2012 Governing for Racial Equity Conference

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Thank you to everyone who attended the Governing for Racial Equity Conference held December 13 and 14 at Seattle University.

Workshop materials have been made available by some presenters and can be found below, along with the original descriptions for the workshops.

For more information, contact Brenda Anibarro at brenda.anibarro@seattle.gov or (206) 684-4514.

Thursday, December 13, 2012
Piggott Auditorium, Seattle University
Van Jones on Governing for Racial Equity

Friday, December 14, 2012
Pigott Auditorium, Seattle University
Plenary Panel: Elected Officials- Seattle Channel
Featuring: Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, Bellevue City Councilmember Claudia Balducci, King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, Washington State Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos.

GRE Opening Remarks
Julie Nelson and Glenn Harris
Presentation

A Focus on Healthy Equity: Strategies and tools from Seattle/King County to promote community health
Matías Valenzuela, Kirsten Wysen and Martha Zuñiga

Despite King County's relatively good average health measures, the region has some of the greatest inequities among urban counties. The federally-funded Communities Putting to Work program addressed the inequities in obesity and tobacco use in King County. Public Health - Seattle & King County along with over 55 organizations tackled local health inequities using a multi-step process, with community engagement playing a key role. Learn tools and best practices to integrate equity into daily public health practice, including planning, policy development, granting and staffing, as well as community engagement and mobilization.

Building Story
Elliott Bronstein, Benita Horn and Sonia Palma

Can we communicate change by changing how we communicate? How can we create more effective narratives to talk about race and racism? This workshop will show how each of us can use our own story and focus our personal message to advance our work on racial equity. Note from the Presenters: The PowerPoint presentation and "Tips" sheet have been revised thanks to thoughtful suggestions from participants in this workshop on 12/13/12. In addition, the PowerPoint includes more detailed instructions for one of the exercises.

An Introduction to Racial Equity Assessment Tools
Terry Keleher, Darlene Flynn, and Gloria Albetta

How do you analyze and assess your policies, programs and budget decisions for institutional racism? Learn about racial equity impact assessment tools developed by Seattle, King County and jurisdictions across the United States, what these jurisdictions have accomplished with them and how a racial equity impact assessment tool can benefit your agency and its work.

Quantifying Community-Scale Progress on Equity: How comprehensive and rigorous is the STAR Community Rating System?
Richard Gelb

The STAR Community Rating System is the nation's first voluntary framework for evaluating, quantifying and improving livability and sustainability of U.S. communities. Several Puget Sound communities (Seattle, Tacoma and King County) have signed on to pilot test this system, which credits participating jurisdictions for ensuring equitable access to foundational community assets and demonstrating progress on environmental justice, civil and human rights, civic engagement and social and cultural diversity.

The Politics of Race: Using power for institutional change
Julie Nelson, Dante James, Judith Mowry

Successfully using power and navigating politics is absolutely essential if we are to eliminate racial inequities. But how do we even define power? What about politics? This workshop will provide definitions and strategies for using power and politics to address racial equity. Be ready for candid discussion about the challenges and opportunities.

  • Julie Nelson, Director, Seattle Office for Civil Rights
  • Dante James, Director, Portland Office of Equity and Human Rights
  • Judith Mowery, Policy Analyst, Portland Office of Equity and Human Rights

Building Bridges: Standing together for LGBTQ and racial equity  
Sonia Palma, Chris Peguero, Preston Hampton and Tracey Rowland 
Moderated by Jacque Larrainzar

In 2012 SEqual, the City of Seattle's LGBTQ employee group, started a conversation with the City's race and ethnicity based affinity groups. These conversations culminated in a collaborative effort to host a series of Building Bridges conversations about gender, sexual orientation, race and equity. This hands-on workshop will focus on the lessons learned by its organizers and how this process can be replicated in other cities to advance a racial equity agenda that supports LGBTQ and gender equity.

Inclusive Outreach and Public Engagement: Are you making the grade?
Michael Davis and Heidi K. Schillinger

Are you looking to further integrate racial equity into your public engagement efforts? Would you like some additional tools to talk about inclusive outreach and public engagement with your colleagues? Participate in an experiential activity that helps us evaluate our engagement efforts through a racial equity lens.

Equitable Development: Government and philanthropy partnerships
Ryan Curren and Judy de Barros

This interactive workshop will explore the strategies to achieving equitable development in historically disinvested neighborhoods. Equitable development is a pattern of change in neighborhoods where low-income and communities of color can access the economic opportunities derived from public and private investments that aim to stimulate growth and new development. This pattern of development lies at the intersection of "smart growth" policies and meeting the needs of historically underserved communities. It directly addresses the history of inequities in the urban U.S development pattern and the ongoing impacts in our communities. To achieve this, those affected by poverty, communities of color, and historically marginalized communities must have leadership and influence in decision making processes, planning and policy-making.

