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Literature Review and White Paper | Julia Eagles

CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS, OFFICE OF EMERGENCY

MANAGEMENT

RACIAL EQUITY IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

RACIAL EQUITY IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

Literature Review and White Paper

June 2014 Primary Author: Julia Eagles Prepared for:

City of Minneapolis Office of Emergency Management Barret W. S. Lane, Director

This research was part of a month-long contract position with the City of Minneapolis Office of

Emergency Management. Thanks to Barret Lane and Karen Francois, Karimah Edwards, Daire

Elliot, Lillian McDonald, Phil Hansen and Megan Mrozek for their contributions to this report.

Their willingness to give their time for interviews and share information, background and

resources was invaluable in compiling this report. Kelly Muellman, Melissa Kealey and Michelle

Kellogg also provided valuable insight and suggestions to inform the content of this project.

Cover image: One Mpls by Adam Turman

Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 1

Background ............................................................................................................................................... 1

Minneapolis Racial Equity Framework:..................................................................................................... 2

Minneapolis Office of Emergency Management: ..................................................................................... 3

Examining emergency management through a racial equity lens: .............................................................. 4

Racial Disparities in Response and Recovery ............................................................................................ 4

Assessing Vulnerabilities ........................................................................................................................... 6

Engaging Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities in Emergency Management .............................. 7

Review of best practices and lessons learned: ............................................................................................. 8

City of Seattle Office of Emergency Management .................................................................................... 8

City of Portland Bureau of Emergency Management ............................................................................. 11

Emergency and Community Health Communications (ECHO) Minnesota ............................................. 12

American Red Cross, Twin Cities Chapter ............................................................................................... 15

Conclusions and Recommendations ........................................................................................................... 18

Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................... 19

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“Minneapolis is a growing and vibrant world-class city with a flourishing economy and a pristine environment, where all people are safe, healthy and have equitable opportunities for success and happiness.”

- City of Minneapolis Vision

Introduction

This research, conducted on behalf of the Emergency Management Director, examines racial equity in all

phases of emergency management, informed by a literature review and interviews with practitioners in

the field to document how the issue is defined and exemplified, and identify best practices for

addressing and incorporating racial equity in emergency management.

In order to better understand this issue, the research addresses the following questions:

What is the problem of racial inequality in Minneapolis?

What is at the root of this problem?

What is the City’s strategy to address racial inequalities?

What are the racial equity issues at play in emergency management?

What is the scope of influence of the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) to intervene in

this area?

What precedent (if any) exists in national standards for emergency preparedness to address

racial equity?

What are the models from other communities for work on racial equity in emergency

management?

How are impacts measured through the OEM? What metrics could evaluate success in this area?

What are the key recommendations for the OEM for advancing racial equity in the area of

emergency management?

Background Minneapolis has some of the largest disparities in the nation

between white people and people of color in the areas of

education, employment, housing, economic vitality and other

critical areas.1 This is a concern as Minneapolis strives to

become “a growing and vibrant world-class city”, which

depends on all residents having the opportunity to participate

in the workforce and benefit from a shared quality of life.2

In order to address these disparities, the City of Minneapolis has developed an initiative called Equitable

Solutions for One Minneapolis, a Racial Equity Framework. Minneapolis is focusing on racial equity

initially and explicitly because the disparities between white people and people of color are the most

severe of the indicators that may predict socioeconomic outcomes. By tackling the worst disparities first,

the city will be able to create a permanent shift towards fairness and justice for all groups.3 The goal of

the Equitable Solutions framework is to provide tools, data, proposed targets and strategies for viewing

the City’s work through a racial equity lens that can influence community engagement, policy-making,

planning and service delivery to improve the socio-economic condition for residents of Minneapolis.4

1 Laura Kelly and Andi Egbert. OneMinneapolis: Community Indicators Report. (The Minneapolis Foundation, Amherst H. Wilder

Foundation, October 2011). http://www.minneapolisfoundation.org/Libraries/2011CommunityIndicatorsReport.sflb.ashx 2 “City Vision, Values Goals & Strategic Directions.” City of Minneapolis, March 2014.

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/citygoals/index.htm 3 Francois, Karen. “Equitable Solutions for One Minneapolis." Personal interview. June 10, 2014.

4 “Equitable Solutions for One Minneapolis: A Racial Equity Framework.” City of Minneapolis, April 2014.

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups/public/@clerk/documents/webcontent/wcms1p-123811.pdf

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One Minneapolis: Disparities are eliminated so all Minneapolis residents can participate and prosper

Racial inequities (including in housing, education, income and health) are addressed and eliminated.

All people, regardless of circumstance, have opportunities for success at every stage of life.

Equitable systems and policies lead to a high quality of life for all.

All people have access to quality essentials, such as housing, education, food, child care and transportation.

Residents are informed, see themselves represented in City government and have the opportunity to influence decision-making.

-Minneapolis Goals & Strategic Directions7

The framework focuses on three policy areas - employment, engagement and purchasing. However, the

intention is for departments to apply this racial equity lens to all aspects of their work.

Minneapolis Racial Equity Framework: According to the Equitable Solutions framework, “racial equity is achieved when everyone has access to

the opportunities necessary to satisfy their essential needs, advance their well-being, and achieve their

full potential.” Institutional structures often create disparities, barring some from accessing those

opportunities. In order to understand these disparities in the context of city operations, it is important

to have a clear definition of institutional versus individual racism, and the adverse effects of each.

Individual racism refers to the pre-judgment, bias or stereotypes about an individual or group

based on race that can lead to discrimination.5

Institutional racism refers to organizational programs, policies or procedures that work to the

benefit of white people and to the detriment of people of color, usually unintentionally or

inadvertently.6

Structural racism refers to a history and current reality of institutional racism across systems

and structures. This combines to create a system that negatively impacts communities of color.7

Another important distinction to make is between equity

and equality: equality means treating everyone the same,

whereas equity means treating everyone fairly. In order to

achieve equity, some individuals or groups may need to

receive more resources or services than others.12 In order to

address the structures of institutional racism that are the

root cause for the widespread disparity in the City of

Minneapolis, there must be a concerted effort to examine

and dismantle those policies and practices that perpetuate

disparities. This involves understanding the historical

context that may influence decision-making related to

public structures and investments.

In addition to the Equitable Solutions framework, the City

has a number of other policies and resources aimed at

addressing racial and social equity. In 2014, as part of the

update to the vision, values, goals and strategic directions

that will guide the City’s work for the next four years, staff

and Councilmembers incorporated equity issues as a

priority. Equity is named as a key value of the City – where disparities are nonexistent and all people

have opportunities for success – and also as a strategic direction (see sidebar).8

5 “Racial Equity Strategy Guide.” Portland’s Partnership for Racial Equity, Urban League of Portland, August 2012.

http://ulpdx.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/RACIAL-EQUITY-STRATEGY-GUIDE-FINAL.pdf 6 “Equitable Solutions for One Minneapolis: A Racial Equity Framework.” City of Minneapolis, April 2014.

7 “Racial Equity in Seattle.” Race and Social Justice Initiative Three-Year Plan 2012-2014, City of Seattle Office for Civil Rights,

June 2014. http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/RSJI/RacialEquityinSeattleReport2012-14.pdf 8 “City Vision, Values Goals & Strategic Directions.” City of Minneapolis, March 2014.

