Race and Social Justice Initiative
Program and Key Principles
The City of Seattle continues to strive toward racial equity every day. The Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) is a Citywide effort to end institutionalized racism and race-based gaps in City government. The City Council passed the RSJI as an ordinance in March 2023. Read more about the RSJI ordinance.
Through our work, SDOT aims to end institutional racism, biases, and inequity in our transportation system and workforce. We work equity into all that we do, including safety measures, how we distribute services, affordability, and community engagement. We share the actions that we take towards equity on the City Racial Equity Actions page.
For more information about RSJI, please refer to our City-wide RSJI page, or reach out to DOTRSJI@seattle.gov
The Racial Equity Toolkit
The Racial Equity Toolkit (RET) is used as an opportunity to learn more about how a project, program, or initiative impacts those we serve. We typically recommend that multiple staff are involved and engaged in the development of the RET, including project managers. The RET should be initiated early in scope and planning stages of a project to identify race and social justice disparities and find ways to eliminate and/or reduce these. Engaging the RET offers a chance to pause and "re-center" the work and focus on improving outcomes for all, within a project area. Ideally, this process happens repeatedly over the course of a project, to keep the focus on our commitment to equitable participation and outcome, to be effective, and to build positive relationships with communities we serve.
We use Racial Equity Toolkits when we have:
- A new policy, program, or large major project
- An ongoing program that has not been run through a RET in the previous 5 years
- An existing policy that has not been run through a RET in the previous 5 years
Resources for this include:
RSJI Resources
Officially passed into law in 2023, Council Bill 120525 works to formally solidify the City of Seattle’s commitment to engaging in work through an equity lens. The ordinance names the Office of Civil Rights as the leaders of this initiative.
The Seattle Office for Civil Rights (SOCR) works to advance civil rights and enforces laws against discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, and contracting within the City.
The Citywide RSJI page provides general information and resources for the RSJI program.
The City Racial Equity Actions page provides specific actions that our city is taking on to promote a more transparent, equitable, and accountable future. Programs and projects vary by department and time for completion. On this page, City departments report and update their racial equity action plans, and progress reports or impact assessments are shared as they are developed.
The RSJI Summit is an annual, multi-day, hybrid event which invites employees from the City to engage in racial equity workshops, mixers, and lectures to support solutions for a better Seattle.
2023 Summit Program Information
2022 Summit Program Information