Academic and Government Partnerships in Action: Seattle University Youth Initiative
John Forsyth, Kent Koth, Rachael Steward, Senait Gebregiorgis and Greg Imel
Moderated by Maria Ursua

What does a strong academic and government partnership for racial equity look like in practice? The Seattle University Youth Initiative unites Seattle University and the wider community to improve the academic achievement of low-income youth living in the Bailey Gatzert neighborhood while strengthening the education of Seattle University students and expanding professional development opportunities for faculty and staff. Learn about this exciting model of campus-community engagement.

Eliminating Racial Inequity: Are we making a difference? How can we measure impact?
Lori Villarosa, Julie Nelson, Nina Narelle and Jen Lleras

If data are needed to make a case for injustice and to show progress, then how can we measure progress in achieving racial equity? Choosing the accurate and realistic indicators and markers of success are critical parts of data collection. So, how do community leaders, advocates and decision makers know when real progress toward racial justice is being made? There is an increasing demand in communities and institutions across the country for evaluation tools that help to establish appropriate success indicators and assess progress towards achieving racial equity. Which racial justice assessment issues have been most important to government and to community organizing groups on the ground? This session will engage evaluators and other community leaders in robust discussions and exchanges about a variety of racial equity assessment strategies and social justice success markers.

Tailored Racial Equity Tools: Community development, information technology and health
David Keyes Nora Liu and Ngozi Oleru. Moderated by Chenelle Love

How do you take a racial equity tool and tailor it to your specific line of business? Hear about some models being used in the fields of information technology, health and neighborhood planning. Learn about their accomplishments and lessons learned tailoring a racial equity tool.

Training and infrastructure to create change
Darlene Flynn, Paula Harris-White and Joseph Wahl

There are numerous factors that exemplify successful change initiatives. This workshop will examine approaches for increasing organizational capacity to create, promote and apply pro-equity skills and tools in order to imbed change that addresses racial inequity.

Achieving Workforce Equity
Darwyn Anderson, Juan Cotto, Mary Rosenthal and Greg Gardner
Moderated by Felecia Caldwell

How can employers achieve workforce equity that reflects the actual racial representation of their communities? Historically employers have used federally required EEO reports to assess workforce equity. Unfortunately, because these reports group together a wide range of different job titles, they often fail to identify areas where actions are warranted. Learn strategies employers are taking to achieve true racial representation and racial equity in the workforce.

Addressing Racial Inequity within the Criminal Justice System
Chief John Diaz, Justice Charles Z. Smith, Theresa Sparks, Leesa Manion, Maurice Ward and Sandy Mullins
Moderated by Dustin Washington

Racial inequities in the criminal justice system continue to create inequitable outcomes for African American, Latino and other communities of color. Key parts of the criminal justice system, such as police departments, corrections, and juvenile justice, are working in a variety of ways to address this reality. Join us for a conversation with local and regional leaders who are taking steps to eliminate racial inequity and hear about the opportunities and challenges of working for racial equity.

Human Rights, Civil Rights and Racial Equity: A networking session with the Western Region of the International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies
Hosted by Julie Nelson

The International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies (IAOHRA) is an organization of governmental civil and human rights agencies from across the country. IAOHRA's goals are to enhance human rights practices and to promote civil and human rights across the country and around the world. IAOHRA has provided leadership in the development and enforcement of needed statutes and ordinances to safeguard the human and civil rights of all people. This informal networking session will be an opportunity to share opportunities and challenges from your own jurisdiction and to learn from other jurisdictions and about IAOHRA's work.

Making Racial Equity Tools Effective
Terry Keleher, Glenn Harris and Carrie Cihak

Once you are using a racial equity tool, how do you make it effective? Learn how to navigate the politics behind toolkits. Join us for a system-wide conversation covering working with leadership, setting outcomes, tracking progress and staying accountable.

Race: The Power of an Illusion: An introduction to Seattle's basic racial equity training
Jacque Larrainzar and Elliott Bronstein

This video and facilitated discussion is the "basic RSJI training" for all City of Seattle employees. The training uses the three-part PBS video series about race, power and privilege to examine historical and present-day causes of racial disparities. This "train the trainer" workshop will give you an overview of the training model the City of Seattle is using and how to apply it in your organization.

Data + Measurement: Using data for inclusion and measuring participation of community
Bernie Matsuno, Kathy Hsieh and Dawn Schellenberg
Moderated by Darryl Smith

Are you trying to use racially equitable outreach strategies but are unsure of their success? Do you wonder if you truly are making a difference with your public engagement efforts? This workshop will bring together a panel from arts, transit and neighborhoods to facilitate a shared discussion about lessons learned on how to measure community participation, where data fits in and how to be sure you are on the road to racially inclusive outreach and engagement.

Transforming Organizations - Internalizing Racial Equity
Maggie Potapchuk

Many organizations are founded on the values of fairness and equity, yet it is hard to change a system while trying to succeed in it at the same time. In this highly participatory session, we will assess our current institutional policies, practices, and cultural norms using a new tool,Transforming Organizational Culture Assessment Tool. We will discuss the ways, consciously and unconsciously, that we perpetuate racism and white culture in and through our organizations. We'll uncover catalyzing strategies and actions to resist and interrupt these dynamics and make progress that reflects racial justice values.