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“The Office of Emergency Management

protects the people who live, work and

play in the City of Minneapolis, our State

and our Nation by building, sustaining

and improving our capability to mitigate

against, prepare for, respond to and

recover from threatened or actual

disasters, whether natural or man-made

and acts of terrorism.”

-Minneapolis OEM Mission Statement

There are also federal laws which require the City to plan for and provide meaningful access to services

for all residents. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 states that no person shall on the ground of

national origin “be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to

discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”9 Minneapolis is

committed to making City services and information about those services available to everyone,

regardless of language barriers.

As part of the Equitable Solutions framework the City of Minneapolis is in the process of developing a

Racial Equity Toolkit, which will include: Racial Equity Assessment, Recruitment and Hiring Guide, Guide

to Engaging Boards and Commissions, Guide to Equitable Purchasing and Racial Equity Training for staff

and department heads.10

Minneapolis Office of Emergency Management: The City’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) works

to build, sustain and improve the community’s capability to

mitigate against, prepare for, respond to and recover from

threatened or actual natural or human-made disasters.11

To accomplish this work OEM works in six key program

areas to build capacity: program management, planning,

implementation, training and education, testing and

exercises, and program maintenance and improvement.

The programs of OEM are mandated under City

ordinances, national standards and state and federal

guidance. This research examines existing strategies to

address racial equity in Minneapolis OEM’s work as well as

looking for guidance from state and federal standards.

Within the Minneapolis OEM’s strategic plan, the Department Director has laid out five principles of

intent. These principles state that “persons to whom an activity is delegated shall, at all times be safe,

legal, ethical, accountable, coordinated and equitable.” Within the equity principle the plan states:

“We will implement our program so as to further the city’s’ value of eliminating disparities and

providing all people opportunities for success.”

This lays out the department’s overall intention, but there is a need to define the specific points of

intervention and decision-making considerations of OEM that will impact racial equity. The Federal

Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides guidance and standards for emergency management

across the country focused primarily on the core functions of prevention, protection, mitigation,

response and recovery.12 Over time there has been a shift from the technocratic, top-down, command

and control approach that has long characterized emergency management departments to a social

vulnerability approach, which is more decentralized and involves community members in identifying and

9 “Minneapolis in Any Language Policy Summary.” City of Minneapolis, 2004.

http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/policies/policies_lep_policy 10

Francois, Karen. “Equitable Solutions for One Minneapolis." Personal interview. June 10, 2014. 11

“Office of Emergency Management: Department Business Plan.” City of Minneapolis, 2014-2017. 12

“IS-1.a Emergency Manager: An Orientation to the Position.” FEMA Emergency Management Institute, February 2013. http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/courseOverview.aspx?code=IS-1.a

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understanding risks and problems.13 With this shift has come more guidance from FEMA on engaging

community members directly in emergency planning and response. The clearest example of this is

FEMA’s Whole Community Approach to Emergency Management, which outlines the concept:

“Whole Community is a means by which residents, emergency management practitioners,

organizational and community leaders, and government officials can collectively understand and

assess the needs of their respective communities and determine the best ways to organize and

strengthen their assets, capacities and interests.”14

FEMA’s guide also lays out principles for the Whole Community approach: understanding and meeting

the needs of the whole community, engaging and empowering all parts of the community, and

strengthening what works in communities on a daily basis. While these provide helpful guidance for

better engaging community in emergency planning, they don’t explicitly address the issue of racial

disparities and vulnerabilities that may exist in communities.

Examining emergency management through a racial equity lens:

Studies have shown that vulnerability in disaster events may be increased due to factors such as a

person’s age, gender, social class, disability status, race and ethnicity.15 In several recent disaster events,

it was exemplified how people of color and poor people in the United States and around the world are

disproportionately and differentially vulnerable because of preexisting systems of stratification.16 Those

segments of the population who have historical socioeconomic disadvantages experience exaggerated

disparities in their response and recovery to disaster events. Environmental disasters do not

discriminately distribute risk and vulnerability or eliminate preexisting systems of racial and social

stratification, but they do tend to reveal and highlight those inequities that currently exist.17

Racial Disparities in Response and Recovery Hurricane Katrina was a particularly glaring example of racial and class disparities in who had the ability

to evacuate the area, when and where services were delivered, and how the media portrayed behaviors

of those victims of the event. According to Lakshmi Fjord in her report on the hurricane, delays in

humanitarian relief caused preventable harm to primarily African American, disabled, elderly, and

impoverished residents, as did evacuation plans designed for able-bodied people with resources.18 It

was partly a matter of circumstance - in a city with a poverty rate over two times the national average

(28% of residents in New Orleans live in poverty) and where 84% of the poor in the city are African

American - that a disaster event would have such broad and devastating impacts particularly on

communities of color.19 There were also troubling and misrepresentative media portrayals during and

13

“Approaches to Emergency Management.” Theory, Practice and Fundamental of Hazards, Disasters and U.S. Emergency Management. Session No. 12, FEMA Emergency Management Institute. 14

“A Whole Community Approach to Emergency Management: Principles, Themes and Pathways for Action.” FEMA, December 2011. http://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/whole_community_dec2011__2_.pdf 15

Susan Gooden, Dale Jones, Kasey J. Martin and Marcus Boyd. Social Equity in Local Emergency Management Planning. State & Local Government Review, Vol. 41, No. 1 (2009), pp. 1-12. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25469798 16

Nix-Stevenson, Dara. Human Response to Natural Disasters. Sage Publications SAGE Open 2013 3, July-September 2013. http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/3/3/2158244013489684 17

Fothergill, A., & Peek, L. A. Poverty and disasters in the United States: A review of recent sociological findings. Natural Hazards, Vol. 32, pp. 89-110. http://www.cdra.colostate.edu/data/sites/1/cdra-research/fothergill-peek2004poverty.pdf 18

Fjord, Lakshmi. Disasters, race, and disability: [Un]Seen through the political lens on Katrina. The Journal of Race and Policy, vol. 3 No. 1 , pp. 46-66. http://cardcanhelp.org/images/Disasters-Race-Disability-Lakshmi-Fjord.pdf 19

Hardisty, Jean. Hurricane Katrina and Structural Racism: An Open Letter to White People.” October 2005, http://www.jeanhardisty.com/errant-thoughts/hurricane-katrina-and-structural-racism-a-letter-to-white-people/

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after the event, which described African American residents as “looting” while their white counterparts

were said to be “gathering food” when they were photographed engaged in identical activities. Those

stories serve to perpetuate the individual racism and biases people may feel towards a particular group;

when they influence the decision-making of agencies and organizations involved in response, it becomes

an issue of institutional racism.

In the summer of 1995, Chicago experienced a multi-day heat wave that caused over 500 heat-related

deaths across the City. Following the event there were studies and publications that named the weather

and meteorological conditions as the principle cause of the event. Author Eric Klinenberg wrote a book

in which he examined the heat wave through a social autopsy looking at the social, spatial and economic

conditions that influenced the heat wave’s disproportionate effects on particular parts of the city. The

victims of the heat were primarily elderly; 73% of the heat-related casualties were 65 years and above.

African Americans had the highest proportional death rates of any race, with a 1.5:1 for African

American to white deaths in the total, age-adjusted population.20 A study looking at heat-related

mortality in four U.S. cities found that substantially higher effects of heat on mortality were observed

among African Americans compared with Whites and that a large proportion of that disparity in heat-

related mortality may be due to differences in central air conditioning prevalence.21 A whole variety of

demographic and systemic factors impacted vulnerability in the Chicago heat wave, but the incident

highlights the importance of including socioeconomic factors when measuring vulnerability, including

age, race, poverty, and social connectivity.

