REemagine Practices to Create Pathways to Social Justice

Overview: A courageous, unprecedented agenda to REenvision practices in a large government agency emerged in July 2020 in response to racial injustice worldwide. Robust community engagement, collaborative leadership, and intentional investment strategies were adopted to change Los Angeles County's trajectory and create pathways to social justice.Proposal text: In July 2020, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors adopted a revolutionary anti-racist plan (CEO.lacounty.gov). The Anti-Racism, Diversity & Inclusion initiative (ARDI) will guide, govern, and increase the county's ongoing commitment to fight racism across all dimensions (CEO.lacounty.gov). The county departments currently participate in this ground-breaking work, led by the ARDI Executive Director. The team will identify outcomes, craft strategic workgroups, review community health determinants, equip and inform executive leadership teams and support the development of the county strategic plan. Leaders, advocates, and people with lived experience serve as a community advisory, they partner in the process, providing guidance throughout the process.   In November 2020, Los Angeles County constituents passed Measure J legislation. Today this measure is known as CFCI and proposes a five - year investment strategy. The legislation committed nearly 1 billion dollars of a specified portion of the county budget, to invest in communities of color to eradicate racial practices and move LA toward equity. To this end, LA County conceived a diverse advisory body to lead the equity work and craft the spending plan. The first-year spending plan was submitted and approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2021, putting millions of dollars in Los Angeles County communities. ARDI and CFCI will begin the work independently to reenvision the LA government systems, via robust community engagement, collaborative leadership engagement, and intentional investment strategies, to change the current trajectory of the LA county system. These strategies pose an opportunity to Reenvision practice and create pathways to social justice.