Equity - Phase 1
Introduction
The Bringing an Equity Lens to Public Policy project in the Comox Valley was funded through a grant from BC Healthy Communities (BCHC) in partnership with the City of Courtenay.
Facilitator ~ Joanne Schroeder
Keynote ~ Jodi Mucha and Connie Allsopp, BC Healthy Communities
Graphic Recorder & Notes Compilation ~ Jill Banting, Star Quill Creative
Discussion Group Leads
Angela Fletcher, Comox Valley Coalition to End Homelessness
Betty Tate, Comox Valley Social Planning Society/Accessibility Committee
Danika Lawson, Comox Valley Community Health Network
Maurita Prato, LUSH Valley Food Action Society
Workshop Coordination & Final Report ~ Christopher Bate
Tech Support ~ Shasta Steadman
What do we mean by equity?
Equity is the fair distribution of opportunities, power, and resources to meet the needs of all people, regardless of age, ability, gender, income, education level, culture, or background. This means providing support based on an individual’s level of need, instead of providing the same amount of support to everyone.
Equity considers the historical, current, and future barriers that negatively impact an individual’s opportunity to participate and prosper as a member of their community. It may be easier to understand equity when it is contrasted with equality: while equality suggests that we treat everyone the same, equity suggests that we identify populations most affected by social, economic, and political discrimination and provide them with a higher level of support so that they can fully participate in their community.
Graphic was found, uncredited, at What Fairness Really Means
Please contact the report writer if you can provide information about this graphic’s artist. comoxvalleysocialplann
In practice, this requires that civic engagement processes are designed and delivered in an equitable manner to ensure that resulting benefits are accessible to the widest range of community members for generations to come.
Historically, government policy has contributed to and perpetuated inequity. Laws, bylaws, zoning requirements, and land-use decisions have excluded specific groups from participating in economic, political, and social systems. They have segregated and displaced Indigenous communities, racialized groups, and individuals experiencing homeless and/or poverty. However, the same laws and policies that have created these conditions can also be used to improve them for all community members.
Explicit and actionable statements of equity can support the planning and development of healthy and equitable communities. These statements can be guided by the following questions:
- Who will benefit?
- Who will be excluded?
- What contributes to or creates the exclusion?
- What promotes inclusion?
“Equality is giving everyone the same pair of shoes.
Equity is giving everyone a pair of shoes that fits.”
What are some of the key issues in the Comox Valley that might be approached with an equity lens?
Small group discussions in the morning involved discussions about what is working well and where government and social sector agencies and communities need to do better.
What is working well?
- engaging with people who have lived experience
- collaboration between groups of professionals
- walking the talk
- recent and upcoming reviews of municipal official community plans
- great volunteers are driving change
- the covid pandemic revealed inequity
- local government integrating equity into work
- organizations are inviting peers
- good policy on the ground
- improving inclusive practice and listening
- engagement with Elders by municipalities with First Nations
- enough people have the drive to make change
- Continued relationship building and breaking down silos and structural barriers
What do we need to do better?
- more engaging with people who have lived experience
- collaboration between groups of professionals
- walking the talk
- get younger people engaged with us
- removing barriers to getting people’s needs and voices heard
- let’s do conversations with people who have needs
- nothing about us without us
- finding capacity and time to do things in a good way
- inclusive practice and listening
- need a policy to maintain relationships with Elders
- student housing, time to access, still barriers with cost
- labor versus volunteerism
- distribution and transportation are equity issues
- funding levels versus inflation
Discussions revolved around identifying key issues and what is working well in the Comox Valley, while exploring ways to engage youth and maintain relationships with elders, each of which is crucial for building more equitable communities. Participants acknowledged the importance of inclusive practice and listening, critical incident reporting, and breaking down silos and structural barriers.
Throughout the meeting, participants emphasized the importance of creating safe spaces for people with lived experience to engage and providing equitable access to resources and opportunities.
Key themes that emerged to be examined through an equity lens include:
- Poverty reduction and low-income housing
- Accessibility and disability inclusion
- Substance use and mental health services
- Food security and agriculture policies
- Indigenous and cultural diversity
- Universal basic income and living wage
- Education and training for staff and elected officials
- Transportation and recreation accessibility
- Decriminalization of substance use
- Housing screening committees and supportive housing initiatives
- Collaborations with health networks and frontline workers
- Removing barriers and stigma to access services
- Continual public education and engagement
- Critical incident policies and reviews
- Affordable and adaptable housing options
- Centralization of services to areas with resources and services
- Policies around communication and language simplification
- Anti-racism, anti-hatred, and anti-homophobia policies
- Field and pool/recreation accessibility reviews
- Water accessibility and affordability
Focus Areas
A wrap up discussion of the morning’s sessions led to four focus areas being discussed in small groups in the afternoon. With the groups rotating at regular intervals in a World Café format, each workshop participant had the opportunity to contribute to each focus area.
Food Policy and Food Security
- Access and Affordability: This theme addresses access to food and affordability of healthy food is a significant issue, particularly for people facing systemic barriers such as low income, transportation challenges, and discrimination.
- Equity and Inclusion: This theme emphasizes that an equity lens is needed to address issues related to food security and food policy. This includes ensuring that policies and programs are inclusive and accessible to all, including marginalized and underrepresented communities.