Locally, the tornado that hit the Northside of Minneapolis in May of 2011 is an example of how an

already vulnerable community is more at risk of potentially devastating impacts of environmental shocks

with social and economic consequences. The storm caused an estimated $80 million worth of damage,

and resulted in one death and over 30 injuries. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the neighborhoods

most severely affected had over 50% of residents living below the federal poverty level, and 65%

residents of color (Black, Asian, Hispanic and American Indian). Despite the coordinated response efforts

of the City, the event demonstrated how existing disparities are a significant factor in determining levels

of emergency preparedness and recovery. Issues that existed in North Minneapolis before the tornado –

abandoned properties, crime, and poverty – were exacerbated by the storm. Rebuilding efforts have

lagged in areas with a high percentage of rental properties, as it can be a challenge for landlords to

afford or be motivated to invest in the properties.22 Given the increased vulnerabilities among

historically marginalized communities, there is a need in emergency management planning to give

special attention and accommodations to meet the needs of those communities.

In a review of Emergency Operations Plans in various communities across the country, researchers

found that most plans included some mention of social equity in reference to four specific vulnerable

groups – low-income individuals, those with disabilities, the elderly and those with limited English

language proficiency – while less than 1 percent of the plans directly addressed racial/ethnic issues.23

The vulnerabilities of those populations mentioned in the plan are somewhat easier to identify, quantify

20

Klineberg, Eric. Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. University of Chicago Press, 2003. 21

Marie S. O’Neill, Antonella Zanobetti, and Joel Schwartz. Disparities by Race in Heat-Related Mortality in Four US Cities: The Role of Air Conditioning Prevalence. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. 82, No. 2. 22

Keen, Judy. “North Minneapolis still struggling to recover from 2011 tornado.” MinnPost, October 18, 2013. http://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2013/10/north-minneapolis-still-struggling-recover-2011-tornado 23

“IS-1.a Emergency Manager: An Orientation to the Position.” FEMA Emergency Management Institute, February 2013. http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/courseOverview.aspx?code=IS-1.a

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and respond to, and are important to recognize explicitly in any planning process. The barriers posed by

institutional racism - while sometimes harder to explicitly name and identify - should also be identified

and addressed in emergency management.

Assessing Vulnerabilities

A variety of tools and assessments exist to measure vulnerability, including socioeconomic and

demographic data, hazard proximity and risk, health exposure, and environmental factors. Vulnerability,

in the disaster context, is a person’s or group’s capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist, and recover from

the impact of a natural hazard.24

Traditionally this research has focused on biophysical vulnerability and

the vulnerability of the built environment so less is known about the social aspects of vulnerability.25

Because of the difficulty in quantifying social vulnerabilities, they are often ignored, or when they are

included it’s often in terms of individuals’ demographics (age, race, health, income, etc.). The factors

influencing social vulnerability can go beyond demographics to include issues related to environment,

land use, infrastructure, geography, etc. The table below includes a sampling of the characteristics most

often considered in vulnerability assessments:

Concept Description Socioeconomic status

(income, political

power, prestige)

The ability to absorb losses and enhance resilience to hazard impacts. Wealth enables

communities to absorb and recover from losses more quickly due to insurance, social

safety nets, and entitlement programs.

Gender Women can have a more difficult time during recovery than men, often due to sector-

specific employment, lower wages, and family care responsibilities.

Race and Ethnicity Imposes language and cultural barriers that affect access to post-disaster funding and

residential locations in high hazard areas.

Age

Extremes of the age spectrum affect the movement out of harm’s way. Young children

are dependent and therefore more at risk; elderly may have mobility constraints or

mobility concerns increasing the burden of care and lack of resilience

Commercial &

industrial

development

The value, quality, and density of commercial and industrial buildings provide an

indicator of the state of economic health of a community, and potential losses in the

business community, and longer-term issues with recovery after an event.

Infrastructure and

lifelines

Loss of water, communications, and transportation infrastructure compounds potential

disaster losses. The loss of infrastructure may place an insurmountable financial burden

on smaller communities that lack the financial resources to rebuild.

Renters

People that rent do so because they are either transient or do not have the financial

resources for home ownership. They often lack access to information about financial aid

during recovery. In the most extreme cases, renters lack sufficient shelter options when

lodging becomes uninhabitable or too costly to afford.

Social dependence Those people who are dependent on social services for survival are already economically

and socially marginalized and require additional support in the post-disaster period.

Social Isolation

Those people who rarely leave their residential units, have little contact with family and

friends, and, because of cutbacks in public health and transportation programs (essential

for bringing them to health providers), and are unable to receive many of the basic

services they need to stay healthy. SOURCE: Cutter, Boruff, and Shirley (2001); Heinz Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment (2002).

24

Susan Gooden et al. Social Equity in Local Emergency Management Planning. State & Local Government Review, 25

Susan Cutter, Bryan Boruff, W. Lynn Shirley. Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards. Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 84, No. 2, June 2003.

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In their research on social vulnerability to environmental hazards, Susan Cutter et al compared a

number of dimensions of social vulnerability using Census data for counties across the country. Their

results found eleven factors that differentiated counties according to their relative level of social

vulnerability.26 When those factors were ranked as indicators of vulnerability, personal wealth had the

highest significance. Race, specifically African American, ranked sixth, followed by Hispanic, Native

American and Asian race or ethnicity. Cutter’s explanation of the significance of this factor is:

“Race contributes to social vulnerability through the lack of access to resources, cultural

differences, and the social, economic, and political marginalization that is often associated with

racial disparities. Our sixth factor identifies race…as an indicator of social vulnerability. This

factor also correlates highly with percentage female headed households, noting that counties

with high percentages of African-American female-headed households are among the most

vulnerable. This factor explains 6.9 percent of the variation among U.S. counties.” 27

While the specific factors may be adjusted to be more locally relevant, using vulnerability assessments

to understand risk can help emergency management offices to target programs and resources to those

communities with the greatest needs and vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities, if ignored or neglected in

emergency preparedness, response and recovery, may exacerbate racial and other socioeconomic

disparities when a disaster or emergency situation occurs.

Engaging Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities in Emergency Management

In order to avoid continuing disparities in emergency response and preparedness, there is a need to

engage all racial and ethnic populations in planning and compliance.28 FEMA’s Whole Community

Planning approach also emphasizes the importance of community engagement, and provides some

strategies including: understand cultural complexity, recognize community capability and needs, foster

relationships with community leaders, build and maintain partnerships, empower local action, and

leverage and strengthen social infrastructure, networks and assets.29

Drexel University’s School of Public Health identified a series both individual and institutional level

barriers to developing disaster resilience in diverse communities.30 These include socioeconomic factors,

culture and language barriers, distrust of messengers and service providers and resistance to non-

mainstream sources of information. These social, cultural and class issues all make it difficult to deliver

effective services based on the position of the individuals served. There are also institutional barriers to

this work, including limited knowledge, minimal community input and limited infrastructure to provide

culturally and linguistically appropriate services. A guidebook from the Institute for Regional Studies at

North Dakota State University also provides suggestions for communicating risk to various cultural

communities.31 Authentic and early engagement in emergency planning processes can help reduce

disparities by encouraging all communities, especially those that are most vulnerable, to be prepared.

