Article
Improving equity in government programs and services
June 22, 2023 · Authored by Tammy Lohr, Maria Stroth
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Article
June 22, 2023 · Authored by Tammy Lohr, Maria Stroth
Government programs and services impact the everyday experiences of residents in a community and have the potential to significantly benefit or burden different groups. It’s important for government agencies at all levels to serve residents equitably.
The federal government describes equity as the consistent and systematic treatment of all individuals in a fair and impartial manner, including individuals who belong to communities who often have been denied such treatment. Conducting an equity assessment can be a useful tool for governments to support equitable service delivery.
An equity assessment is an important tool that can help government agencies identify inequities in their services and programs. There are several benefits of equity assessments in government, including:
Completing an equity assessment can be a complex and nuanced process, but there are several key steps that can make an equity assessment successful, including determining a well-defined scope, assessing current practices, developing an action plan, and continuously monitoring progress.
Equity assessment can be broad or narrow, covering an entire government agency or a specific department or function. To determine what will be useful in your organization, consider your current priorities and to what extent your organization already understands equity challenges that may exist.
If you’re already aware of a potential equity concern, you may benefit from a more targeted assessment to identify inequities in an existing program, service, or function. For example, if you’re aware of investments in your community typically benefitting or burdening one community group over another, an equity assessment to identify opportunities to create more equity in your budgeting process might be the most useful.
Defining and agreeing on the scope of your equity assessment is the first key to success.
Conducting an equity assessment requires comprehensively assessing current practices and identifying gaps within your scope. While there are many methodologies that can be used to effectively conduct an equity assessment, it’s important to ask and investigate a variety of questions and topics that comprehensively address the identified scope. Here are some areas for consideration:
What sort of data and information has already been collected and made available about the organization, department, or program being assessed? Existing data can provide valuable information to consider when conducting the equity assessment.
The absence of equity-related data can be a signal that improvements are needed. Some examples of equity-related data that might be valuable include data on the following:
Ultimately, your organization’s purpose will determine what sort of equity-related data is or should be available.
What sorts of plans does your organization, department, or program have that relate to equity or have equity-related goals? For example, does your strategic plan include goals relating to equity or do you have an equity-related strategic plan? This can give you a starting point for how your organization conceptualizes equity to help you pinpoint focus areas.
What equity-related outcomes exist in the organization, department, or program being assessed? Evaluating progress toward equity-related outcomes is an important way to understand the impact of your efforts on different community groups. Similar to data, the absence of equity-related outcomes can be an important signal that the organization’s focus on equity should be strengthened.
It’s important to consider how much of the organization’s budget is allocated toward inclusions designed to further diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). This can include both internally focused initiatives to improve your staff’s understanding of DEI in the community and how to equitably serve residents, such as training opportunities and strategic efforts to increase staff diversity
This can also include externally focused initiatives to improve the equitability of your services, such as translating documents to other language or engagement opportunities for marginalized communities. By specifically investing in equity, your organization, program, or service is more likely to have an impact in operationalizing changes that support equity.
An action plan outlines the specific, actionable steps you’ll take to improve identified gaps, and the outcomes you expect to achieve as a result of completing them. An action plan should include clearly assigned responsibility for specific actions, set timelines, and goals.
For meaningful progress, your action plan should be regularly monitored and updated, including both taking action and progressing toward expected outcomes. Actions and outcomes may need to be revised over time as your needs and environment evolve.
What are your strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and opportunities for improving equity? Examples of what this evaluation includes are listed below.
Understanding what’s working and what opportunities for improvement exist is an effective way to understand equity-related gaps.
Engaging with stakeholders can be one of the most effective ways to understand how equitable your services are. However, there are several considerations to keep in mind.
Equity assessments should never be performative. The information identified should be used to improve services and programs, by developing a plan and monitoring progress consistently.
