A look into DEI efforts in Chapel Hill and Carrboro government

In recent years, the Town of Chapel Hill and the Town of Carrboro have seen expansions in DEI efforts within their governments.

In August 2020, Orange County, alongside Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough officials, created the One Orange Countywide Racial Equity Framework, a multi-jurisdictional initiative to implement the Government Alliance on Race and Equity's methodology, Anita Jones-McNair, Carrboro's chief race and equity officer, said. 

Jones-McNair said the Government Alliance on Race and Equity's methodology is a national network of governmental agencies working to advance collective goals of racial equity within communities.  

The One Orange Countywide Racial Equity Framework began when Carrboro worked with other municipalities during the pandemic to provide consistent messaging and equitable opportunities throughout Orange County, Jones-McNair said.

Community outreach about opportunities and programs has been a challenge — particularly among young people, Donald Hawkins, the chair of Carrboro's Racial Equity Commission, said.

“It can be hard to make sure that you're reaching the correct streams of communication to access the people who you want to uplift or work with, so I think that is a major challenge,” Chapel Hill Town Council Member Elizabeth Sharp said. “And just like everything else, resources are always a challenge.”

Sharp said Chapel Hill implements a multi-level approach throughout its governance to assess the efficacy of its DEI efforts. 

In the last four years, the Town of Chapel Hill passed three DEI resolutions and ordinances, including a resolution on developing new community approaches to improve racial equity and public safety and a resolution from the town council in support of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. 

“It's incredibly important [to] all different members of our community who may have been or are currently disenfranchised — because of historical policies and attitudes —  that we are leveling the playing field in opportunities as much as possible,” Sharp said. 

Hawkins said Carrboro's Racial Equity Commission meets monthly to address town policies and procedures to make them better suited to the Carrboro community. After evaluating the equitability of the policies and procedures, he said the Racial Equity Commission offers feedback to the Town of Carrboro.

“The commission was formed to help inform these people — here's some opportunities, here's how the Town is set up to help you out and that you can be in these spaces that minorities have not been in before,” Hawkins said.

Since 2020, Carrboro has hired its first race and equity officer and manager, installed three truth plaques recognizing Carrboro's Black history and expanded racial equity training for employees. 

Jones-McNair said Carrboro's collaboration with the Government Alliance on Race and Equity provided the Town with tools, including their racial equity assessment lens and action plan, to evaluate their DEI efforts. The assessment lens and action plan provide guidance and feedback on blind spots in the accessibility and effectiveness of their policies, practices and procedures, she said.

“It provides us a map, so to speak — some guidance of what we need to do,” she said. “Once that information is developed and they're able to be evaluated, then we can actually check to see if there are additional services that we need to provide or if we need to change a service we have in place.”

The evaluation tools are meant to spark conversations about opportunities for improvement within the community, Jones-McNair said. 

“We are in this phase of discovery and trying to realize what more we can do as public servants, so that’s the ongoing work right now,” she said. 

Jones-McNair said the Town of Carrboro is looking for ways to bring awareness and understanding of what DEI work can do.

“DEI comes into play to make sure that people who are underrepresented have the space to be in the same seats and the same opportunities as everybody else,” Hawkins said.

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