Racial Equity and Implicit Bias Statewide Initiative

The Racial Equity and Implicit Bias (REIB) Statewide Initiative was established based on the 2021 Human services omnibus budget trailer bill (Assembly Bill 135, Section 44, which added Section 11523.6 to the Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC), the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) launched the REIB Initiative. The statute requires the CDSS California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program and its partners to develop and implement resources and training to further embed anti-racist, anti-stigma, and trauma-informed practices into programs and services.

The REIB Statewide Initiative landscape analysis revealed strong sentiment that there must be information, training, resources, and advocacy to change systems and practices that have been built on a long history of overt and implicit racism and bias at the federal and state levels. Although these systems and practices precede us, it is our collective responsibility to address and change them.

At this time, we are still outlining what the sub-workgroups will do and who will participate in them. Once we know more, we will update partners and collaborators. We do know that we will make every effort to maximize representation from all counties and uplift program participant voices.

We will not be making specific changes to Cal-OAR measures at this time. The information and rates of all 26 measures are already disaggregated by various demographic breakouts including race/ethnicity, age, primary language spoken in house, gender, and head of household. We hope linking to something already in place becomes a helpful resource for counties and the state.

Ensuring we have shared language and understanding about this work is one of the goals of this initiative. That is why we will develop tools and resources will be made available to all counties. Once these resources are created and released, they will be available on our website: https://www.cdss.ca.gov/inforesources/reib-initiative.

We are committed to inviting vendors that bring in partners with varying areas of focus and lived experiences and a shared commitment to an equitable California. We are engaging multiple vendors to understand their expertise and approach using an anti-racist, diverse, equitable, and inclusive (ARDEI) lens and staying consistent with the legislative report. We will give weight to vendors that have knowledge of the county region and its population.

There are no reporting requirements for counties at this time, but that could change. In 2023, the REIB Statewide Advisory Workgroup, in partnership with our evaluation vendor, will identify the metrics counties will report to evaluate the effectiveness of the REIB Initiative. Feedback will be solicited throughout this process.

No. The results of the evaluations will not result in a CAP. This aligns with the nonpunitive, human-centered approach championed by the REIB Initiative.

Yes, we will be evaluating the training. As part of any comprehensive evaluation the experiences and outcomes of staff who are trained will be considered. CDSS is still developing the evaluation plan and we will provide additional details as they become available.

A variety of trainings will be offered to staff touching the CalWORKs and CalFresh programs. We are relying on counties to assist in identifying staff who should attend these trainings. If you have thoughts or recommendations, please contact us at: REIBinitiative@dss.ca.gov.

The training roll out is still being developed. Our goal is to ensure that staff receive REIB training with minimal disruption to their workload and their ability to support CalWORKs/CalFresh participants. CDSS is open to hearing feedback on ways to ensure staff participation on how we can assist and partner with the counties. If you have thoughts or recommendations, please contact us at: REIBinitiative@dss.ca.gov.

As trainings roll out, we will release a selection of training materials, in addition to assorted Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) resources. All of these will be available on our website: https://www.cdss.ca.gov/inforesources/reib-initiative.

There will be some variations in the trainings as they will be tailored to meet the needs and context of the county and the identified job classifications for training.

The CalWORKs Training Academy is one of several ways that CDSS will offer the opportunity to engage with this training. Multiple learning opportunities will be made available for all job classifications that are identified to receive training.

The REIB Initiative is aware that counties are at different phases in their DEI efforts. This initiative is not meant to duplicate but expand upon county efforts.