Model of Change
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Normalize
Normalizing racial equity means building a shared understanding through ongoing conversations about race and identifying race as an institutional focus for our work. The two key strategies that are part of normalizing are to use a shared racial equity framework and to act with urgency and accountability.
CARB has committed to increased accountability by communicating what we are doing to advance racial equity and address environmental justice with the public and the CARB Board. On May 19th, 2022, we updated the CARB Board for the first time on our racial equity efforts and committed to annual updates.
Board Meeting Presentation
Organize
At its core, organizing is about mobilizing for change and transformation. We do this in two ways: building our own capacity and partnering with others. CARB is currently building our organizational capacity, such as by establishing the Office of Racial Equity, as directed by Board Resolution 20-33, and supporting division-specific equity workgroups to advance equity in CARB’s programs.
CARB, and all CalEPA Boards, Departments, and Offices (BDOs), has launched Advancing Racial Equity at CalEPA training for staff, through a Train-the-Trainer Model. Trainers also serve as guides to support organizational change and institutional capacity within CARB. CARB’s executives and managers are required to take the Advancing Racial Equity at CalEPA training. 30% of our workforce has participated in the training as of 2022.
Operationalize
Operationalizing racial equity means we take steps to deliberately assess our regulations, programs, policies, and operations by using racial equity tools. Racial equity tools are a series of questions that help us assess the impacts of our programs, policies, and budget decisions. In addition to intentionally using racial equity tools, we must be driven by the data—both qualitative and quantitative. Measurements must take place at two levels—first, to measure the success of specific programmatic and policy changes, and second, to develop baselines, set goals, and measure progress towards goals—goals that should be deeply informed by community priorities, needs, and values.
Racial Equity Lens
Racial inequities are not random—and in all too many examples of structural racism, are a result of government actions, policies, or programs. As such, they will not disappear without concerted and deliberate action. Using a racial equity lens means asking how our actions will benefit and potentially burden communities, including estimating impacts and benefits on the basis of race, ethnicity or other relevant categories. It means considering alternatives, with a focus on which would do the most to address existing disparities and which might have unintended consequences. The racial equity lens is designed to help CARB staff incorporate racial equity into the actions and decision making at CARB by:
- Describing the legal, policy, and organizational frameworks at CARB for staff to consider racial equity;
- Identifying the information staff should consider in assessing the equity impacts of actions and decision making at CARB; and
- Characterizing and highlighting questions about racial equity that staff should ask and address in each step of the process.