Woke Squared:  SF Department of Children, Youth, and their Families Equity Progress

This is part of an on-going series called ‘Hidden in Plain Site” which looks at various California government, non-profit and union websites to see what they are saying in public (you can imagine what goes on in private.) It may seem like a slam dunk, a fall out of bed, a gimme putt to focus on San Francisco regarding woke/equitarian matters, but I think you’ll see why it was necessary very shortly…now, in fact.

Gathering learnings.

Do you know what that means?  Do I? Does San Francisco’s Department of Children, Youth, and their Families (DCYF) which uses the term often know?

Gathering learnings – wow.

It can be figured from the context in which it is used – it seems to mean asking people what they know and then putting it in a PDF.

According to the DCYF’s latest (May, 2023) Racial Equity Action Plan progress report, gathering learnings is a key tool for achieving equity.

In what appears to be its submission to a city-wide, department-by-department effort to track racial equity progress, the DCYF notes that the average white employee makes $65.92 per hour while the average Latino (they don’t use Latinx – good for them) makes only $50.37 per hour.

It does not break down job type, seniority, whether or not it includes benefits (though I think not) etc. but it should be noted that $50.37 equals $104,769 per year while $65.92 is $137,113 annually.  Either figure would seem to be pretty good average pay for government work.

And then there are the department’s responses to the question “What is an equity practice that your department has implemented in the last year and can share with other departments?”

As to the hiring process, the DCYF conducted “Reflection sessions, held in mid-2022, engaged 22 staff, managers and senior leaders in focus groups and discussions to collect their experiences with hiring, onboarding, professional development, career advancement and departmental culture.”

Under “organizational culture,” the DCYF said it asked a number of its employees to write “racial autobiographies” which were then shared (even by PowerPoint.) This went well, it seems, as “(T)he outcome of ongoing racial autobiographies has been a deeper understanding of the lives, backgrounds and cultures of a diverse group of staff from multiple levels of the department. Feedback has been highly positive as measured through the collection of feedback surveys.”

That being said, going forward they will not be called “racial autobiographies” anymore and will henceforth be called “…leadership stories. This change is being made to align the effort with the focus on developing staff’s equity-related leadership. Leadership stories will remain open to any staff who wish to participate and will continue to focus on identity and the role that race plays in personal and professional lives.”

Glad they cleared up that potential equity minefield.

The DCYF also developed a land acknowledgement and made sure staff knew about through “a required Equity All Staff meeting to educate staff about local native peoples and gather feedback…”

Here is the acknowledgement:  

The San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF) acknowledges that it carries out its work on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone, the original inhabitants and stewards of the San Francisco Peninsula. As the government agency that stewards the Children and Youth Fund, we accept the responsibility that comes with resources derived from property taxes upon unceded and colonized land. We recognize the history and legacy of the Ramaytush Ohlone as integral to how we strive to make San Francisco a great place for life to thrive and children to grow up.

While at its core utterly absurd, if one took the land acknowledgement concept seriously one could use a similar argument in court:

I acknowledge that I stole the car, a car built by laborers of all ethnicities, and I recognize that the car was not ceded to me. As I just acknowledged this fact, I am therefore allowed to keep it.

Or something like that.

Staff was also subjected to the following, just to make sure the equity message was clear and, to be blunt, what else are they going to do with their time?: 

“DCYF’s Equity Committee planned and facilitated 10 required monthly Equity All Staff meetings where staff engaged in learning and reflection on equity topics, department work and relevant current events. Topics included the CNA Book Club, the Board of Education Recall, the Ohlone people and DCYF’s land acknowledgment and the City’s Travel Ban policy and its impact on grantees. All DCYF Staff were also required to attend the Respect in the Workplan training provided by the Dept. of Human Resources.”

I thought The Hague had outlawed torture.

It should be strongly noted that the DCYF – a city department – was discussing the school board recall on city time in city equity meetings. I wonder how that went…

And we now come to gathering learnings, which, again, seems like picking up the phone and calling a counterpart in another department and asking how they do something. I suppose they couldn’t say something that mundane and still get paid and I know they couldn’t say they were trying “not to re-invent the wheel” as the wheel has been used by so many colonial powers to crush the hopes and dreams of the colonized.

From the organizational culture section:

“Gathering learnings is a priority because DCYF currently implements Black/African American, Latinx (oops, spoke too soon) and Asian Pacific Islander affinity groups under Section 6: Organizational Culture. We would like to better support these groups, while encouraging the participation of white staff.”

“DCYF’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion manager has encouraged the formation of affinity groups and has supported them once formed. This process has been organic, reflecting the desire by staff from specific ethnic groups to meet, engage and plan activities and events, often in relation to ethnic heritage months. DCYF will continue to promote affinity groups but would like to find ways to encourage participation from white staff. This approach is key for creating space for white staff who are committed to racial equity while also promoting the idea that racial equity work should not fall solely on staff of color.”

Got it?  Good, because… 

“Gathering learnings is a priority because our annual staff survey, from Section 6: Organizational Culture, is a key tool for collecting perspectives from staff about our organizational practices and culture. While we have previously administered a staff survey, DCYF is interested in developing a more robust and effective instrument that provides actionable information that tracks progress and informs our ongoing Action Planning efforts.”

And that’s what Gathering Learnings is.

For more DCYF wonderment, here’s the website address, and the link to the PDF referenced above.