26

Cutter et al. Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards. Social Science Quarterly, June 2003. 27

Ibid, pg. 12. 28

Dennis Andrulis, Nadia Siddiqui, and Jenna Gantner. Preparing Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities for Public Health Emergencies. Health Affairs, Vol. 26, No. 5, 2007. 29

“A Whole Community Approach to Emergency Management.” FEMA, December 2011. 30

Dennis Andrulis, Nadia Siddiqui and Jonathan Purtle. Enhancing Disaster Resilience in Racially & Ethnically Diverse Communities. Third National Conference on Health Systems Readiness, December 2009, Washington, DC. 31

Robert Littlefield, Kimberly Cowden and Will Hueston. Crisis and Risk Communication- 10 Tips for Public Health Professionals Communicating with Native and New Americans. Institute for Regional Studies, North Dakota State University, 2007.

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Review of best practices and lessons learned: Below are a series of examples and best practices gleaned from interviews with emergency

management practitioners and local governments for emergency management planning,

communications and community engagement.

City of Seattle Office of Emergency Management The City of Seattle Office of Emergency Management (OEM) has a staff of 13 and is housed within the

Seattle Police Department; the Director of that office reports to Chief of Police.32 Seattle’s OEM has a

Vulnerable Populations Planner on staff, Karimah Edwards, whose primary role is to address specific

vulnerable populations - people with disabilities or Limited English Proficiency and a broad range of

individuals who may experience barriers to accessing services before, during or after an emergency

event. This often involves planning projects to help communities be better prepared by looking at

internal capabilities - learning the ways communities can leverage their existing assets for preparedness

and developing relationships with communities across the city. The key threats faced by Seattle are

somewhat rare in nature (e.g., earthquakes, landslides, severe weather) and require a different type of

risk communication to help residents understand the threat posed and appropriate response.33 The City

is part of a regional Urban Area Securities Initiative, with 3 other local governments in the area, to work

on preparedness and security initiatives among vulnerable populations.

Seattle is incorporating racial equity into all of its departments’ work through its Race and Social Justice

Initiative (RSJI), which began in 2005 and is committed to: ending institutionalized racism in City

government, promoting inclusion and full participation of all residents in civic life and partnering with

the community to achieve racial equity across Seattle.34 The RSJI provides a toolkit and resources to

incorporate these themes into the work of all city departments, by analyzing whether a policy or

program is equitable or has unintended consequences. All city staff can go through training on

institutional racism (this training is required for all new staff in some departments) to prepare them to

look at their work and decisions through an equity lens. Each department has an RSJI Change Team - a

voluntary forum for staff to examine issues of institutional racism within their department and develop

new ideas or programs aimed at integrating racial equity. The teams also tend to serve as collaborative

opportunities to leverage one another’s work and community relationships. In Seattle this has been an

especially helpful way to gain rapport with the community, taking advantage of existing connections and

learning from previous staff experience about what works and what doesn’t in engaging community.35

In the Seattle Office Emergency Management specifically, there is an RSJI Change Team and a variety of

approaches to integrating racial equity into the work. This includes an inclusive outreach and

engagement program that works towards making sure that the department is doing inclusive

community outreach. There is also an objective, especially through Karimah’s work, to look at areas of

the city that have a high percentage of vulnerable populations and identify what support and resources

are needed to serve those communities.

32

Edwards, Karimah. "Racial Equity in Seattle's Emergency Management." Telephone interview. June 10, 2014. 33

“Seattle Hazard Identification & Vulnerability Analysis.” City of Seattle, Office of Emergency Management, April 2014. http://www.seattle.gov/emergency/publications/documents/SHIVA.pdf 34

Racial Equity in Seattle.” RSJI Three-Year Plan 2012-2014, City of Seattle Office for Civil Rights, June 2014. 35

Edwards, Karimah. "Racial Equity in Seattle's Emergency Management." Telephone interview. June 10, 2014.

9

Lessons Learned: There are several key lessons and best practices Karimah Edwards shared that inform

the Seattle OEM’s approach to community engagement work using a racial equity lens. 36

Emergency Management tends to be a predominantly white male dominated field, so it is

important to prioritize racial equity throughout the work. This involves questioning assumptions

and biases that may inform the dominant approach of the department. The assessment tools

from the RSJI help to identify and evaluate some of those issues.

Emergency management sometimes takes the perspective of “How can I help this community

and get them what they need?” vs. “What are the capabilities of this community? How do I get

to know them and the resources they already have?” The Seattle OEM has been trying to take a

different approach to how they connect with those communities, building rapport and

developing mutual understanding between the city and residents.

It has also been important to recognize that the City as a government entity may encounter

mixed reactions and attitude from the community in response efforts. If City staff go to certain

parts of the City, they’re welcome, in other parts of the City, there’s a more suspicious and

skeptical response. Some of the immigrant communities don’t have a positive outlook on

government; the African American community also tends to be somewhat skeptical and

suspicious based on historical relations with the City. While this isn’t an easily resolved

challenge, the OEM is considering how these community perceptions impacts the City’s ability to

provide resources, support and communications to underserved populations.

If a community is already experiencing poverty and has limited resources, it may be more

difficult to encourage people to start building emergency supplies. There’s also a challenge in

appropriately and effectively communicating risk to those communities.

A survey conducted by Seattle OEM revealed what community groups perceived as their biggest

concern in terms of natural or manmade disasters. The overwhelming response was an active

shooter incident, and the desired incentive to address that concern was disaster kits and

events/information on how to respond. In response, the office has organized a disaster

educational event that was designed to be accessible to all (very visual, with interpreters,

multiple languages, closed captioning, etc.). Staff made sure to include community members in

the planning to ensure a more successful event.

Best Practices: 37

Outreach and Inclusivity: When engaging community groups in planning processes, take an

inclusive approach from the start. That’s the best way to gather information about community

concerns and learn how to most effectively do the work. It can be patronizing and unproductive

to include the community only at the end when the plan is already written.

Cultural Awareness/Community-Building Events: Hold events that focus on a specific

community (Filipino, Somali, African American, etc.) with the goal of building relationships,

cultural competency and partnerships which will support resiliency for vulnerable populations

when a disaster event occurs. The events provide an opportunity for communities to speak to

emergency management staff about what they want service providers to know about them, the

36

Edwards, Karimah. "Racial Equity in Seattle's Emergency Management." Telephone interview. June 10, 2014. 37

Ibid.

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dos and don’ts of approaching and interacting with that community. This will of course only

include a representation of the community that doesn’t speak for everyone, but it provides

valuable perspective and helps providers to make their services even more accessible.

Appreciate Participation- Provide Food: Communities bond around food- it’s a great social

icebreaker and helps not just to pull people in but also creates an informal and comfortable

atmosphere for people for discussing a serious topic like emergency preparedness. Try to

provide culturally appropriate food at events.

Tailor Programming: In order to make programs accessible, they can’t all be done the

mainstream way. Service delivery has to be different for each community, tailored to the

population being served. For example, the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)

program may look different in each community where the training is being offered.

Public Education: Part of emergency management’s outreach strategy focuses on personal

preparedness, by holding trainings and supporting hub programs. There are information hubs

throughout the City, which may be faith-based organizations, community groups or

neighborhood organizations. The Seattle OEM recognized a disparity- there were more hubs in

predominantly white communities and fewer in immigrant/low-income communities. They

worked to leverage the networks and trusted role of faith-based communities to help

disseminate information to underrepresented groups. A program called P-PATCH was developed

to create hubs at community garden sites throughout the city, locations where communities

were already gathering and sharing information.

