Topics Alert:
In the spirit of becoming One Fairfax, a County where all residents can thrive and live to their fullest potential, we must:
This work can be achieved through department/agency Equity Impact Plans (EIPs) – a necessary step that can catalyze meaningful action towards institutional and structural change. Equity Impact Plans:
What's In an Equity Impact Plan?
Equity Impact Plans, along with annual reports, reflect the progress of departments and cross-systems initiatives.
Each EIP includes an equity guiding statement; a statement of the context in which the agency or cross-system initiative approached its planning; and goals, actions, and performance measures aligned to the ten community outcome areas of the Countywide Strategic Plan.
EIPs also include a section noting the need for action outside of the agency’s control to include the involvement of a central service agency (e.g., Human Resources, Department of Management and Budget, Department of Information Technology, Department of Procurement and Material Management, etc.) and/or shared interests across multiple agencies.
The work agencies have produced to date shows evidence of the wide-ranging efforts happening across Fairfax County Government to advance racial and social equity. While our agencies have made significant progress in their efforts to advance equity since the adoption of the One Fairfax Policy, you will note variations in the depth and substance of the goals and actions of the EIPs and Annual Reports across agencies.
As plans are further developed and refined, agencies will work to develop more robust ‘Context’ sections of the plan and connect goals and strategies to root causes. It is important that county agencies embrace the notion that achieving equity is everyone’s work.
The roots and trends of inequity in Fairfax County are pervasive and complex, and addressing them requires deliberate leadership and a focus on collective work across departments in partnership with the community and other stakeholders to deconstruct the structural barriers to opportunity produced by policies, systems, and practices that have led to inequitable outcomes across geographies and racial and social population categories.
I am appreciative of the efforts of the Equity Leads, Department Equity Teams, and agency leadership that developed these plans and that are working with intention to interpret the issues and trends of inequity. The goal of Fairfax County is to create a place where all residents thrive and live to their fullest potential, and our plan is to work diligently towards that end.
- Karla Bruce, Chief Equity Officer