- Sustainability: This theme emphasizes the growing need to prioritize sustainability in food policy and practice, including developing local food economies, promoting food gardens, and reducing waste.
- Education and Capacity Building: This theme recognizes that education and capacity building are essential components of promoting food security, including teaching people to cook, providing resources for new entrants to growing, and promoting the development of edible landscapes.
- Governance and Advocacy: This theme emphasizes that effective governance and advocacy are critical to promoting equitable food policies, including advocating for subsidies and community grants, promoting universal food programs, and addressing the power dynamics of grocery stores regarding pricing.
- Rural and Indigenous Contexts: This theme recognizes that there are unique challenges and opportunities related to food security in rural, remote, and Indigenous communities, including issues related to land access and growing capacity.
Housing and Land Development
- Housing and Land Development: This theme includes considerations of affordable housing, communal
housing, compact communities, and the needs of marginalized groups, such as seniors, youth, and Indigenous communities. - Development Cost Charges and Reserve Systems: This theme addresses the challenges associated with funding and financing housing development, including the need to acknowledge and address the
marginalization of certain groups. - Single-family homes and Diversity of Opportunities: This theme focuses on the need to diversify housing options, including suites, apartments, and micro-units, to address the needs of different populations, such as renters, seniors, and people with disabilities.
- Airbnb’s and Pets: This theme addresses the discrimination faced by some individuals with regard to housing options, including discrimination against pets and the need for policies to regulate short-term rentals like Airbnbs.
- Foster families: This theme addresses the need for more foster families and the importance of keeping children in their communities, particularly in Indigenous communities. It also highlights the need for funding and support for foster families.
Health and Well-Being
- Inclusion and Accessibility: This theme emphasizes the need to shift the narrative about training and education related to disability and accessibility, and the need to understand that all
disabilities are not visible. There are systemic barriers to accessing services/resources due to institutional/colonial policies, and new policies need to include inclusive practices that support people to change their colonial actions. - Equity and Accountability: The theme advocates for a people-first approach to address specific needs, and the importance of acknowledging the capacity and knowledge of Indigenous communities. It highlights the need for systems of accountability for discrimination, and systemic racism that can exclude Indigenous peoples.
- Trauma-Informed Practices: This theme emphasizes that Trauma-Informed Practices are an important approach to health and social service delivery and the need for people to be educated about Trauma-Informed Practice.
- Community Engagement: This theme advocates for putting people impacted the most at the center of conversations and decisions, including communicating about this advocacy to the community. A
long-term, whole approach is needed to create systems without cracks for people to fall through. - Economic Justice: This theme includes universal basic income as an initiative for addressing economic inequality and promoting social equity.
Infrastructure and Political Process
- Infrastructure & Political Process: This theme includes issues related to city planning, transportation, accessibility, and the role of citizens in decision-making. It highlights the importance of considering equity in all aspects of infrastructure development and political decision-making.
- Arts & Culture: This theme addresses the need to promote diverse cultural expression and provide opportunities for all members of the community to participate in cultural activities. It also includes issues related to equity in arts funding and access to cultural resources.
- Poverty Reduction: This theme addresses the need to address poverty and inequity in the community, including issues related to affordable housing, child care, and social planning.
- Anti-racism Policy Development: This theme focuses on the need to address systemic racism and discrimination in all aspects of society, including the development of anti-racism policies and strategies.
- Community Member Engagement: This theme addresses the need for meaningful and inclusive community member engagement in decision-making processes, including the importance of removing barriers to participation such as voting locations and time constraints.
Overall, the themes of each focus area reflect a recognition for the need to improve equity to address the unique challenges faced by different groups to access infrastructure, cultural resources, and political decision-making processes. The themes also highlight the need for policy changes, funding support, and community engagement to address these challenges and ensure that everyone has a voice and access to resources and opportunities.
NEXT STEPS
At a debrief session in April 2023, after having an opportunity to read the Workshop Summary, the
Working Group identified the following to consider for next steps in the project.
- Planning and acting for equity can be guided by the following questions:
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- Who will benefit?
- Who will be excluded?
- What contributes to or creates the exclusion
- What promotes inclusion?
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- Explicit and actionable statements of equity can support the planning and development of healthy and equitable communities.
- Paying attention to Cultural safety and humility; increasing safety for people with lived and living experience in future work to increase participation and inclusion and aspiring to a culture that encourages support for all. Eg: Guidelines for safety? Number of participants?
- Consider developing a living guide/adaptable tool kit, using the experiences of people with lived and living experience?
- Addressing the key themes developed at the workshop by creating an equity guide that is broad and could be used for all themes identified.
- BC Healthy Communities speakers at the workshop spoke to examples where equity has impacted policy – an actual guide, or book. There was concern expressed that guides get forgotten so could a guide be expanded to encourage a collective discussion that would continue in our community?
- Perhaps a strength- based guide that built on examples and stories of governments or organizations who are applying an equity lens to their work?
At this point, positive examples of an equity lens being used in planning and policy were sought in the Comox Valley and these stories have been used as examples in the guide below. The stories hopefully will inspire ideas and conversation to achieve fair distribution of opportunities, power, and resources to meet the needs of all people, regardless of age, ability, gender, income, education level, culture, or background in our community.