SCORE Initiative Work Scope & Timeline

Proposal & scope of work

Race Forward, the national organization contracted to guide the SCORE Iniative process, describes their scope of work as the following:

"We propose to support you and community racial equity leaders, together, to transform the City's internal and external structure, policies, and procedures, to achieve racial equity. During this process we will offer strategy development, tools and facilitated workshops for the City of Sacramento and its communities of color to shape governmental processes to truly serve all its people. The City must be prepared to pass an ordinance to fully sustain this work. This must include the resource and staffing to implement the first key projects; develop the knowledge and skills of all staff to do this work; and create the culture that expects racial equity as the norm.”

Support for the SCORE Initiative - Racial Equity Committee, Alliance, and Council

The SCORE Initiative is supported by the City’s Racial Equity Committee and community-based Racial Equity Council and Alliance. The Racial Equity Alliance is an interconnected network of advocates, activists, and organizations working together to imagine a bold vision of racial equity and justice in Sacramento, completed its Racial Equity Council recruitment and selection process in Fall 2022. They are continuing their organizational development.

City's Racial Equity Committee mission

The City’s Racial Equity Committee’s mission is to help the City Council align its advancement of racial equity in City decision-making with the impacts resulting from City policy, budget, and service delivery decisions. It provides a space to help coordinate the various City racial equity initiatives, efforts, metrics, and best practices into a holistic Citywide informed approach. The committee intends to increase engagement, transparency, and accountability for the City’s ongoing racial equity work.

Priorities & goals

The Racial Equity Council, in collaboration with and guidance from Race Forward, has identified the following priorities and goals for their work with the City Council:

  • Supporting the City Council in developing community engagement and a community partnership program; 
  • Supporting the City Council in developing a racial equity assessment to guide the Council in creating a budget, policies, procedures, and practice decisions that will help all communities have access to resources and what they need to thrive and fare well in the City, including a partnership structure and the metrics to evaluate program implementation; 
  • Support the City in the creation and implementation of a racial equity assessment tool that guides the City’s thinking, decisions, and strategies; Work with City Council to create resources and a formal structure and mechanisms for the Racial Equity Alliance and City Council to guide the City’s racial equity work long term.

Phase implementation timeline

This work will be phased out through four phases, with an anticipated timeline of June 2023 through Spring 2024. The timeline is subject to change based on the process.

Phase I – Began in June 2023. Focus on truth telling and trust building. Introduce Trust Building Circles to Racial Equity Committee and Racial Equity Council members. Trust Building Circles are a critical component of this process because they provide the foundation to be able to build the practices, the workspaces, and the collaboration necessary to move forward with this ambitious scope of work. This foundational piece allows space to talk about current and past harms that government has helped to create in terms of the racial inequities experienced by communities of color over the course of generations in Sacramento. There needs to be a basis for trust to be explored, built, and repaired between communities of color and the City.

Phase 2 – Summer 2023. Finalize the City's Racial Equity Resolution. The Racial Equity Alliance and Council will work with the City’s Racial Equity Committee to help define what community engagement looks like to make sure the resolution speaks to and for everyone in the City.

Phase 3 – Summer/Fall 2023. Develop partnership and accountability strategies to center communities of color in their work for racial justice and honor that in the governing space. The goal is to go beyond outreach and community engagement to partnership. Moving to a place of partnership means understanding that communities of color in Sacramento are the City Council’s partners in doing this work. It is this development of a partnership and accountability structure and strategies that will allow the City of Sacramento to be a national leader in this work and move forward in a way that is accountable to everyone in the City to create a place where everyone thrives.

Phase 4 – Fall 2023 to Spring 2024. Co-create a Citywide racial equity workplan outlining and underscoring most significant priorities jointly based upon the work of the Racial Equity Council and City Racial Equity Committee. This will take place through a series of workshops, tasks, and meetings, including:

  1. Normalizing the conversation around race and definitions as well as the structures and the history of how we got here and how we can move forward together that produces racial equity. 
  2. Creating a racial equity tool, which will be used to examine policy and budget decisions. 
  3. Developing racial equity leadership both at the community level and in city government. 
  4. Taking all the above and creating an action plan that focuses on priorities that come from the community as the first test cases of how the City will coordinate the work, who’s going to do what by when with what resources, and how we are going to measure if we are moving in the right direction or if we need to refocus the work. Create structure for accountability.  

More information to come.

Updated May 12, 2023

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