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From YouTube: Advancing racial equity work in the City
Description
This video provides an overview of how different departments are advancing racial equity work across the City.
A
Racial
equity
has
become
a
strategic
priority
for
the
city
of
floomington
and
that
work
has
really
evolved
over
the
last
five
years,
and
in
this
video
you
will
really
hear
from
people
who,
unlike
me,
don't
have
racial
equity
as
the
core
charge
of
their
work,
but
they're
finding
ways
to
advance
the
work
within
their
own
sphere.
Now
it's,
unfortunately,
it's
impossible
for
us
to
share
information
about
everything.
That's
happened
within
the
organization
and
there
are
many
people
who
are
doing
that
work.
B
Well,
as
a
result
of
that,
last
year,
the
city
council
decided
to
hire
a
racial
equity
coordinator,
a
person
who
would
be
working
for
the
city
every
day
to
make
sure
that
the
systems
and
the
structures
that
we
have
at
the
city
of
bloomington
are
meeting
the
needs
of
our
community
that
are
helping
move
forward.
Our
organization
in
the
space
of
racial
equity,
in
helping
the
city
council
and
the
city
staff,
develop
the
competencies
that
we
need
to
relate
to
everyone
in
our
community.
B
Many
people
will
ask
the
question
why
now
the
imperative
is
not
new,
the
imperative
has
been
there
for
many
years
minnesota,
despite
being
a
leader
in
so
many
areas
has
actually
been
a
leader
in
so
many
areas
for
white
people.
Minnesota
has
among
the
worst
disparities
in
the
country
when
it
comes
to
educational
achievement
and
when
it
comes
to
things
like
employment
and
housing
in
those
areas,
people
of
color
do
not
have
the
same
opportunity
as
white
people.
The
urgency
of
today
is
being
felt
because
policing
is
in
the
news.
B
It's
not
just
policing,
I
mean
we
are
experiencing
simultaneous
crisis
in
the
area
of
the
pandemic
and
seeing
how
the
disparities
of
our
health
system
is
affecting
people.
We
are
seeing
how
the
economic
impact
is
having
a
disparate
impact
on
people
of
color.
I
mean
the
the
way
that
all
of
these
forces
are
hitting
our
community
at
the
same
time
is
only
exacerbating
the
institutional
and
systemic
racism.
That's
already
been
in
place.
B
C
I
would
say
for
the
last
four
to
five
years,
the
executive
leadership
team
has
made
racial
equity,
a
focus
of
its
work
and
the
time
we
spend
together
thinking
about
things
here
at
the
city.
That's
involved,
going
to
training
together,
hearing
different
speakers.
We've
done
some
reading
from
books
and
discussion
around
those
books
to
help
us
each
expand
our
knowledge
of
the
issues
and
share
some
of
our
different
perspectives
and
experiences.
B
D
C
Job
descriptions
to
hold
its
staff
position
here,
a
good
example
of
that
would
be
that
historically,
the
city
has
always
said
that
it
would
be
desirable
to
hire
somebody
that
has
worked
for
another
city
or
county
or
already
has
that
experience
in
government.
But
when
you
look
at
the
public
sector
workforce
and
how
non-diverse
it
has
historically
been,
if
we're
giving
preference
to
people
who
have
already
had
work
experience
in
the
public
sector,
we
are
not
advancing
our
racial
equity
goals,
we're
just
perpetuating
the
same
demographic
in
the
public
workforce.
C
E
Community
outreach
engagement
division
has
been
focusing
on
the
bypac
population
because
when
we
look
at
health
statistics
for
covid19,
our
black
population,
indigenous
populations
and
other
people
of
color
are
disproportionately
impacted
by
the
pandemic.
And
so
our
focus
is
making
sure
that
those
populations
have
access
to
timely
information,
access
to
resources
and
things
to
help
alleviate
some
of
those
disparities
that
are
emerging
in
the
data.
G
H
It's
important
to
the
water
resources
team
in
the
city
of
bloomington
that
the
residents
and
communities
across
bloomington
have
an
equitable
ownership
of
the
water
quality,
quantity,
amenities
and
ecology
that
exists
within
our
city.
Youth
are
a
targeted
group
in
this
community
because
they
are
the
future
water
stewards
of
the
area
and
they
will
probably
have
the
biggest
impact
over
the
long
term
in
water
stewardship.
I
Regularly
in
the
summer,
parks
and
recreation
offers
a
free
lunch
program
through
our
summer
adventure
playgrounds
program,
but
even
without
this
program,
we
want
to
be
able
to
offer
nourishment
to
our
youth,
specifically
on
the
east
side
at
smith
park.
We
believe
that
we'll
be
able
to
reach
additional
bipod
community
members
with
our
free
lunch
program
and
hopefully
get
them
involved
in
our
parks
and
recreation
programs.
