Racial Equity Committee

The Racial Equity Committee (REC), under the guidance of the Office of Racial Equity, meets monthly to discuss advancing racial justice at CVOEO and includes four subcommittees; Data Collection, Education, Policy & Procedures, and Partnership-Outreach-Advocacy.

The REC Data collection subcommittee's role is to identify the barriers to data collection, specifically in the BIPOC population, intending to fill any gaps observed in the current data. It is also to create a unique database that will be used to back all decisions up for priorities setting, strategize the outreach for the whole CVOEO, and identify data-driven priority issues for joint advocacy around racial justice.

The awareness and understanding that employees perceive the issue of race with different viewpoints and backgrounds have been a concern for CVOEO. Therefore, our REC Education sub-committee has been organizing monthly Diversity Trainings for all employees to attend. This platform is where cultural awareness skills and the necessary tools for responding to both conscious and unconscious bias behavior and other concerns that employees may encounter in the workplace are explored. The REC Education sub-committee also ensures this setting allows for honest, respectful, and insightful discussions while also making alternative learning opportunities constantly available; the access to the CVOEO DEI library that includes videos, articles, and books, for instance.

As we strive to reinforce our culture of diversity, equity, and belonging in our workplace, our REC Policy & Procedure subcommittee reviewed our policies and procedures manuals/documents and revisited the Agency’s hiring process to reflect our DEI values.