City Adopts Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging 5-Year Roadmap
Published on July 07, 2022
The City Council on Tuesday, July 5, 2022, approved Resolution R-5548, adopting the Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging (DEIB) 5-Year Roadmap – a commitment to a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at all levels of the City in its programs, processes, and practices. The roadmap is a living document that will be regularly reviewed to ensure that it is aligned with the community’s expectations.
“Adopting the 5-Year Roadmap is a critical next step for putting values into action,” said Kirkland Councilmember Neal Black. “We are so grateful for all of the important community conversations, staff work, and analysis by consultant Chanin Kelly-Rae that went into the development of this plan. By following the guidance laid out in this plan, the City of Kirkland will be doing intentional, meaningful work toward dismantling institutional and structural racism in Kirkland.”
The roadmap sets forth several objectives for the City to achieve over the coming years. Each objective can be thought of as a milestone on the City’s DEIB journey, under the umbrella of six goal areas:
- Leadership, Operations, and Services – pro-equity practices at all levels of the City
- Plans, Policies, and Budgets - integrating equity into department work plans
- Workplace & Workforce - fostering empathy, respect, and engaging with social and racial equity issues
- Community Partnerships - ensuring City agreements express our equity and social justice values
- Communications & Education - effective learning, outreach, and engagement with a diverse community
- Facility & System Improvements - identify historically underserved areas through data and analysis to help fix historical inequities
“The path to reach equality through meaningful DEIB work rarely has clear steps to success, and is often challenging, and calls for new ways of thinking,” said the City’s new DEIB Manager Erika Mascorro. “With the adoption of the 5-Year Roadmap, we as a City now have guidance on our journey to continue making Kirkland a safe, welcoming place for everyone.”
The DEIB 5-Year Roadmap is one of several actions called for in Resolution R-5434, adopted by the City in 2020, to help ensure the safety and respect of Black people and to commit to dismantling institutional and structural racism in Kirkland. Among many other actions within R-5434, the resolution called for a City organizational equity assessment to identify gaps in diversity, equity and inclusion in all areas of City policy, practice and procedures, and to identify ways to address these gaps. The resulting plan provides actions over a five-year horizon, with the expectation that work will continue into the future.
R-5434 followed adoption of Resolution R-5240 in 2017, declaring Kirkland a Safe, Inclusive, and Welcoming Community for all people, and since that time, the City has taken many policy actions to make progress on several initiatives related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging across all City departments.
Learn more about City of Kirkland’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at https://www.kirklandwa.gov/Government/City-Managers-Office/Diversity-Equity-Inclusion-and-Belonging.
To submit recommendations for modifying or adding objectives to the roadmap, please contact Erika Mascorro, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Manager, at (425) 587-3108 or emascorro@kirklandwa.gov.