At
the
same
time,
it's.
J
So
it
was
through
this
outreach
to
property
managers
for
our
tobacco
work
that
we
really
started
getting
a
stronger
sense
of
what
the
conditions
were
on
the
ground,
and
there
was
one
property
in
particular
southgate
apartments.
On
the
east
side
of
bloomington,
it's
a
seven
building
property
244
units.
J
We
estimate
like
800
to
a
thousand
residents
there,
an
incredible
property
manager,
who's
just
engaged
with
the
city
in
so
many
different
ways
through
that
kind
of
relationship
building
with
her
that
we
really
gained
a
deeper
understanding
of
the
conditions
on
the
ground
and
how
the
city
in
a
lot
of
ways
was
failing
residents,
and
so
we
were
seeing
our
clients
in
public
health.
We
were
seeing
people
interacting
with
the
criminal
justice
system.
J
What
I
started
doing
is
convening
different
city
departments
and
just
having
meetings
on
site
there.
We
realized
that
we
needed
to
expand
our
group
beyond
just
city
departments
and
also
include
folks,
like
veep,
the
early
childhood
services,
bloomington
public
schools.
All
these
all
these
other
kind
of
major
institutional
players
that
are
also
having
touch
points
with
these
residents.
K
K
So
we
know
that
it's
really
important
that
these
community
members
have
a
voice
at
the
table
because
they're
the
ones
that
are
seeing
these
problems
firsthand
right
away
and
have
the
perspective
that
will
be
able
to
help
us
be
strategic
and
really
address
the
issues
that
are
facing
us
currently
and
in
the
future.
I've
also
been
working
with
center
point
energy
and
excel
energy
on
gathering
conservation
improvement
program,
data
specific
to
bloomington
and
for
the
first
time,
we're
looking
at
this
data
by
census
tract.
K
D
It's
also
important
to
us
that
we're
very
intentional
about
working
with
artists
of
color
and
bypoc
artists
that
are
representative
of
our
community,
and
so
we've
really
been
very
focused
on
making
sure
that
we're
sending
information
to
the
right
organizations
or
people
making
sure
that
it's
an
inclusive,
very
approachable
and
accessible
application
process
and
in
turn,
involving
the
community
within
these
projects.
However,
we
can
so
that
they
see
themselves
represented
throughout
the
process
and
so
that
they're
involved
and
feel
more
ownership
of
those
projects.
Having.
M
In
the
police
department,
we're
very
committed
to
continuing
our
work
in
racial
equity,
it
starts
with
hiring
hiring
police
officers
in
the
police
department
is
challenging.
We
also
understand
that
the
demographics
and
our
community
aren't
changing,
and
so
we
are,
for
the
past
three
years,
using
a
pathway
to
policing
program
to
help
us
become
more
diverse
and
match
our
community.
This
program
has
been
underway
for
three
years.
It's
been
very
successful
and
we
continue
to
do
that
again
as
an
effort
to
try
to
match
the
demographics
of
our
community.
The
second
thing
is
our
training.
M
Every
year
our
officers
are
required
to
complete
implicit
bias,
training,
procedural
justice
training,
and
we
are
continue
to
continue
with
that
training
and
even
make
that
training
even
better.
Our
officers
are
required
to
do
that
for
their
police
officers
license,
but
we
are
double
or
triple
what
is
required
by
the
state
of
minnesota
for
police
officer
training.
The
third
thing
is:
we
are
a
partner
of
the
joint
community
police
partnership
program.
This
program
is
five
or
six
cities
in
hennepin
county
that
have
come
together
to
help
build
better
relations
with
our
multicultural
residents.
M
She
manages
a
mac
which
is
a
multicultural
advisory
committee,
and
those
committee
members
are
members
of
our
community
from
different
different
ethnic
groups,
and
we
really
rely
heavily
on
them
to
help
us
develop
policy,
help
us
build
relationships
in
the
community
and
do
so
many
other
things
through
this
program
and
we're
continuously
trying
to
improve
that
program
and
I'll
leave
you
with
this.
The
police
department
is
continuing
to
get
even
better
in
the
future.
We
know
there
is
more
work
to
be
done
doing
this.
G
A
So
now
you've
heard
from
many
people
who
are
moving
the
needle
and
really
working
to
advance
racial
equity
work
within
their
own
sphere
and
from
where
they
sit.
I'm
so
grateful
to
have
the
support
of
this
team,
because
this
definitely
is
a
team
effort.
Moving
forward,
we'll
begin
implementing
our
racial
equity
business
plan
in
the
city
of
bloomington
and
then
continue
to
reach
out
and
engage
the
community
so
that
we
can
hear
from
you.
How
do
we
advance
the
work?