Universal Design: A concept that says if planning is done for those with the most severe

disparities, it will be accessible to everyone. The term was coined in the architectural industry as

a way to design all products and the built environment to be aesthetic and usable to the

greatest extent possible by everyone, regardless of their age, ability, or status in life.38 This

philosophy considers accessibility as the default and when applied to Emergency Management

may mean providing different sheltering accommodations (cots that can be used by someone

with a disability) or communications strategies (multilingual, closed captioning, etc.) to be

accessible to all.

Measuring impacts:

Seattle has used a variety of measures to quantify the impacts of racial equity on the Emergency

Management department’s work including tracking the number of participants in programs like CERT

and the hub networks, identifying where those participants are from and collecting some of their

demographic data.39 The office also tracks the ways in which the RSJI initiative is impacting

programming, which can be somewhat intangible, but it’s important to recognize as shifts and

modifications that make the work more equitable. Staff also encouraged supplementing city data on

inequities with qualitative input from communities, doing surveys with residents to hear specific

examples and key concerns related to these issues.

38

Wikipedia“Universal design.” (2014, July 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 27, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Universal_design&oldid=615508021 39

Edwards, Karimah. "Racial Equity in Seattle's Emergency Management." Telephone interview. June 10, 2014.

11

City of Portland Bureau of Emergency Management The City of Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (BEM) has a staff of 16, which includes a robust

financial division who work on Federal grant funding, a Community Emergency Response Team program,

a Planning and Exercise team, operations and management and community outreach staff.40 The BEM is

an independent bureau, and the Director reports directly to one of the City Commissioners. Bureaus

across the City tend to be fairly independent from one another, but are working to take a coordinated

and centralized approach to equity issues through the Office of Equity and Human Rights. This allows for

comparison across the City, rather than each bureau coming up with its own plan and assessment.

There is a Citywide Equity Committee (CEC), which is made up of staff at various levels and representing

each of the bureaus, that works to “integrate equity throughout each of the bureaus and shift internal

City culture by promoting the recognition and removal of racially inequitable policies and practices.”41

The CEC has develops tools for bureaus to develop their own Racial Equity Plans, identifies citywide

policies that are creating any barriers to access or involvement and trains CEC members to be resources

and trainers for their individual bureaus. Each bureau in the City is also encouraged to have a Diversity &

Equity Committee (DEC), although some have been more active than others. One of the roles of the CEC

is to provide support to those committees to keep them active. Each DEC is bureau-centric, focused on

specific issues that Bureau is facing. For example they may address issues with language access in

communications and racial equity in hiring practices and community outreach.

In Portland, the Emergency Management department staff has historically come from fire, police and

military background. It is not an especially diverse profession, but the Bureau is working to increase

diversity in hiring. They recently hired a new community outreach person who is working with existing

community groups to develop stronger relationships and lower barriers for preparedness and

participation in the BEM. One example of this work is developing a 72-hour kit with food, water, medical

supplies, pet food, clothing, etc. made up of material from the Dollar Store. There’s also a Title 6

Coordinator with the City who looks at language accessibility in emergency and preparedness

messaging. Work has been done to integrate Title 6 requirements more thoughtfully and thoroughly

into the work for emergency messaging. Racial equity is also part of budget process using an assessment

tool from the Office of Equity & Human Rights. There’s a checklist tool for posting new positions to

ensure they are advertised through groups and media that reach communities of color. The CEC has also

developed a Quick & Dirty brainstorming tool for training and planning processes- to think about

stakeholders involved in the work and identify potential barrier to involvement.

Lessons Learned: Daire Elliot of Portland’s BEM shared several lessons learned and best practices that

inform the Portland’s approach to emergency management using a racial equity lens.42

It’s been difficult to find ways to engage fully with equity work on some of the internal-facing

focuses, there’s not currently a good template for how to think about equity in terms of

operations. The traditional thinking has been there’s not as much of a need to look at diversity

and equity in just delivering standard city services.

Bringing in new staff with specific interests in equity work and applying that approach to their

position has made the strongest immediate impact.

40

Elliot, Daire. "Racial Equity in Portland's Emergency Management." Telephone interview. June 10, 2014. 41

“2012-2013 Annual Report for Office of Human Equity and Human Rights.” City of Portland, December 2013. 42

Elliot, Daire. "Racial Equity in Portland's Emergency Management." Telephone interview. June 10, 2014.

12

Best Practices:

Hiring Process: Incorporate awareness of racial equity in the hiring process and job description

and reach out to communities that have historically had limited contact and involvement.

Community Engagement: Get strong and more than one contact with community groups or

individuals who are both interested in emergency management and represent the communities

that the department is trying to reach.

Expanding on Title 6: There are Federal requirements related to Title 6, which prohibits

discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin. It’s often treated as a compliance

issue, but really does have implications on emergency management work can be expensive, but

very important for emergency communications.

Assessment Tool: Develop an in-depth assessment tool to be used citywide which covers

operations, management and leadership, infrastructure, community outreach, organizational

commitment, workforce, contracting, data, etc. The assessment in Portland, which is based on a

tool developed by the Portland Public School System called All Hands Raised, includes 41

questions covering how the various bureaus do everything from hiring to building relationships

with contractors, should provide some good solid data to work with and require thinking about

equity in everything the City does.

Emergency and Community Health Communications (ECHO) Minnesota Emergency, Community, and Health Outreach (ECHO) Minnesota is a risk communication program

created by the Minnesota Department of Public Health targeted toward Limited English Proficiency

populations.43 ECHO’s mission is to collaborate with diverse communities to deliver programs and

services that help people be healthy, contribute, and succeed.44 ECHO accomplishes its mission by

collaborating with subject matter experts, multilingual community leaders and trained ethnic

spokespeople. The organization provides ongoing public health and emergency information through a

variety of media including public television, a multi-lingual website, radio, and through its network of

community partners.45 They've produced 20-minute video programs in several different languages

including Hmong, Khmer, Lao, Somali, Spanish, Vietnamese, and English, covering a range of topics such

as Lyme disease, severe weather warnings, and pandemic influenza. ECHO has been particularly

successful in forging a positive response among a diverse population. They have done this by

customizing their communications for each language and featuring native-speaking on-air personalities

and expert guests.46 ECHO also has a network of ethnic spokespeople who are trained to represent

ECHO as a whole and become part of the brand. This is possible because they have worked diligently to

develop a coalition of a wide range of organizations from state, county, and local health and service

agencies, many of which serve the populations they are attempting to reach. ECHO is also out and

present in the community frequently, building relationships and connecting with community leaders.47

43

“Limited English Proficiency Populations & Racial and Ethnic Minorities- Promising Practices.” RAND Health, Special Needs Population Mapping. http://www.rand.org/health/projects/ promising-practices/limited-english-proficiencies/practices.html 44

“ECHO Mission & History.” ECHO Minnesota website, http://www.echominnesota.org/about/mission 45

“ECHO Services.” ECHO Minnesota website, http://www.echominnesota.org/tools 46

Limited English Proficiency Populations & Racial and Ethnic Minorities- Promising Practices.” RAND Health. 47

McDonald, Lillian. "Racial Equity and ECHO MInnesota." Personal interview. June 25, 2014.

