Equity, Racial & Social Justice Strategic Plan
Equity, Racial & Social Justice Strategic Plan
Explore the making of the 2024 King County Equity, Racial & Social Justice (ERSJ) Strategic Plan: This document is part of our journey towards a fairer, more equitable King County. Discover how we're evolving our approach to tackle systemic injustice, centering voices most impacted by racism and other forms of oppression, and empowering every community member to thrive. Join us in shaping a county and government where equity, racial, and social justice are aspirations that become realities.
Committing to Equity and Justice in King County
The 2024 King County Equity, Racial & Social Justice (ERSJ) Strategic Plan represents a pivotal moment in the region's journey towards equity and justice.
More than just a revision, our overhaul aims to infuse the plan with current insights and forward-thinking strategies. It addresses contemporary challenges and anticipates future ones, making the plan a dynamic tool for combating systemic injustice in King County.
Strategic Pivot and Commitment
Our strategic pivot goes beyond updating existing policies; it's a more profound commitment to dismantling systemic barriers to create a more just King County for all people. The process involves reflecting on past progress, assessing strengths and shortcomings, and leveraging research and innovative strategies. This approach promotes impactful steps towards real and lasting change within our region.
Centering Impacted People
Central to this update is the emphasis on centering the perspectives and experiences of those most affected by racism and injustice in our community and workforce. This approach promotes policies and actions crafted with a nuanced understanding of these communities' challenges, informed directly by their insights, wisdom, and resilience.
We recognize and value everyone's hard work and input, particularly on-site employees and shift workers, ensuring their experiences shape a more equitable King County. The plan prioritizes our communities and envisions a county where everyone can succeed and thrive. The plan highlights the importance of crafting compelling and transformative policies by amplifying these voices within our workforce and the greater community.
Building on Foundations for Greater Equity
"King County invests upstream where needs are the greatest, in community partnerships, and our employees. We will do this with accountable and transparent leadership."
In King County, we are dedicated to advancing equity in a comprehensive and impactful manner. Our approach centers around four core equity strategies guiding our actions and investments. Each strategy is crucial in driving meaningful change and progress in our community.
Core Equity Strategies
- Upstream: Focusing on addressing root causes of inequities to improve quality of life and prosperity in all communities.
- Community Partnerships: Strengthening collaborations with community organizations to effectively address local needs and challenges.
- Employee Empowerment: Investing in the growth and development of King County employees to foster a more equitable and inclusive workplace.
- Accountable and Transparent Leadership: Ensuring leadership at all levels is responsible, transparent, and aligned with the County's equity objectives.
Pro-Equity Policy Agenda
The "Pro-Equity Policy Agenda" reflects King County's commitment to equity and inclusion in various areas.
- Child & Youth Development: Focusing on nurturing the next generation.
- Economic Development & Jobs: Cultivating wealth equity with fair economic opportunities and recovery.
- Environment & Climate: Ensuring sustainable and healthy environments.
- Health & Human Services: Promoting well-being and access to essential services.
- Housing: Addressing housing needs with fairness and inclusivity.
- Information & Technology: Bridging the digital divide for equitable access.
- Justice System: Reforming legal systems for fairer outcomes.
- Transportation & Mobility: Enhancing accessibility and connectivity for everyone.
Six Goal Areas
The "Six Goals Areas" represent the essential domains of our organizational operation and community engagement, where we actively implement pro-equity policies, systems, and practices for meaningful and sustainable impact.
- Leadership, Operations & Services: Integrating equity into leadership decisions and services.
- Plans, Policies & Budgets: Aligning resources and policies with equity objectives.
- Workforce & Workplace: Promoting diversity and inclusion within the county workforce.
- Community Partnerships: Building strong ties with community groups to address local needs.
- Communication & Education: Ensuring accessible and equitable information for communities.
- Facility & System Improvements: Upgrading facilities and systems to enhance access and equity.
Together, these interconnected elements build upon the foundations created in our 2016 Equity & Social Justice Strategic Plan and form a cohesive model. The Core Equity Strategies establish our fundamental approach to equity, the Pro-Equity Policy Agenda translates these strategies into specific policy directions, and the Six Goal Areas operationalize these policies in practical, measurable ways.
This interconnected model will continuously evolve and be informed by ongoing community and employee engagement and data synthesis.
Strategic Plan Refresh Timeline 📅
Initiate the Project
JAN 2022 — JUNE 2022
Setting the Stage: Forming the core team and defining the plan's primary goals. This step is about getting ready and deciding the direction for our journey towards equity.
Draft the charter and scope document, outlining the goals, team structure, roles, and responsibilities. Establish key milestones and a comprehensive schedule to guide our progress.
Project Planning
JUNE 2022 — DEC 2022
Blueprint for Action: Organizing how we'll work together, communicate, and handle challenges. Identify partners and critical audiences and develop engagement strategies.
Establish core workgroups, integrating learnings from prior plans to enhance the process's comprehensiveness and effectiveness and develop change management and risk management processes.
Strategic Preparation
SEPT 2022 — JULY 2023
Analysis Foundations: Internal evaluation and documentation work before broader engagement. Key activities included a landscape analysis and assessing current conditions.
Conduct an analysis and document the progress since the first Strategic Plan on Goal Areas and Policy Agendas. Review of the Determinants of Equity and other data to understand our current situation.
Employee Engagement
JUNE 2023 — APR 2024
Inside Insights: Inviting staff to share their experiences and ideas. Their input is critical to creating a plan reflecting our internal community's needs.
Implementation of Affinity Spaces, engaging diverse groups within our workforce to ensure a wide range of perspectives, particularly valuing the insights from on-site, customer-facing, and on-site staff. Engaging with departments on barriers and challenges to solutions.
Community Engagement
SEPT 2023 — APR 2024
Collaborative Wisdom: Engaging with community advisory groups and diverse populations, focusing on their priorities to create a more effective and meaningful impact informed by their needs.
Extensive planning to work with established King County advisory groups and create new ones for this project to promote focused representation of identities and intersectional experiences.
Data Analysis & Synthesis
OCT 2023 — JUNE 2024
Insightful Analysis: Our data consultant distills insights from employee and community engagements, turning feedback into actionable data to inform our strategies.
Project team and leadership deep dive into qualitative and quantitative data, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of diverse perspectives and experiences to shape our equity efforts.
Strategic Refinement & Alignment
JUNE 2024 — SEPT 2024
Refresh Deliberations: Key leadership, including Equity Managers, deliberate, focusing on insights from engagement data to develop priority goals, objectives, and actions.
Feedback from deliberation loops back to the engagement participants with an opportunity for additional input.
Creating the Document
SEPT 2024 — DEC 2024
Draft & Finalize: This phase focuses on drafting and finalizing the Strategic Plan, integrating feedback from diverse community engagements and data analyses.
The final document, reflective of King County's commitment to equity, racial, and social justice, will guide actionable steps toward systemic change for departments and the community.
What Comes Next?
2025 — 2030+
Evolving Implementation: This period marks the dynamic phase of implementation, ongoing tracking, and iterative adjustments based on continuous feedback and analysis.
The intention is to ensure the ERSJ Strategic Plan lives, breathes, and adapts to real-world outcomes and evolving community needs, cementing a foundation for sustained equity progress.