Office of Shared Prosperity & Neighborhood Support featured in Route Fifty articleCity of Dubuque
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ITEM TITLE: Office of Shared Prosperity& Neighborhood Supportfeatured in Route
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3/10/22, 2:12 PM Governments Turning to Data to Find Solutions to Equity Issues - Route Fifty
Governments Turning to Data to Find Solutions to
Equity Issues
GETTYIMAGES.COM/SHANNON FAGAN
By Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene I JANUARY 31, 2022
It's easy for leaders to pronounce that they're going to make a
fairer state or locality. Here's how several states, counties and
cities are utilizing information to achieve their goals.
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT DATA
We've written several columns over the course of the last months about the
quest for an equitable distribution of services in states and localities as well
as diversity and inclusion in their workforces. As is always the case, the
specifics of the challenge varies from place to place. But one common theme
has emerged: In order to truly understand the problems that need to be
solved, leaders must have the necessary data in hand.
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The study of city, county and state data informs leaders not just how
taxpayer money is spent, but also how it is raised and how it is invested in
neighborhoods. It also is needed to determine whether government
employees, high-level officials, board members and vendors reflect the
demographic composition of the entity and are equitably compensated.
"Data allow us to better understand how the city and the community at large
can contribute to a sense of belonging for residents and employees," says
Farris Muhammad, who became the first director of equity and inclusion in
Lawrence, Kansas in October 2020.
Charting Results
The first step, of course, is determining where inequities exist. In Akron,
Ohio, for example, a procurement report was released in June 2020, which
found that only 5% of the money spent on city contracts in 2oig had gone to
minority -owned businesses, although 30% of its population is Black.
But findings like that have limited power unless they are the triggers for
action. Akron's discovery led to the creation of a new position to work on
contract compliance and supplier diversity, with Sheena Fain, an
entrepreneur with substantial private sector experience, taking the position
in March 2021.
To locate new potential vendors, she created lists of minority businesses.
With the help of several private companies, she then organized classes to
provide information about competing on city contracts and how to go about
being certified as potential minority contractors. A new vendor management
system was installed creating a more open and transparent bidding process.
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By the end of 2021, 50 minority vendors —over go % newly certified —had
won contracts with the city, through purchasing, subcontractors or prime
contractors, according to Fain.
Many cities and counties have similar stories to tell with data pushing
governments to integrate new equity goals into strategic plans and introduce
new tactics to remove past barriers. In Dubuque, Iowa, for example, an
analysis of demographic data on student enrollment in AP courses in high
school found disproportionately few Black students taking AP courses.
In reaction, the school district added wording to its strategic plan that
directs schools to emphasize "their intentional efforts" to enroll Black and
other people of color in AP courses. According to Anderson Sainci, director
of the Office of Shared Prosperity and Neighborhood Support in Dubuque,
high schools are seeing an increase in participation, though follow-up data is
not yet available.
Making Progress
Gathering useful outcome -related data isn't a fast or easy task. "It takes time
to see if new decisions that are being made will lead to the equitable impact
that cities are seeking and that's a reality for every jurisdiction everywhere,"
says Anjah Chainani, a senior advisor at Results for America who led What
Works Cities'14-month City Budgeting for Equity and Recovery program,
which ended in December.
Progress is being made, however. Lawrence, Kansas for example, has
established a scorecard to track a number of performance indicators,
including those that have an equity component.
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Putting the results in perspective is critical. With that in mind, "we look at
data related to the [International City/County Management Association]
and comparable cities," says Muhammad.
King County, in Washington, has been working on equity issues at least
since the 199os. There are a number of ways in which the county has worked
to provide its equity focus with staying power, including equity legislation in
2010, the establishment of a formal executive Office of Equity and Social
Justice in 2015, and an Equity and Social Justice Strategic Plan to cover
2016 through 2022.
In addition, a 2015 report created a preliminary list of indicators designed to
help chart the county's progress and a website offers an array of tools that
are part of the county's equity work and can be used to identify policy and
funding needs.
Even when there's consensus about the need for better data, frustrations
and challenges abound, as is true generally when data is used to improve
policy and management throughout government. Problems include the lag
time in data availability, unaddressed technology needs and countless data
quality issues. The need to cleanse and update data is constant.
"This is a very nascent field," says Chainani. "There are always data
reliability challenges, and the data may not be able to answer the question
that you want to answer."
When looking specifically at racial inequities, one knotty issue in assessing
equity in both a community and in a workforce involves even determining
what race someone is. "I could be listed as Asian, Black, white and Native
American," says Saundra Johnson, the statewide equity director in
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Delaware. She points out that it's not unusual for individuals to be
misidentified or differently identified on forms. "We have a lot of hiccups on
this nationally," she says.
Creating Data Partnerships
For governments that need help developing better data resources,
universities, regional centers and organizations devoted to equity topics
provide invaluable assistance.
In Virginia, Albemarle County, which surrounds Charlottesville, developed
an Equity Profile, in collaboration with the Equity Center at the University
of Virginia.
The profile was one product of a larger partnership with the Equity Center
and many other community partners that also included the development of
a Regional Equity Atlas, which is designed to "combine, visualize, and make
accessible data about local disparities." Both projects provide support to
the region's ongoing efforts to take a data informed, equity -minded
approach to decision making.
In Iowa, the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque put together an
annual "data walk" to provide a central spot where residents, community
groups, government employees, nonprofits and other interested parties
could examine and discuss key data points on different topics. Among the
topics in 2021 and 2020 were employment and equity and racial equity.
"This allowed people to come to a central spot to talk about data and what
we can do," Sainci says. It also heightens awareness of equity issues and
community challenges.
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One other promising tool was recently introduced through a partnership
between the Government Alliance on Race and Equity and Esri, a software
firm that specializes in geographic information system software, location
intelligence and mapping. The new social equity analysis tool provides a
geospatial mapping approach that can be used to visualize areas of focus,
evaluate community -level impact and guide government decision making. It
will enable governments to use an intersectional lens to identify patterns of
need and opportunities to enhance equity through an examination of
geography, race, ethnicity, disability, gender and other areas of interest.
Sustaining Work
People who are leading in efforts to create a more equitable society —
including the consistent use of data to achieve their goals —worry about the
sustainability of their work. At some point, the dollars that have flowed both
from the infrastructure bill and from pandemic relief programs will be gone.
The end of these federal dollars, the inevitability of cyclical downturns,
coupled with potential dramatic political change, worries government
practitioners who want to see their equity work sustained, with budgeting
and programmatic decisions continuing to operate through an equity lens.
With the Delaware Gov. John Carney one year into his second term,
Johnson is already conscious of the ticking clock. "We have three years to
create this design for an equity lens that is part of the fabric of all that we
do," she says. The question that's foremost on her mind: "How do we craft
an equity playbook in such a way that the historically marginalized have the
full opportunity that's available to those who have been privileged all their
lives?"
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