13

According to Executive Director Lillian McDonald, there are three primary areas where racial equity

plays out in ECHO’s work and in emergency management in general: 40

Leadership: At the leadership level there is some resistance to bringing on new and diverse

staff. In order to incorporate representative community members, there is a need to be nimble

and realize that the work people produce may not be in the formats that easily fit into existing

systems. Existing operating systems tend to be quite rigid, and don’t allow the opportunity for

the evolution of cultures. Non-dominant cultures do business differently. There will still be

results delivered; in fact they are often enhanced results because they’re more authentic.

Systems: Existing systems are not accommodating diversity; they aren’t prepared for the

implications of bringing on new, diverse staff members and cultures. People don’t leave their

culture at the door when they come to work, and accommodations or modifications of existing

systems may be required to attract more diverse staff. Humans are naturally socialized to have

subconscious, inherent biases. It’s necessary to become aware of those biases and then address

where they’re playing out in our systems. That’s going to take training and time.

Community Engagement: It’s hard to measure and quantify the return on investment (ROI) for a

full-time community engagement staff person. Their whole job is basically to talk to people,

develop relationships and keep as much data on the community as people are willing to give.

People cut that because it’s not always tangible- not like saying we’ve got 5 fire trucks, did 3

tabletop exercises, etc. When the crisis happens, what adds up are the relationships that have

been developed by attending community events or meetings and showing up in the community

not just to get something from them. In order to develop the trust and relationships for people

to feel comfortable talking honestly about racial inequities and disparities, there needs to be

trust and an existing relationship.

Lessons Learned: Lillian McDonald also shared a number of lessons learned and best practices from

ECHO Minnesota based on their work in emergency communications in diverse communities: 48

The community is tired of having public

officials coming to them only when they

need something. The missing link is to

invest resources in engagement. Everyone

wants an ROI on any project or program,

but there’s a need to reframe the inherent

value of engagement. It can be measured

by the number of contacts that are made in

the community, how many people are on a

contact list or in a network, number of

community events attended, etc. These

connections will pay off in the event of an

emergency in having trust with

communities.

48

McDonald, Lillian. "Racial Equity and ECHO MInnesota." Personal interview. June 25, 2014.

“In a community in rural Minnesota, the fire chief told me he had the opportunity to hire his first Somali fire fighter, recruited from the high school…but he had a problem: The young man wears a goatee so the fire equipment, according to OSHA standards, won’t fit on his face properly. The chief has gone all the way to OSHA, told them that for religious reasons the man wears a goatee. OSHA agrees that their rules need to be adjusted to accommodate a changing work force and agrees to give the ‘wink-wink’ okay, but they would not put it in writing so that the fire chief could execute his role. That puts the chief at a liability if a problem happens.”

-Lillian McDonald, ECHO Minnesota45

14

Asking people to serve on another Board or committee may not be the most effective

engagement strategy. It is asking for more uncompensated time from cultural community

leaders, when they’re already busy being pulled into a lot of such processes. This approach

tends to burn people out or be a somewhat superficial way to engage. That system needs to be

adjusted to accommodate people to be more authentically engaged. There are structures that

aren’t going to work for all cultural communities, so it’s important to examine those structures

and systems in detail to ensure they’re inclusive.

There’s a chicken and egg issue with hiring practices. There’s an attitude of: “If the force doesn’t

look like me, I don’t want to be a part of the force.”49 But if they can’t hire more people of color,

then the force will continue to look that way. There is a need to examine what systems in the

hiring processes may be posing a barrier.

In order to address the systemic issue of racial disparities, it will require reading through the

forms and paperwork that staff use to do their jobs, looking at the protocols of the organization,

the performance reviews, the policy handbooks, the signage, the promotion process, the Human

Resources records, the organizational structure, how people are brought through a process for

their jobs, etc. It has to go beyond just talking about why one should do the right thing and

making broad cultural generalizations, to actually looking at the issues within the organization or

business that may have unintended consequences, cultural flaws that exclude (subconsciously

or consciously) cultural communities.

Measuring the impacts of this type of work is challenging. Unless a study is conducted using

electronic medical records and follow people through that process, there won’t be the kind of

ROI that may be expected. Instead it’s important to identify at the begging what the goals of the

work are and how to measure them. In order to influence systemic changes, it’s necessary to set

the targets accordingly. Also get feedback from the community about what should be measured

and how to measure it. There’s value in city leaders talking to community leaders about these

issues. Waiting until the last minute to bring people in and ask for assistance on these

intercultural issues is a mistake.

Best Practices:

Whole Community approach: It’s important to have a cross-section of the population involved

in emergency planning, including those who are well-integrated and familiar with the issues as

well as community leaders, some of whom may be paid through their jobs to participate. It

should also include people who are new to the issues, to keep on the pulse of where

communities are on these issues. When the crisis occurs, it intersects across all aspects of life-

jobs, school, kids, etc. It has worked well for ECHO Minnesota to also bring economic, social, and

political issues as well as emergency issues to their advisory committees.

Cultural Services Unit/Multicultural Advisory Committee: Recruit community members from a

jurisdiction to serve as Cultural Service Unit volunteers. They are trained over the course of 6

weeks where they learn about emergency management and are paid for their time. They have a

vested interest in these issues and want to give back to their communities. After the initial

training, holding quarterly meetings of the CSU is usually sufficient. It’s important to be very

49

McDonald, Lillian. "Racial Equity and ECHO MInnesota." Personal interview. June 25, 2014.

15

specific about the objectives and the roles that CSU members play. This team of volunteers is

well-equipped to serve in other ongoing roles with the city, including joining the Multicultural

Advisory Committee (MAC), which helps advise the city on these topics.

Coordinated Efforts: In Minneapolis there are a number of siloed departments, but these

community engagement efforts should be coordinated to include at least the Health,

Neighborhood and Community Relations, Emergency Management and Communications

departments. That way the financial responsibility could be shared between departments. It

would consolidate and coordinate those 2-way communications and engagement from the City

rather than multiple city offices coming into the community separately to solicit input. A

coordinated strategy would demonstrate to residents the city’s presence in the community and

its interest in engaging residents to give a voice, weigh in and lead on projects.

Multi-cultural Approach: A CSU or MAC should consist of City staff and representatives from a

variety of cultural communities. Take a multi-cultural approach, soliciting representatives from

the Somali, Hmong, Latino, African American, Native American, and other cultural communities

to serve as members. Eventually it may be necessary to have different groups for each cultural

community, since there are unique cultural circumstances around those issues.

Clear, Community-Informed Expectations: The group should have a clear set of objectives to

accomplish, that they are compensated to achieve. It may be helpful to conduct in-person

surveys in the community to help inform those objectives. This will help identify some of the

core issues of concern in the community to be addressed. The CSU or MAC could help to

conduct the survey and gather information. Then when a tornado blows through, there’s an

army of volunteers who are connected both with the community and City departments. It can

help to build that capacity in the community.

American Red Cross, Northern Minnesota Region The American Red Cross has a mission to “prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of

emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.”50 The Northern

Minnesota Region of the American Red Cross serves more than 4.3 million people in 43 counties in

Northern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin.51 It is one of 189 Red Cross societies around the world,

which is part of the Red Cross movement globally, the largest human movement in the world.52 There is

a set of fundamental principles that all the Red Cross societies follow: humanity, impartiality, neutrality,

independence, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality.48 Particularly

relevant to this work is the principle of impartiality, which says the Red Cross “makes no discrimination

as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions. It endeavors to relieve the suffering of

individuals, being guided solely by their needs, and to give priority to the most urgent cases of distress.53

According to the impartiality and neutrality principles, all people are treated the same wherever they

are in the world. In an interview with Phil Hansen and Megan Mrozek, they shared a number of

examples of how diversity is incorporated into the work of the Northern Minnesota Red Cross region.

