Community advocates are preparing to ask for feedback on a racial equity resolution for the city of Sacramento in listening sessions over the next six weeks.
The sessions will inform the Sacramento Centered on Racial Equity (SCORE) Initiative, which began more than a year ago in an effort to improve the city’s structure, policies and procedures.
Members of the community-based Racial Equity Council and Racial Equity Alliance, which lead the initiative, plan to facilitate the sessions. They aim to break down the resolution into pieces and explain their goals, said Jasmin Flores, a member of the council.
“It’s going to take us quite a bit of time to get to where we want to be, but we want to be in a space that we can kind of help people to understand what this process looks like and how we get there,” Flores said.
In the resolution, the council and alliance plan to include the history of racism of Sacramento and how racial discrimination has harmed communities. They also intend to define what racial equity could mean in the city and detail strategies to bring about changes, Flores said. Some tactics they have discussed include a racial equity report card, action plan or assessment tool.
Kim Williams, a member of the Racial Equity Alliance, said they hope to hear from community organization leaders on whether they are moving in the right direction.
“This resolution doesn’t work if [the] community doesn’t feel like they see themselves in it,” Williams said. “It’s very important for us to make sure that it represents all of our groups. And so that anyone who sees it can feel like, OK, I see myself or I see my issue or this resonates for me.”
Alliance members also considered representation when they recruited, interviewed and selected people for the council in 2022, Williams said. The alliance formed out of a group of community organizations and advocates talking about racial equity since at least 2019, but the council was specifically created to help develop a city plan on the issue.
Race Forward, a national racial justice non-profit organization, and the city’s Racial Equity Committee, made up of the mayor and three city council members, also support the SCORE Initiative. Council member Mai Vang co-chairs the committee and said the racial equity resolution is key.
“It’s gonna guide our city council on how we govern, and that should be developed by the community,” Vang said. “And that's the reason why I'm so passionate about this initiative, but mainly also doing what I can to support our community folk because they're the one really leading it.”
Vang added that she hopes the groups will present a resolution to the council before the end of the year. A timeline on the city website listed summer 2023 as the target to finalize the resolution, but Williams said the Racial Equity Council and Racial Equity Alliance realized it would take more time. Considering members juggle full-time jobs, they slowed the pace to build trust with each other and the community, she said.
“There’s the need to move things quickly and we want people to see that we’re making these strides to do this work,” Williams said. “But then there’s also the importance of if you don’t do it right, we’re going to create more trauma and more hurt.”
In the meantime, Vang said city staff have been staying in contact with the groups and building capacity so they are prepared to implement the resolution. She pointed to how staff began mandatory diversity training for elected city officials and the launch of the Sacramento Equity Explore Design (SEED) tool, which identifies underserved areas based on economic, education, social, health and sustainability issues.
Nia MooreWeathers, a member of the Racial Equity Alliance, said the SEED tool clearly breaks down what neighborhoods receive resources.
“Sometimes being able to have a really stark visual like that is helpful to be able to outline and identify what equity is and how we can implement it in our cities,” MooreWeathers said.
Flores added the racial equity resolution could build on the city’s existing programs, such as by proposing an assessment tool to examine how well they work together.
The listening sessions on the racial equity resolution are scheduled as follows:
For leaders of community-based organizations:
- Wednesday, July 24 from 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
For city residents:
- Wednesday, Aug. 14 from 6 p.m. 8 p.m.
- Hagginwood Community Center: 3271 Marysville Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95815
- Wednesday, Aug. 21 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
- Sam & Bonnie Pannell Community Center: 2450 Meadowview Rd., Sacramento, CA 95832
- Wednesday, Aug. 28 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The Racial Equity Alliance invites people to RSVP by filling out online forms for either the community organization session or the city resident meetings. Links to the virtual sessions will be sent via email.
The alliance can be reached with questions at [email protected] or (916) 272-1190.
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