Equity & Inclusion Department

Advancing Racial Equity in the City of Durham: Our Approach

Normalize, Organize, and Operationalize

We are:

• Normalizing conversations about race and equity
• Organizing to do racial equity work
• And operationalizing by implementing our plan and visualizing the future we will create together.

We Are Normalizing Conversations About Racial Equity by: Creating Common Understanding

• Establishing a shared language
• Creating vision & mission statements
• Training city staff
• Acknowledging the role of government in creating inequities

Our Racial Equity Vision:

Durham is a vibrant community in which all residents and employees thrive with power and purpose. Racial equity is an embedded principle, shared economic prosperity is a reality, and race is not a predictor of outcomes

Our Racial Equity Mission:

The City of Durham intentionally identifies racial inequities, engages the community, and uses a collaborative approach in creating solutions, to ensure race no longer stands as a determinant of outcomes and opportunities

We are Organizing for Racial Equity by: Putting People in Place to Do the Work

• Equity & Inclusion Department
• Racial Equity Core Team
• Racial Equity Implementation Team
• Departmental Racial Equity Teams

We Are Organizing for Racial Equity by: Building Capacity

• Developing a racial equity action plan
• Training city staff
• Creating racial equity decision making models
• Building data analysis skills

City of Durham Racial Equity Action Plan Focus

• Workforce Equity
• Communications & Engagement
• Contracting & Procurement
• Racial Equity Tools & Training

We Are Operationalizing Racial Equity by: Taking Action

• Focusing our efforts on creating access and opportunity
• Implementing the racial equity action plan
• Utilizing training and tools to integrate explicit consideration of racial equity in decision making
• Working to remove systemic barriers and create more equitable outcomes for all

Our Racial Equity Decision Making Tool: 

The Questions That Inform Our Decisions

1. What is being considered? What are the desired results and outcomes?
2. What is the data? What does the data tell us? Who will this benefit? Who will it burden?
3. Have we heard from the whole community? What does the community want?
4. What are the unintended consequences? What are our strategies to mitigate harm?
5. How will we hold ourselves accountable?