The City has officially launched our Race and Equity Academy training. 

Kim Desmond, the City's first-ever Chief Officer of Race and Equity, is leading trainings with City employees and officials to bring increased equity to all of our City’s programs, services, processes and budget decisions. 

The trainings, which will be offered both in-person and online, will be provided to all 12,000 City employees, and they include readings, videos, and podcasts that offer a foundational understanding of the history of racism in the United States, racial bias, different types of systemic inequity, and next steps to address inequity in the workplace. 

Alongside these new trainings, the City is incorporating equity in everything we do. Here’s a look at just a few of the equity actions Mayor Gloria's administration has taken so far: 

• Created the Office of Race and Equity to address all forms of disparities experienced by individuals in San Diego and to intentionally create a culture of inclusivity by advancing equitable outcomes; dismantling policies, procedures and budget decisions that perpetuate inequity and systemic racism

• Hosted Budget Equity/Tactical Equity Plan training designed to determine whether budget allocations advance equitable outcomes for residents for more than 90 City employees from various departments where participants were given an overview of equity with a focus on implicit bias and how it can drive the decision-making process

• Launched Blueprint SD, a proactive effort to create an equitable and sustainable framework for growth to support current and future San Diegans using the best available data to identify areas for more homes and jobs that are connected to convenient and affordable options to walk, bike, and ride transit to meet daily needs 

• Secured adoption of policy updates to ensure infrastructure is constructed to best meet people’s needs and improves their lives and also works to get more people involved and engaged in helping the City learn about infrastructure priorities and equitably prioritize projects

• Funded the City’s first Cannabis Equity assessment, paving the way for a cannabis equity program to ensure that the City is ridding the local cannabis industry of institutional racism and systemic disparities 

• Helped secure a State grant for more than $880,000 to support residents seeking to enter the legal cannabis industry in San Diego through funding to cover permit and license fees and associated start-up property costs while providing access to the cannabis industry workforce 

• Took action to close the digital divide by launching a major expansion of the SD Access 4 All program with free Wi-Fi at over 300 new locations 

• Created Summer for All of Us, an initiative that invested in workforce development, library programs and youth programming in underserved areas throughout San Diego 

• Actively addressing environmental justice and social equity through a new Climate Equity Fund, which has allocated $25 million to fund climate justice and resilience projects in Communities of Concern thus far 

• Commissioned a disparity study to assess whether minority-, woman- and disabled veteran-owned businesses face any barriers as part of the City of San Diego’s contracting processes, then implemented recommendations and changes based on the data to ensure equity when doing business with the City of San Diego 

There is no singular policy or approach that we can follow to dismantle the history of racism in City of San Diego and the United States, but we are dedicated to reimagining what equitable systems look like in San Diego.