COUNTY News:

The Racial Equity and Inclusivity Task Force was chartered by Los Alamos County to gain an overall perspective of racial equity and inclusivity in Los Alamos and identify best practices to promote racial inclusivity and a feeling of belonging.

The task force is comprised of nine community members appointed by the council.

The task force is now seeking community members to serve on various working groups that have been formed.

Email rei.taskforce@lacnm.us for information on joining any of these working groups:

• Communication Working Group
  • The Communication Working Group is seeking community members who will help write press releases, maintain our webpage, create pamphlets and brochures, and generally help to inform the public of Los Alamos about the work of the Task Force.
• Public Outreach Working Group
  • The Public Outreach Working Group is seeking community members to attend farmer’s markets, organize town halls, and in other ways see input from the public about the work of the task force.
• Survey Working Group
  • The Survey Working Group is seeking members who will help collect community input for the task force.  This will include interviewing community members, scribing and coding interviews, facilitating community meetings, etc. This group would also begin the process of developing metrics that would help local organizations assess the prevalence of institutional racism within their decision making process. 
• Health and Wellness Working Group
  • The Health and Wellness Working Group is seeking members who are familiar with the medical system and who would begin the work of researching barriers to medical care in Los Alamos, including mental health, dental, specialized, and general care. Members would be conducting interviews with local providers as well as reviewing notes from individuals interviewed by the survey working group.
• Justice Working Group
  • The Justice Working Group is seeking members that will enter conversations with local and state organizations involved in all levels of the justice system including our police force, child and family services, court system, restorative justice program, and more. This working group would also benefit with someone with data analysis knowledge (or skills?). 
• Research/ Equitable Housing Working Group
  • The Research and Equitable Housing Working group is seeking members that would like to research best practices in regards to racial equity. The group will consider county wide systems that affect racial equity and inclusion. This includes housing equity within the community, but will also include researching best practices for a variety of topics implemented in other communities.