The National League of Cities, REAL Initiative
The City of Rochester’s R.E.A.L. (Race, Equity, and Leadership) Initiative is a program, established in partnership with the National League of City’s (NLC) Let’s Get REAL Initiative. The REAL Initiative focuses on how to improve issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion internally for City of Rochester staff, and externally, for the communities that the City of Rochester provides services for. As Community Development Coordinator for the City of Rochester, I research and coordinate demographic diversity and social inequality data insights for municipal government departments, giving them tools to analyze existing and planned equity strategies, and evaluate the equity implications of their programs, policies, and practices.
City of Rochester: Equity Teams
Role: Research + data coordinator
Each City-wide department has an equity team, which is a core team of people from all levels of the department. For each department, I update the affirmative action / diversity data on ethnicity, race, gender, wage, and other descriptors and turn them into insights. This data and reporting is used to identify gaps in attrition, leadership and hiring, and create strategies to mitigate gaps.
Every month we share the data insights to each department, to which they begin to analyze how they can improve workplace culture, diversity, inclusion, and upward mobility for those in the organization who would like to grow / succeed in the department.
Additionally, I share training and informational sessions related to diversity, workplace culture, and professional development happening throughout Rochester, where equity groups can learn best practices and strategies for optimizing equity in workplace environment and culture.
Equity Toolkit
I designed and created this Equity Toolkit, which was a series of 10 questions each City Department needed to answer to analyze and evaluate existing and planned equity strategies, and evaluate the equity implications of their 2021-22 Fiscal year programs, policies, and practices. This toolkit was designed and implemented in the City of Rochester’s legislative charter, as a way to assess City-wide programs and policies, and use demographic diversity and social inequality data to inform City departmental priorities and programs.
The REAL Rapid Response Team to COVID-19
The REAL Rapid Response team is a City-County partnership with an array of community, healthcare, and educational organizations working collaboratively to identify opportunities to develop and help implement initiatives focused on decreasing the spread of COVID-19 cases, particularly among racially disadvantaged communities within the Greater Rochester area. It is established in partnership with the National League of City’s (NLC) Let’s Get REAL Initiative.
The Team was created in direct response to the racially disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Rochester/Monroe County communities of Color – Black, Brown, and Hispanic (Latinx) communities.
REAL Rapid Response Team - COVID-19 Preparedness Plan
Role: Creative direction, content writer
After consulting with Monroe County’s Department of Public Health and NYS Department of Health, I crafted pertinent questions, as well as resources and information related to how residents can stay safe during COVID-19.
I guided the graphic designers for how the document should look aesthetically. Most often than not, government documents and flyers have low user experience, are confusing to navigate, and are not very user-friendly.
My vision for this document was something that would be aesthetically pleasing, and easy to use. By spacing out the questions, utilizing bright colors and graphics, and leaving space for community members to fill out the document, this document would not not simply be an informational document, it would be a document that community members could actually engage with.
To engage this document for distribution throughout the community, I created a database and outreach strategy.
The database included a list of housing complexes, hospitals, advocacy organizations, schools, businesses, grocery stores, testing and vaccination sites in the city, meal distribution sites at R-Centers and schools, local businesses and nonprofits., and other agencies that provide direct services to the community.
Each member of the REAL Rapid Response team served as a point of contact for each location in the database.
Each point of contact distributed the COVID-19 Preparedness Plan to their respective locations. Additionally, RRRT members provided educational materials / speaking forums to various community groups about how to stay safe during COVID, how to access resources and support services during the pandemic, and answered any questions about the preparedness plan.
Volunteers conducted canvassing outreach to distribute the preparedness plan to communities throughout the city of Rochester as well.
REAL Rapid Response Team - Resources and Support Services Site
Role: Website Content Developer, UX Writer/Copywriter, Private & Public Partnership coordination and management
The vision for this webpage:
Simple, easy to use, especially for older residents, or low literacy residents
Good user experience for submitting a service request, accessing the preparedness plan, or accessing other pertinent information/services.
To develop this resource page, I conducted research on Monroe County / City of Rochester organizations that either provide general support services or support services directly related to COVID-19.
Working with and researching the work of the NYS Department of Health, Monroe County’s Department of Public Health, Monroe County’s Department of Human Services, Rochester Area Community Foundation, Volunteer Legal Services, Common Ground Health, United Way, in addition to many other groups I was able to engage with and research on, was integral to the development of this resource page.
I spoke with workers at these organizations to analyze what programs and services they provide, as well as what other resources exist in the Rochester / Monroe County area.
Upon completion of information/data collection, I drafted the content for each tab for the website, prioritizing what the community’s immediate needs are, so the website would be most helpful to those who need access to these resources most. The website points City of Rochester residents to a plethora of support services, resources, information on testing and vaccination.
RRRT Service Request Form
I created this form for organizations that wanted to offer COVID testing, education, or other services for communities that their organization serves during COVID-19. The RRRT has resources for COVID-19 testing, education, and other support services that other organizations can provide to their respective communities. This way, we were able to expand service delivery and access for communities by engaging non-profits, businesses, advocacy groups, human service providers, etc. as a means to serve more communities. Additionally, it also gave advocacy organizations/service provider organizations with a service request form if they needed resources:
https://realrapidresponse.com/service-request/ (form is now closed)*