Chelsea Human Rights Commission Reports on “Improving Equity with Right Tools”

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By Doug Marrin

Chelsea Human Rights Commission gave a presentation to the City Council at its December 14, 2020, meeting. Members of the Commission recently attended a webinar titled, “Improving Equity with Right Tools.”

Commission Chairperson Susan Morrel-Samuels opened the presentation with Governor Whitmer’s proclamation designating December 10 as Human Rights Day. Morrel-Samuels read the proclamation in part, saying,

“On this day, it is important to reaffirm our commitment to end the discrimination often experienced by minority groups, including LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, immigrants, women of all ages, and members of certain ethnicities or religions, to stand up against violence, oppression, and hatred and to promote equality dignity and humanity in our communities, our state and across the globe.”

Morrel-Samuels described the training webinar as outlining “a historic progression of government policies from those that explicitly create and maintain racial inequity, to policies that implicitly perpetuate an equity, to proactive practices to advance racial equity by changing policies institutions and structures.”

As a model, the training had representatives from different communities present actions they have taken to achieve equity goals. The Commission chose two of these communities—Des Moines, IA, and Boulder, CO—as examples in its presentation.

Des Moine created an Equitable Services Team. Among other things, the group,

  • Developed a common definition of equity
  • Conducted workshops to create a vision for desirable neighborhoods
  • Challenged each city department to implement one project, process, law, policy, or practice to promote equity.
  • Developed a rubric to assess proposals for these equity projects.

Morrel-Samuels reported that the City of Boulder created a rapid response racial equity instrument to examine how government actions would affect racial equity. It is a six-step process that,

  1. Begins with establishing outcomes
  2. Collects data relative to racial equity
  3. Determines the benefits and burdens, that is, looking for impacts and alignment with racial equity outcomes
  4. Develops strategies to progress toward their goals
  5. Implement and evaluate the projects
  6. Report their analysis

“We feel that this training definitely could apply to Chelsea and that by paying attention to equity and institutional processes, we can make sure that all members of our community are considered now as well as into the future,” Morrel-Samuels told the Council.

The Commission also brought to the City Council’s attention training and facilitation opportunities offered by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. These services are specifically designed for local governments. “A lot of local governments around the State have taken advantage of these trainings,” said Morrel-Samuels. “We urge the Council to consider offering them to members of our city government and our own community.”

Joanne Ladio is also on the Human Rights Commission and added, “I want to make sure that members of council don't see the phrase ‘racial equity’ and dismiss it as not applying to Chelsea. The racial equity has to do with equity and intersectionality where there are multiple kinds of people.”

“Get the equity policies in place now because we will diversify,” she added. “We’ll be set and not have issues as the community grows in different kinds of people.”

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