>> I'm Karla, Bruce. And I'm proud to serve as the chief
equity officer for Fairfax County government,
Fairfax County. It's a great endeavors place to live,
learn, work, play and worship.
Our diversity is not only one of our greatest ranks. It is
also a key driver of our county's population growth.
Unfortunately not everyone is shared in the opportunity that
has yielded prosperity for many,
therefore, resulting in an even opportunity landscape in our
county.
This map is from an academic study called getting a hit.
>> The I'm even opportunity to escape produced by the Virginia
Commonwealth University Center on Society and Health with
support from the Northern Virginia Health Foundation.
It identifies areas across several factors such as
housing, employment, health care and others where
opportunities exist and where they are missing.
Intersectional systemic barriers have also blocked
opportunity in some areas.
The report calls these yellow areas islands of disadvantage
as their spatial and racial inequities and has raced in
place, often intersect.
Many people of color live in these islands of disadvantage.
>> This information propelled our Board of supervisors to
adopt the one Fairfax policy in November 2017, a bold
declaration of a vision for Fairfax County to be racially
and socially equitable.
After the adoption
Chairman, Sharon Bulova invited a group of stakeholders
representing residents, staff and the Civic faith.
>> Nonprofit philanthropic and business communities to come
together to foster open and honest discussions on issues
surrounding race with an ultimate goal of engaging the
community to inform the county's application of the one
Fairfax policy
chairman Jeff McKay. For that. This vision by convening the
chairman's task force on Equity and Opportunity in September
2020,
to better understand the drivers of an equity and to
develop recommendations to accelerate the county's
progress towards becoming one Fairfax.
>> This group was convened over the summer
last year amongst a convergence of public health and economic
crises with national and racial unrest occurring all across the
country to give us a transformative opportunity as
local government
to form and change policy and enable us to the line and
leverage our investments as we shape the structure of
opportunity across the county strategically and most
importantly intentionally in continue to accelerate our one
Fairfax mission and policy that our board and the school board
had been braced.
>> One Fairfax is a way to think about in approach how we
govern and manage the counting
it involves facing our history and our current reality
understanding where we are and what we want for the future,
establishing clear priorities and making explicit choices
committing to bold and innovative approaches
and meaningfully engage in community and key stakeholders.
We must ensure that we're having meaningful conversations
and focusing on people directly affected by our policies and
practices, particularly those who have not had a voice at our
table before.
>> Fairfax County is a member of the Government Alliance on
Race and Equity
and have adopted their framework for national best
practice, normalize,
organize an operation allies
as the basis for to achieve in our vision of becoming one
there. Next,
normalizing is naming that we're working on equity,
having easily understood definition of equity and
inequity and making equity a priority
work in Ising is in short, we have structure set up to
support equity work and having community partnerships in place
because we know that local government can't do all this
work by itself.
Operation Allies Ing were first to being data driven and using
equity tools to inform planning and decision-making.
If we are truly committed to one Fairfax, we must fully
realize the extent to which the county's policy and practice
have contributed to an equity.
And while we consider equity across various areas of
marginalization, we must acknowledge that racial
inequities are present across all societal systems, including
housing to health
education, criminal justice,
economics environment,
food access and more
and centering race. We seek to close gaps. So the race is not
a predictor of success. Well, also aiming to improve outcomes
for all.
We have a saying with one Fairfax that we all do better
when we all do better.
It's the belief that in focusing on achieving racial
equity, we're creating opportunity for everyone in our
community.
>> The work of advancing equity and becoming one. Fairfax is
organized, a collective leadership at all levels
by engaging in communicating regularly with elected
officials, the county executive and senior management about
implementing one Fairfax, which is noted in the Orange Arrow
by working with equity leads teams and ambassadors to build
and strengthen the infrastructure and capacity to
consider equity 2 trainings on equity, convening equity teens
and developing equity impact plans, which is noted in the
light gray area.
Ultimately this work across sectors is focused on
strategically integrating policy and practice.
We want to ensure that every single resident of Fairfax
County can access the amenities that we all want. Our
communities
has become a key consideration in the county wide strategic
planning process
in support of the one Fairfax vision
through the county wide strategic plan. We will
continue to strengthen our infrastructure for equitable
service delivery and the advancement, a full access to
opportunities for our diverse populations and communities.
As we strive toward becoming one Fairfax, the ability for
our diverse communities and populations to participate
drive is vital to our county success.
With our county-wide strategic plan, we're using data to
address inequities and build the capability to get every
person who calls this county home access to opportunity and
prosperity
who targeted strategies. We can transform areas where
residents based economic, educational health, housing and
other challenges into communities of opportunity and
foster the development of an inclusive economy.
As we plan for the future success of Fairfax County,
we encourage all that
residents and community stakeholders to get engaged and
stay up to date on how one Fairfax is shaping our future
to the county-wide strategic plan.