Racial Equity Lab

Team: OCR | Tableau + Zillow

How might we develop a digital tool to improve City of Seattle's internal coordination of equity work, and at the same time, increase transparency of initiatives and outcomes to the BIPOC communities, so they can hold us accountable?

Problem: The Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) is embedded in all City departments. Most departments have equity specialists leading anti-racist work in city policies and programs. However, the RSJ workers have struggled with coordination and transparency. One community activist at a city-community engagement session at the Chinatown International District said last year, "There are 28 racial equity stakeholder engagement events happening in this neighborhood right now by the city. Are people at the city talking with each other? Are you working towards same outcomes? How can we trust the city if different teams come asking repetitive questions?"

Solution: The Racial Equity Lab is a public-facing website that will improve access and interpretation of community indicators, increase transparency into how government is making progress towards racial justice commitments, and advance coordination across departments in reaching out to BIPOC communities.

Zillow completed their design engagement with the creation of wireframes. We expect Tableau to continue to develop indicator visualizations. Now that the bones are in place, the project team is looking for implementation partners to design the look and feel of the experience and launch the beta version by the end of 2020.

Contact: Shuxuan Zhou, Seattle Office for Civil Rights, Shuxuan.Zhou@seattle.gov