Toward an Equitable and Just Community

The Town of Lexington is committed to ensuring that Lexington is a safe, equitable and just community for all.

Following  the national dialog on issues of social and racial equity, in the summer of 2020, the Select Board began a more formal process of examining our policies, procedures and practices as they relate to municipal operations. This includes engaging professionals in the field, and outside consultants, to ensure comprehensive, unbiased evaluation.

The Select Board and Town Management are committed to ensuring that our community is free from racism, discrimination, and hate.

Efforts currently underway include:

• Engaging All Aces, Inc. to serve as our Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Transformation (DIET) partner. During this engagement, the Town will develop a comprehensive race equity plan to ensure that Lexington is an equitable community, employer, and place for business.
   
• Working with a Core Team made up of municipal staff and a Citizen Advisory Council, made up of members from community organizations and committees representing the diversity of Lexington's municipal workforce and population.
   
• Providing Racial Equity training for staff and the community.
   
• Creating a new staff position in the Town Manager's Office responsible for DEI efforts.
   
• Establishing an online resource for all residents in conjunction with All Aces, providing an interactive, curated space of equity resources, discussion and learning opportunities.
   
• Joining both the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) and the National League of Cities (NLC) in order to take advantage of their collective Racial Equity resources.
   
• Ongoing Racial and Social Equity update at every regular Select Board meeting.
   
• Engaging the services of Town Counsel to begin the work of reviewing all Town policies. The starting point of this work was a review of the Police Department policies to ensure there is no unintended bias or discriminatory language and to make recommendations to the Select Board.
   

• Introducing the men and women of the Police Department through short video clips that explain their work with the community, and the services and functions of the Department. 

As we continue to move forward, we will post the status of these items on this page.

See our staff training, public programs and other work in this area over the past few years.

Racial Equity Focus Groups

All Aces, our consulting partner, held facilitated focus groups during the week of December 14, 2020 with representatives from cultural and community groups, Town staff and committee members and other interested community members.

The input provided through these focus groups, and the online comment form, will help All Aces make recommendations to Town staff and the community moving forward.

See the information gathered from the racial equity focus groups.

RESOURCES AND RECOMMENDED READING

• All Aces, Inc.: a DEI consulting group hired by the Town of Lexington: See All Aces intro video.
• Cary Library's Social Justice book club, including their 2020 and 2021 booklists
• Social Justice Books: booklists, reviews and book talks from Teaching for Change
• Recommend a DEI resource that you found to be informative

EVENTS AND FEEDBACK OPPORTUNITIES

• Give us your feedback on any of these issues, or your suggestions for enhancing our community
• Check back for more events and community meetings in the future

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION: TOWN DEPARTMENTS AND COMMITTEES

• Lexington Human Rights Committee
• Our Police Department: information & frequently asked questions
• Human Services Department
• Lexington School Department DEI Initiative