King County WA equity & social justice initiative: Working toward fairness and opportunity for all

In February 2008, King County launched the Equity & Social Justice Initiative to eliminate persistent inequities in health and well being. The goal of the Initiative is for all King County residents to live in communities of opportunity where all people thrive. The Initiative aims to improve conditions for people of color, low income residents and ethnic groups with limited English proficiency and focuses on 13 social, economic and physical environments that are the determinants of health and equity. This session will focus on how King County takes a comprehensive, systems-level approach and how it measures and monitors the impact of these actions on equity in the following areas: policy development and decision-making to examine the impacts of current policies and practices that promote equity or contribute to inequity; delivery of county services and organizational practices through executive departments' commitments to specific actions that promote equity and social justice; and community engaement to increase awareness, build partnerships and address structural changes that improve conditions where people live, work and play. In working in these areas, the Initiative has established baseline measures and the long-term results to measure progress prioritized two results areas for deeper work cross-departmentally and through partnerships with key stakeholders (equity in organizational practices and affordable, healthy, green-built housing) and developed Equity Impact Review tools and a Community Engagement Guide for internal operations.