes that the Office of Equity serve
these functions:
o Set up
accountability mechanisms
o Track and
collect data related to equity/disparities in city processes, decisions,
outcomes
o Equitable
hiring and contracting
o Lead a
city-wide Race and Social Justice effort
o Equitable
budgeting
o Title VI Civil
Rights compliance
o Title II ADA
compliance
o Guide other
bureaus to build their capacity to achieve equity
o Establish an
ongoing City Equity and Accountability Advisory Council tasked to establish the
mission, structure & staffing of the office and to oversee the Office once
established
·
The Coalition of Communities of Color proposes that the
following: “infrastructure” is needed by the City to reduce disparities:
o Enter into
partnerships with community organizations
o Make public
commitments to eliminate disparities, in writing
o Implement
research practices that uniformly make disparities visible
o Create
accountability structures that ensure disparity reduction efforts are
successful
o Implement
equity based funding
In order to advance this infrastructure, CCC proposes the following
steps:
o Begin a
partnership with entities representing communities of color
o Consolidate
the infrastructure recommendations to ensure they are customized for the City
and each bureau
o Finalize
review of accountability practices in operation in other jurisdictions
o Develop
research protocol that will form the basis for more culturally appropriate data
collection
o Develop an
equity based funding formula
o Implementation
that includes the Office and the CCC co-constructing policy and procedural
documents for identified priority areas
Based
on the input received, Mayor Adams and
o Key initial
tasks of the Office, building on and in collaboration with existing City work,
will be to:
§
Assess what work is already being done in City bureaus, and
how to support all staff in viewing all work through the equity lens
§
Complete research, develop goals, design change strategies,
create metrics, design data collection standards, and develop accountability
reports, for City of
§
Build an effective broad-based coalition of public, private
and nongovernmental organizations to speed achievement of defined goals
§
Publish regular progress reports.
§
Support and grow good work already under way.
§
Assess whether and how requested actions in Urban League and
CCC proposals, and others including requests from the Portland Commission on
Disability and the Human Rights Commission, can be implemented
·
In addition to the internal work within the City of
·
The
Office will include avenues to support Portlanders’ needs to address civil
rights/social justice issues.
·
The Office will be established by the City Council on the recommendation
of the Mayor and Commissioner and in consultation with the Human Rights
Commission, the Portland Commission on Disability, the Coalition of Communities
of Color, the Diversity and Civic Leadership Program Partners, Neighborhood
leaders, business leaders, research and education experts, community members,
and government staff.
·
New efforts will initially focus on reducing racial and
ethnic disparities, and on equity for people with disabilities.
·
All City of
·
Where:
The
Office will be an independent City bureau, assigned to
When:
The
Creation Committee, an
as-yet undetermined group of selected community and City staff members, will begin
meeting in April and work through the end of June to help guide the beginning
structure of the office beginning July 1, 2011. Individuals and groups are welcome to email
A
proposed budget is due mid-April.
Establishment of the Office is dependent on approval of the budget
request by the City Council.
Selected
community leaders will participate in the hiring process for the Director, with
the final choice made by
The
structure(s) for community members to provide ongoing advice on the Office will
be determined through the discussions on setting up the Office.
Larger
community meetings and open houses will be held in May and after creation of
the Office. A large public forum is
scheduled for May 18, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m., location to be announced.
The
Office will be created and funded by the beginning of July.