
The City of Knoxville formed an equity committee, comprised of department heads and supervisors within City Government, to look across departments at equity challenges and opportunities. A key focus of the committee is to lead by example by addressing workplace equity within City of Knoxville government. The committee’s focus is to identify and remove barriers that are already embedded in City policies and practices that unintentionally have a disparate and negative impact on racial minorities. The City recently engaged GARE trainers for a one-day “Advancing Racial Equity” training for the Mayor and 40 senior directors, upper-level managers and members of the equity committee to accelerate this work and gain a common understanding of equity and structural racism across departments.