So, how do we maintain the will and keep pushing towards transformational change? After discussions with the working group leaders, the IRSI co-chairs, community leaders, and Mayor Adler, there was consensus that for the next phase to be successful, and infrastructure must be in place to guide and oversee the implementation of the IRSI's recommendations. Life will keep happening, and our day jobs will keep calling. The opening of Austin Community College's Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Campus Center. Racial equity training of over three thousand community and industry leaders and While there is still much to be done, we have seen some fruits from our labor:Ī regional workforce plan implemented to assist 10,000 financially disadvantaged individuals secure middle-skill jobs by 2021 Įquity assessments of every City department We must continue our invaluable work bringing the voices of hundreds of community leaders to the forefront to make transformative and sustainable change in our community. Now, with the undergirding of hundreds of community leaders' collective wisdom, we must return to our work as a collective strategically channeling our frustration into action. The journey together has been long and, at times, challenging. Once again, events such as this have ignited a heightened national dialogue about racism's disastrous impact on society. Over the past several days, around the globe, citizens are demanding justice for the recent senseless killing of Black and Latinx by law enforcement (and former law enforcement officials). Increasing difficulties serving the needs of those experiencing homelessness,Ĭontinuing accusations of racism and racist behavior at the Austin Police Department (APD), andĪ confirmation of racial profiling within APD data on motor vehicle stops from 2015-2018. The disparate impact of the coronavirus on Black and Latinx communities: disproportionate loss of livelihood disproportionate exposure to infection startling higher death rates and disproportionate difficulty to continue their children's education during a pandemic, Our quest to update the community and to ask you to return to the collective took on a whole new sense of urgency by these alarming and repeating events: Then, what felt like suddenly, all across our country Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) community members were spun into a multi-pronged crisis. We began working to devise a communications plan to update the community on the direct and indirect results of our work and to emphasize the need to reignite our fervor. In January of this year, we met and recommitted ourselves to reconvening the collective for the next phase of our work. We are grateful for the hard work and commitment to the mission of the IRSI Task Force working groups, steering committees, and working group co-chairs. Then we prioritized those recommendations and developed individual implementation plans. As a collective we slipped into 'Someone Else' will continue this hard heart work.īefore we waned as a collective we culled a list of recommendations. While many of us continue to work daily for fighting the good fight, quite frankly as a collective, the fervor with which we all initially took on the task to work towards building a beloved community for all, waned over time as our day jobs consumed us, and life just kept happening. It was a little over three years ago that we found ourselves in a state of unrest as a community and began the work of the Mayor's Institutional Racism and Systemic Inequities Task Force (IRSI). I pray this communication finds you and your loved ones safe and well during these unprecedented and austere times.
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