Supporting and advancing racial equity is a priority of my administration. To advance and systematize that work, I have approved the establishment of an Equity and Social Justice Division within the Department of Civil Rights, and the hiring of a new Equity and Social Justice Manager. This new division will include the Equity Coordinator position which has recently been filled through transfer of the Neighborhood Resource Team Coordinator into the newly-defined, combined role.

This design is supported by input from internal City affinity groups of women and people of color to increase the capacity of the City’s Equity work. The new manager will oversee all of the City’s Equity work, which includes internal Equity work, external Equity work through existing Neighborhood Resources Teams, Disability Rights and Services, and Title VI compliance, and language access programming.

The creation of an additional manager to oversee all of these areas will result in improved efficiency, capacity, coordination, and strategy around these similarly connected issues and improve training, capacity-building, and compliance efforts. Combining these programs under one manager will also allow the City to take a more expansive view of social justice, allowing us to better think about and address the intersectionality of disability, race, and other identities. This will help ensure communities of color, our disabled community, and low-income communities have a voice in all the programs that impact them and ensures that everyone has meaningful access to City services.

The Equity Coordinator, another critical role in our equity and social justice efforts, will report to the new Equity Division Manager. This position helps to support the implementation of best practices for internal City of Madison operations, and take the primary lead on Community Engagement practices and achieving equity in the community.

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Category: Equity