Sonoma County’s collective well-being and prosperity are impacted by significant racial inequities. By focusing on racial equity and social justice in the Strategic Plan, the Board of Supervisors can begin to institutionalize equity and address disparate impacts on people of color both internally as an organization and in the community.

Data shows that the greatest disparities occur along racial and socio-economic lines. If Sonoma County wants to start closing those gaps, we have to start there. Research and best practices nationally show that successful equity programs begin with a focus on race. This allows you to develop a framework, with which you can then expand to broader equity issues, including sexual orientation,gender, and ability.

Equity is an outcome whereby you can’t tell the difference in critical markers of health, well-being, and wealth by race or ethnicity, and a process whereby we explicitly value the voices of people of color, low income, and other underrepresented and underserved communities who identify solutions to achieve that outcome.

County staff have been working to address social and racial equity issues. In 2018, the County joined the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE), and participants from 12County departments created Sonoma County Racial Equity Alliance and Leadership (SoCoREAL).

Additionally, County Latinx employees have formed the Sonoma County Latinx Employee Resource Network (SoCoLERN). And in July 2020, the Board of Supervisors approved the creation of a new Office of Equity, and appointed a permanent Director of the Office of Equity in September 2020.

Goal 1: Foster a County organizational culture that supports the commitment to achieving racial equity.

Goal 2: Implement strategies to make the County workforce reflect County demographic across all levels.

Goal 3: Assure racial equity throughout all County policy decisions and service delivery.

Goal 4: Engage key community and internal stakeholders to develop priorities and to advance racial equity.