The City of Rochester is reporting progress on its “Let’s Get REAL: Race, Equity, and Leadership” initiative. The project provides direction for improving equity in Rochester and other participating communities. Over the last year, the initiative’s team hosted workshops, seminars, and training sessions for City of Rochester employees, who joined open discussions about race. In a survey, some participants shared that they were confused about the differences between race, racial equity, diversity, and inclusion; that they sometimes or rarely set aside their own discomfort to discuss race; and that more engagement with the Hispanic and Latino community is needed at City Hall.
This hour, we discuss what the REAL team has learned after its first year of work, and how the findings will be applied to action plans for 2020. In studio:
- Willie Joe Lightfoot, vice president of Rochester City Council
- Tina Foster, executive director of Volunteer Legal Services of Monroe County
- Hank Rubin, founding director of the Frederick Douglass Center for Collaborative Leadership, a program of Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives
