Page 5 - Race and Social Justice Initiative

This work will define Oak Park for the next 50 years. We truly believe we can be the racial and social justice trailblazers and champions that we were meant to be. This is the moment and movement that can uplift all of us.
Juneteenth / Summer 2021
Begin implementing elements of the ROP Community Engagement Plan with these related efforts:
» Launch a Race and Social Justice Initiative: This would be the vehicle and container for jumpstarting a Village-wide effort to encourage public input, interest and engagement in turning our racial and social justice vision and values into actions and results. Some efforts could engage other local government entities.
» Hold public community forums on Race and Social Justice, with targeted outreach to disenfranchised com- munities, to get community input on a Race & Social Justice Policy.
Late Summer 2021
Begin creating needed infrastructure and leadership, including:
» Race and Social Justice Core Team: an internal cross-departmental team of Village employees interest- ed in taking leadership in designing and championing village race and social justice action plans.
» A Village Race & Social Justice Commission: a new advisory commission composed of a highly diverse set of stakeholders, primarily from under-represented communities such as BIPOC, LGBT, youth/students, immigrants/refugees, renters, disabled, etc.) who can work in tandem with the RSJ Core Team, providing community perspectives.
» A BIPOC Civic Leadership Lab: plan and create, with community partners (e.g. OPRF Community Foun- dation), a semi-annual selected cohort of leaders who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who will gain skills, knowledge, connections and mentorship to become active in government commissions, boards, and committees, and other civic leadership roles.
» Village Manager to immediately begin the search process for a Race and Social Justice coordinator whose purpose is to oversee progress and implemen- tation against core initiative goals, pursue grant funding for initiatives that are aligned to those goals, and coordi- nate efforts across all taxing bodies, where applicable.
Fall 2021
Draft, Adopt and Begin Implementing the Racial and Social Equity Policy
» Train staff to use the Governing for Racial Equity (GARE) Racial Equity Tool that is currently available for the Village of Oak Park staff to learn from, leverage, and use.
» Conduct a robust review of the 2022 proposed budget, through the lens of racial equity, to ensure that opportunities to achieve equity, efficiency and sustain- ability can be leveraged.
» Develop a comprehensive Village-wide & Depart- ment-Level Race and Social Equity Goals for 2022.
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