City Equity Plan

The Equity Plan is an evolving document that takes shape through various means. The City's Equity Advancement Team developed the current iteration using input gathered from the following: 

• Employee Equity Survey Report 
• Equity Plan Implementation Report 
• Racial Equity Dividends Index 
• Continuum on Becoming an Antiracist Multicultural Organization 

See “Related Documents” on the right for the above reports.

Further input from the City’s Equity Advancement Team and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission identified key connective pieces that required updating of the plan’s structure. These updates include:

• a need to transparently name who is accountable for the work
•  shift into focus areas 
• a reconnection to concepts such as anti-racism through best practices (like the Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racism and Multicultural Organization)

View previous equity plan (pdf).

To strengthen accountability and ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion are placed into action, the City established an equity lens. This equity lens is comprised of how the City defines diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as “In Practice” statements to provide an understanding of how the City puts these terms into use.

Diversity  

Definition: Range of human differences and complexity, whether shared or individual, across thought, beliefs, experience, and identity (including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, language, physical ability/disability, religious/spiritual beliefs, and education)

In practice at Golden Valley: We intentionally recognize, understand, and celebrate the differences and lived experiences of fellow staff and the community we serve.  

Equity  

Definition: Proactive and ongoing reinforcement of policies, projects, attitudes, and actions that distribute power, access, and opportunity, and where outcomes are determined by how provided services are structured rather than identity or lived experience

In practice at Golden Valley: We identify and diligently eliminate disparities in as well as barriers to opportunities, resources, and services the City provides to residents, employees, businesses, and visitors.  

Inclusion  

Definition: Actively empowering and bringing individuals or groups to be participatory in projects, actions, and decision/policy making that shares power as well as honors nuance and authenticity

In practice at Golden Valley: We purposefully and continuously engage diversity in decision-making, goal-setting, and project development that foster, cultivate, and contribute to cultural humility, a sense of belonging, and an empathic understanding. 

• View the DEI Definitions poster (PDF)

The Equity Plan includes intersecting frameworks and principles that drive and create continued accountability. Some connect to recommendations from conducted reports, while others connect to best practices related to implementing racial equity and anti-racism.   

Equity By Design

A cornerstone of this plan are the following Equity by Design principles, which center responsibility on both the individual and the City as a system and institution: 

• Clarity in language, goals, and measures is vital to effective equitable principles.
• Equity-mindedness is a guiding paradigm for language and action. 
• Equitable practices and policies are designed to engage at differences in the context of community and not to treat all community the same.
• Enacting equity requires a continual process of learning, disaggregating data, and questioning assumptions about relevance and effectiveness.
• Equity must be enacted as a pervasive institutional- and department-wide principle.

Equity-Mindedness

Focusing more closely on Equity by Design, the principle of “Equity-Mindedness” itself is also a main tenant of the plan. The following subprinciples center responsibility primarily on the individual:  

Race-Conscious and Inquiry 

Noticing racial inequities, recognizing stereotypes, and questioning assumptions and implicit/explicit bias

Evidence and Outcome Based 

Awareness that beliefs, expectations, and practices assumed to be race neutral can and typically have outcomes that are racially disadvantageous

Equity Advancing 

Willingness and readiness to assume responsibility and take action to eliminate inequities. 

Systemically Aware 

Awareness that while racism may not always be overt, racialized patterns nevertheless permeate policies and practices, and also, awareness to bring in additional socio-historical context to the review, edits, and buildout of policies and practices

Gap Reframing 

Reassessment that disparities are a dysfunction of structures, policies, and practices as well as how these mechanisms have contributed to and exacerbate disparities

Three Cs: Communication, Collaboration, And Clarity

From conducted reports, recommendations were formed to highlight the various needs related to future plans. In turn, these recommendations have become additional principles, which find themselves applied to all actions and some more specifically: 

Communication of the Plan 

Provide consistent, continuous, and clear communication about the Equity Plan to City employees and community using various communication tools and accessible dashboards. 

Internal and External Collaboration  

Identify, cross-collaborate, and involve both internal and external stakeholders as well as leverage existing assets, which includes but is not limited to current staff, commissions, professional services, and county/state agencies.  

Clarity of Responsibility, Accountability, and Impact

Clearly determine and communicate how actions and subsequent tasks connect to specific roles and responsibilities as well as what intended impact is to be created and whether it addresses specific inequities. 

Continuum On Becoming An Anti-Racist And Multicultural Organization

The Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist and Multicultural Organization is a fundamental framework for the plan itself and each action. It helps establish a starting point for the City and gives perspective of what to do so racial and cultural differences are seen as assets. In its work and operations, the City is deemed a combination of a “Compliance Organization” and an “Affirming Institution,” which look at symbolic change and identity change respectively.

Equity Infrastructure is the manifestation of what interconnected aspects of City, community, and resources are vital to allow for equitable actions and outcomes to be properly informed and occur (this is also an Equity Action within Focus Area 2).

The City’s Equity Infrastructure is a fabric comprised of internal committees, commissions, council, schools, tools and resources, physical infrastructure, community organizations, and the formalization of a racial equity vision statement. Without one of these, it becomes loose and is not as impactful or effective.