TITLE: Title
Update on the Town of Carrboro’s Racial Equity Initiative and the One Orange County Racial Equity Plan: A Framework for Moving Forward
PURPOSE: To provide the Town Council with an update on the town’s race and equity work and an overview of the Framework for moving forward with the Countywide Racial Equity Plan.
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DEPARTMENT: Town Manager
CONTACT INFORMATION: Anita Jones-McNair - 919.918.7371
INFORMATION: On October 6, 2020, the Town Council received the last racial equity initiative update and supported staff moving forward with an Orange County Racial Equity planned approach. This plan includes working collaboratively with Orange County and the Towns of Chapel Hill and Hillsborough. After each governing body agreed, Carrboro staff along with staff from each jurisdiction began working in five multi-jurisdictional subcommittees on separate parts of the racial equity plan. The subcommittees led by at least one jurisdictional lead involve Training, Racial Equity Tool Kit, Community Engagement, Racial Equity Index, and Evaluation and Accountability.
The work of the subcommittees will be the basis of the racial equity plan. Staff is planning to include a few other sections in the plan such as:
Definition Section- The public and stakeholders can fully understand the terminology used throughout the document.
History- This summer we will engage local historians to include the racialized history of Orange County as part of the Plan.
Graphic and Economic Data Analysis - Each jurisdiction can assess whether a disparity study is needed before entering into any race- or gender- based remedial programs so that each project developed based on racial equity principles can withstand scrutiny in a court of law.
The subcommittees adhered to the projected timeline found in Section III of the Framework. Prior to bringing this document to the Elected Officials, team members conducted some preliminary community engagement. Staff held a Public Comment Period and an Information Session on the Racial Equity Framework for leaders of Community groups to provide feedback on the framework and on how to engage with the communities they serve. A sample of those community stakeholders are included in Section IV of the attached Framework. We received one comment during this period; but between 40 - 50, stakeholders came to the Community Forum and actively participated in a discussion about the Framework. The overarching themes of the responses received were:
1. The Community wanted to be involved in developing a racial equity plan;
2. The Community thought we must reach out to marginalized communities; and
3. The Community believed we must get schools involved in our Plan.
Once we receive all the feedback from each jurisdiction, we will incorporate the changes into our Plan as well as the feedback from the community stakeholders.
Next Steps
Provide information to Elected Officials - An updated summary of the town’s equity work and the Orange County Racial Equity Framework/Report ( see Attachments A and B) provided to Carrboro Town Council and a presentation to Orange County Commissioners - June 15, Chapel Hill Town Council - June 23 and Hillsborough Town Council - June 28, 2021.
Community Engagement - Over the summer, we plan to conduct additional community engagement. The Racial Equity Plan Framework has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, Burmese and Karen. We will take the racial equity plan to communities of color and other community groups to get their feedback on the plan. We will also reach out to both school systems to see if they want to join us in this process. A social media consultant was hired to provide information and get feedback from diverse groups of residents about the racial equity plan.
Training Racial Equity Foundation Training - The Carrboro CORE Team has almost completed providing training to their employees on the Racial Equity Foundations Training and starting to provide this training to their Advisory Boards and Commissions. County employees have received DEI Training, while not the same as the Foundation training; we would like to bypass employees and begin training County Boards and Commissions on the Racial Equity Foundations Training. We believe that the next training employees may need is anti-bias training.
Racial Equity Tool Kit - We plan to train a small group on the racial equity review process so we can begin piloting in each jurisdiction to see how it works in the field.
Subcommittees- The multi-jurisdictional subcommittees will continue working on their specific sections of the Plan during the summer. The intent is that all jurisdictions will work on these efforts as a team.
In the fall, we will hold a public hearing or a series of public hearings on the draft of the Final Plan prior to bringing the Racial Equity Plan to the Elected Officials.
FISCAL & STAFF IMPACT: There is no financial impact associated with this item.
RECOMMENDATION:r Staff recommends the Town Council receive the report and share any written comments to help shape the framework/report.