In May 2016, Living Cities launched Racial Equity Here (REH), an initiative that supported five U.S. cities committed to improving racial equity and advancing opportunity for all.
Living Cities engaged the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE), a joint project of Race Forward and the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, to provide technical support and coaching over the course of 24 months to a cohort of five cities—Albuquerque, Austin, Grand Rapids, Louisville, and Philadelphia—to analyze how their policies and operations
impact people of color and devise actionable solutions. GARE is a national network of governments working to achieve racial equity and advance opportunities for all. Living Cities’ belief, supported by GARE’s mission, is that local government has played a role in creating and maintaining racial inequity and therefore can also play a role in designing and implementing policies at multiple levels and across multiple sectors to end this inequity.
The information contained in this document is based on the evaluation of REH. The evaluation’s findings have been transformed into insights that serve as recommendations for cities interested in applying a racial equity lens to their policies and operations. The recommendations are organized according to the normalizing, organizing, and operationalizing framework developed by GARE, which illustrates three stages of development and capacities in a local government’s effort to achieve racial equity and advance opportunities for all.
If you have any questions or want to share your story on your racial equity journey, please email racialequity@livingcities.org
