Specifications include, but are not limited to: provide a comprehensive assessment of the CCPH’s culture, strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities concerning our initiatives to eliminate health inequities. Based on this analysis, the contractor will assist CCPH in developing a racial equity framework, implementation strategies, and an evaluation plan in alignment with our department strategic plan. Assessment results will be used as a reference when later measuring progress against goals. Additionally, the consultant will provide technical assistance to support the implementation efforts, including training for department teams, managers, and staff in alignment with the racial equity framework. To complete this body of work, the contractor will engage county leaders, community members, CCPH employees and teams, the county board and advisory committees, partner organizations, and others to provide feedback in the development of CCPH’s racial equity framework and implementation plan and to ensure that the recommended strategies are effective in eliminating health disparities for our community. Additionally, the contractor will have access to county policies such as recruiting and hiring policies and, while the contractor will not be making recommendations for any county-specific policies, the contractor is expected to recommend best practices for CCPH in alignment with county policy. Working collaboratively with our teams, the contractor will assist CCPH in the following areas: 1) Assessment and evaluation a. Identify strengths, gaps, and best practices within CCPH’s initiatives to eliminate health inequities. b. Examine CCPH’s existing policies and procedures with the application of a racial equity lens to pinpoint policies, programs, processes, and practices that may inhibit success and opportunities to be more inclusive; and recommending departmental policy and procedure changes and improvements to CCPH. c. Assess the current level of CCPH staff knowledge and competency around racial equity principles. d. Evaluate staff understanding and application of racial equity principles; and recommend a process for ongoing evaluation to be included in department policies and procedures. e. Conduct an analysis of the workplace culture and ascertaining aspects of employees’ experiences and perspectives to identify where future attention should be focused. f. Review CCPH’s current recruitment, retention, selection and professional development processes, and our workforce demographics as compared to the demographics of our community to ensure representation; and recommend changes including a process for consistent review, evaluation, and course correction. g. Establish a baseline assessment of current racial/health equity metrics, which will serve to measure and benchmark progress. 2) Strategic planning and implementation a. Determine equity priorities, strategies, objectives, programs, and initiatives, and develop an implementation plan and proposed racial equity framework for our department. b. Based on assessment of our current programs, policies and processes, and the recommended framework, recommend a structure such as an “equity team” to support the best practices outlined in the proposed framework. c. Design clear and measurable equity goals for CCPH. d. Examples for a-c above include: i. Establish a process for continual feedback between team members, managers, and senior leaders. ii. Develop a system of accountability to ensure that racial equity efforts are embedded throughout our department. iii. Implement a tracking system to hold individuals accountable and reinforce CCPH’s commitment to racial equity. iv. Establish a baseline of standard metrics that will continually be tracked as new initiatives, procedures, and practices are developed and implemented; and provide recommendations for incorporating those standard metrics into employee and manager professional development and annual performance goals. e. Establish our workforce development plan related to racial equity in collaboration with the department’s Workforce Development Planning committee. Examples include: i. Develop required, ongoing department racial equity training. ii. Develop mandatory inclusive hiring practices training for department hiring managers. iii. Clearly outlining what constitutes discrimination and microaggressions in the workplace, including examples of behaviors and covering areas like race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability, age, etc. iv. Develop a framework and workplan that includes effective change management processes, timelines, tools, training, and team building with detailed descriptions for the kinds of activities that will be implemented within CCPH to promote racial equity. v. Design a framework for our department to use to review our internal department policies and procedures with an equity lens. vi. Establish reporting mechanisms and develop a confidential and accessible reporting process for employees to report incidents of discrimination and microaggressions, while ensuring that employees know they can raise concerns without fear of retaliation. vii. In collaboration with our department’s Performance Management committee and team, establish a robust performance management framework and workplan for our department to utilize related to our racial and health equity efforts to ensure continuous improvement through consistent reassessment strategies.