50

“Mission, Vision, Fundamental Principles.” American Red Cross, September 2012. http://www.redcross.org/about-us/mission 51

“About Us.” American Red Cross, Northern Minnesota Chapter. June 2014. http://www.redcross.org/mn/minneapolis/about 52

Hansen, Phil, and Megan Mrozek. "American Red Cross, Northern Minnesota Region." Personal interview. June 30, 2014. 53

“Mission, Vision, Fundamental Principles.” American Red Cross.

16

Nationally, the American Red Cross has developed a

Diversity, Value and Respect Initiative that represents the

organization’s commitment to diversity as a business

imperative.54 The initiative has a series of objectives (see

sidebar), and focuses on three areas:

Hiring diversity- Diversity in the workforce

Partner diversity- Diversity in partners and communities we engage with

Product diversity- Diversity in purchasing and product vendors 50

There are explicit goals within the American Red Cross,

measures for meeting the diversity mission. For example, 15% of sourceable spend (purchasing) in the

organization needs to come from diverse vendors.55 The organization is actively trying to recruit and

encourage diverse vendors in order to meet that goal. On the workforce side, there’s not a specific

hiring target, it’s on a community-by-community basis. The intention is to reflect the community served,

and hire based on the demographics of that area.

There are also training requirements for staff

on diversity, which have three components:

Get It: New Employee & Volunteer

Orientation (NEVO), online Sensitivity and

Awareness training, cultural competency

series on specific communities- American

Indian, GLBT, Disability, etc.

Know it: Scenario-based, intensive online

education on cultural competence and

sensitivity developed specifically for the

American Red Cross, required for

managers and supervisors, executive

coaching on diversity issues

Do it: Cultural affinity groups for staff and

volunteers, online resources and forums

for those groups, Diversity Advocates

Roundtable, employee engagement 50

The training program is integrated throughout

the organization so that all staff understands

that it is a mission-critical part of the work.

There is a local focus to some of the cultural

competency trainings, focused on the specific

diverse communities that they are likely to

work with as clients- in Minnesota that is

mostly commonly Somali, Hmong and Latino.50

54

“Diversity Mission Statement.” American Red Cross, Corporate Diversity. http://www.redcross.org/about-us/governance/corporate-diversity 55

Hansen, Phil, and Megan Mrozek. "American Red Cross, Northern Minnesota Region." Personal interview. June 30, 2014.

The American Red Cross empowers people in

America to perform extraordinary acts in the

face of emergencies and disasters.

To ensure full benefit of this experience

by all, we deliver our products and

services in a culturally sensitive and

appropriate manner to all we serve.

We fully embrace and promote inclusion

across our people, products and services,

and we integrate diversity into our

business strategies and decisions.

-Diversity Vision Statement 49

Within the American Red Cross organization, diversity and inclusion is achieved by aligning diversity efforts with organizational business objectives to ensure service to all is achieved as we accomplish the following:

Being Reflective of Communities We Serve — by the enhancement of the Red Cross’ ability to attract and retain diverse volunteers, employees and donors representative of the communities we serve.

Enhancing Training to Improve Service Delivery — by the development and delivery of diversity training focused on building diversity awareness and sensitivity, improving cultural competencies, and fostering a welcoming, respectful and inclusive environment in which to work and deliver services.

Reflecting Diversity Commitment in Business Opportunities — by performing effective outreach to diverse suppliers and encouraging their participation in Red Cross procurement activities, which provides additional opportunity for the organization to better reflect all we serve.

Increasing Effectiveness and Accountability in All We Do — by creating and applying measurable diversity goals and objectives.

Becoming Better at Telling Our Stories to Diverse Audiences — by improving, and/or expanding, messaging to diverse audiences, which effectively conveys the American Red Cross commitment to diversity and inclusion, and highlights success stories demonstrating that commitment.

-American Red Cross Diversity Mission Statement 49

17

The American Red Cross Northern Minnesota chapter has seen in its work that communities of color

tend to be disproportionately represented among their clients. There may be fewer resources, especially

in foreign language populations, to ensure an understanding around building community resilience.

While there was a lot of diversity in communities receiving response services, the organization would

like to see more people of color involved in preparedness. An important factor in the success of this

work is having a workforce that represents the community, among both volunteers and paid staff.56

The American Red Cross recognizes that trust is a key factor in its ability to serve communities well. The

organization works to build trust through preparedness and resilience programs. That way, when a

disaster hits the organization can rely on existing connections to make sure that services reach everyone

who needs them. This is especially important in the Latino community especially, where people may be

undocumented and tend to retreat when a disaster hits, but they may also be some of the most

impacted. This was particularly helpful in responding to the Cedar Riverside fire; the existing

relationships the Northern Minnesota chapter had in that community made it smoother to be able to

connect with and provide services to people. That trust enabled the organization to be engaged in

culturally sensitive conversations about finding missing people. The leadership from the various

community groups already knew and trusted the staff and reputation of the American Red Cross, and

those relationships have continued going forward.

The data out there on emergency preparedness is not really sufficient; there are some bigger national

studies, but not a lot of data locally. The Northern Minnesota American Red Cross chapter undertook

doing a survey this past year on local preparedness, which is just being completed. The goal was to

reach 1500 respondents, with a focus on and benchmarks for collecting responses from diverse

communities. The data will be analyzed in the next year, and should provide some telling information

about which communities are further ahead or behind around preparedness and resiliency building, so

that programs can be tailored to those results.

Best practices: 57

Community convening: In the last few years the Northern Minnesota chapter has organized

convening projects in various cultural communities as part of their resilience work –creating

safer, more resilient communities involves spending time doing programming and outreach to

reach diverse populations. The convening project provided an opportunity not only to provide

resources and training, but also to recruit new volunteers from those communities.

Leverage leaders: Reach out through networks to identify leaders in the community, who are

most influential. This is a more effective approach than trying to reach every member of the

community individually, focus instead on the influencers in the community, who will help to

generate interest and spread the word with others.

Localized response: The American Red Cross has changed the model for delivering disaster

services, especially on a large national scale. While the approach used to be- “the local team is

probably so worn out, we’re going to send in reinforcements to deal with the situation”- the

organization has increasingly realized the value of local knowledge and someone who knows

that local community. The entire response model has shifted to make sure those people are at

the forefront, that they’re supported rather than replaced.

56

Hansen, Phil, and Megan Mrozek. "American Red Cross, Northern Minnesota Region." Personal interview. June 30, 2014. 57

Ibid.

18

Cultural Competency: The American Red Cross has taken a number of steps to modify its

approach and services to accommodate and integrate new and changing cultures. They are

working to find ways to engage diverse and especially foreign-born populations to volunteer in

non-traditional ways. Volunteerism is not a norm in every culture, so they’re adapting

opportunities so that people can volunteer in ways they are comfortable with. A number of the

applications and preparedness materials from the Northern Minnesota chapter have been made

available in multiple languages- Somali, Spanish and Hmong. Additionally they’ve designed

programming and communications to address some of the issues that may not be clear for

immigrant and refugee communities who aren’t familiar with the norms of emergency response

in this country.

Conclusions and Recommendations

While there are not explicit guidelines or measures for incorporating racial equity in emergency

management, literature on the topic and examples from other communities provide some helpful

direction. This is an evolving area of work, which will need to be modified and revisited based on

implementation and evaluation. By applying a racial equity lens to budgeting, hiring, contracting,

procurement, and public involvement, Minneapolis OEM can look for opportunities to incorporate

equity goals into department operations. The citywide Equitable Solutions framework should provide

resources, tools and training to understand and operationalize equity in day to day work and decisions.

The Minneapolis OEM has a number of areas in which to incorporate this work, particularly in

community outreach and engagement efforts.

Establish an Emergency Management Multicultural Advisory Commission: Get a strong and

more than one contact with community groups or individuals who are both interested in

emergency management and represent the local underrepresented communities, to provide

guidance and feedback on department work and can also serve as community liaisons.

Start planning with the community: That’s where to find the best information about concerns

within communities and answers about how to effectively do the work. Conduct early and

meaningful community engagement- in developing the Emergency Operations Plan and

identification of localized threats and hazards.

Participate in citywide racial equity work: Emergency Management staff should participate on

the Equitable Solutions Staff Team, to understand citywide objectives and resources for this

work, to inform that process and to bring back tools for the OEM’s work.

Data collection: Conduct a baseline equity assessment of the Emergency Management

department, guidance for which is provided in the Racial Equity Strategy Guide, to understand

how programs, policies, procedures or initiatives may impact or perpetuate disparities.58

Establish metrics based on that assessment to track progress, using existing data or developing

new data collection strategies.

Invest in CERT and CSU programs: Work with Neighborhood and Community Relations, Health,

Communications, Police, Fire and other departments to reinvigorate these programs, which are

important for building community capacity around emergency preparedness.

58

“Racial Equity Strategy Guide.” Portland’s Partnership for Racial Equity, Urban League of Portland, August 2012.

19

Appendix

“2012-2013 Annual Report for Office of Human Equity and Human Rights.” City of Portland, December 2013.

“A Whole Community Approach to Emergency Management: Principles, Themes and Pathways for Action.” FEMA, December 2011. http://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/whole_community_dec2011__2_.pdf

“Approaches to Emergency Management.” Theory, Practice and Fundamental of Hazards, Disasters and U.S. Emergency Management. Session No. 12, FEMA Emergency Management Institute.

“City Vision, Values, Goals & Strategic Directions.” City of Minneapolis, March 2014. http://www.minneapolismn.gov/citygoals/index.htm

“Crisis and Risk Communication- 10 Tips for Public Health Professionals Communicating with Native and New Americans.” Robert Littlefield, Kimberly Cowden and Will Hueston. Institute for Regional Studies, North Dakota State University, 2007.

“Disasters, Race, and Disability: [Un]Seen Through the Political Lens on Katrina.” Lakshmi Fjord. The Journal of Race and Policy, vol. 3 No. 1. pp. 46-66. http://cardcanhelp.org/images/Disasters-Race-Disability-Lakshmi-Fjord.pdf

“Disparities by Race in Heat-Related Mortality in Four US Cities: The Role of Air Conditioning Prevalence.” Marie S. O’Neill, Antonella Zanobetti, and Joel Schwartz. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, Vol. 82, No. 2.

“ECHO Mission & History.” ECHO Minnesota website, http://www.echominnesota.org/about/mission

“ECHO Services.” ECHO Minnesota website, http://www.echominnesota.org/tools

“Enhancing Disaster Resilience in Racially & Ethnically Diverse Communities.” Dennis Andrulis, Nadia Siddiqui and Jonathan Purtle. Third National Conference on Health Systems Readiness, December 2009, Washington, DC.

“Equitable Solutions for One Minneapolis." Karen Francois. Personal interview. June 10, 2014.

“Equitable Solutions for One Minneapolis: A Racial Equity Framework.” City of Minneapolis, April 2014. http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups/public/@clerk/documents/wcms1p-123811.pdf

“Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago.” Eric Klinebergc. University of Chicago Press, 2003

“Human Response to Natural Disasters.” Dara Nix-Stevenson. Sage Publications SAGE Open 2013 3, July-September 2013. http://sgo.sagepub.com/content/3/3/2158244013489684

“Hurricane Katrina and Structural Racism: An Open Letter to White People.” Jean Hardisty. October 2005, http://www.jeanhardisty.com/errant-thoughts/hurricane-katrina-and-structural-racism-a-letter-to-white-people/

“IS-1.a Emergency Manager: An Orientation to the Position.” FEMA Emergency Management Institute, February 2013. http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/courseOverview.IS-1.a

“Limited English Proficiency Populations & Racial and Ethnic Minorities- Promising Practices.” RAND Health, Special Needs Population Mapping. http://www.rand.org/health/projects/ promising-practices/limited-english-proficiencies/practices.html

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“Minneapolis in Any Language Policy Summary.” City of Minneapolis, 2004. http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/policies/policies_lep_policy

“North Minneapolis Still Struggling to Recover from 2011 Tornado.” Judy Keen. MinnPost, October 18, 2013. http://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2013/10/north-minneapolis-still-struggling-recover-2011-tornado

“Office of Emergency Management: Department Business Plan.” City of Minneapolis, 2014-2017.

“OneMinneapolis: Community Indicators Report.” Laura Kelly and Andi Egbert. The Minneapolis Foundation, Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, October 2011. http://www.minneapolisfoundation.org/Libraries/2011CommunityIndicatorsReport.sflb.ashx

“Poverty and Disasters in the United States: A Review of Recent Sociological Findings.” Fothergill, A., & Peek, L. A. Natural Hazards, Vol. 32, pp. 89-110. http://www.cdra.colostate.edu/data/sites/1/cdra-research/fothergill-peek2004poverty.pdf

“Preparing Racially And Ethnically Diverse Communities For Public Health Emergencies.” Dennis Andrulis, Nadia Siddiqui, and Jenna Gantner. Health Affairs, Vol. 26, No. 5, 2007.

“Racial Equity and ECHO MInnesota.” Lillian McDonald. Personal interview. June 25, 2014.

“Racial Equity in Portland's Emergency Management.” Daire Elliot. Telephone interview. June 10, 2014.

“Racial Equity in Seattle.” Race and Social Justice Initiative Three-Year Plan 2012-2014, City of Seattle Office for Civil Rights, June 2014. http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/RSJI/RacialEquityinSeattleReport2012-14.pdf

“Racial Equity in Seattle.” RSJI Three-Year Plan 2012-2014, City of Seattle Office for Civil Rights, June 2014.

“Racial Equity in Seattle's Emergency Management.” Karimah Edwards. Telephone interview. June 10, 2014.

“Racial Equity Strategy Guide.” Portland’s Partnership for Racial Equity, Urban League of Portland, August 2012. http://ulpdx.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/RACIAL-EQUITY-STRATEGY-GUIDE-FINAL.pdf

“Seattle Hazard Identification & Vulnerability Analysis.” City of Seattle, Office of Emergency Management, April 2014. http://www.seattle.gov/emergency/publications/documents/SHIVA.pdf

“Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards.” Susan Cutter, Bryan Boruff, W. Lynn Shirley. Social Science Quarterly, Vol. 84, No. 2, June 2003.

“Social Equity in Local Emergency Management Planning.” Susan Gooden, Dale Jones, Kasey J. Martin and Marcus Boyd. State & Local Government Review, Vol. 41, No. 1 (2009), pp. 1-12. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25469798

“Universal design.” (2014, July 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 27, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Universal_design&oldid=615508021