This webinar, hosted by the Metro Human Relations Commission and featuring Mel Fowler-Green and Ashford Hughes, Sr. explores the “equity lens” public policy tool. It seeks to answer the following questions:

• What is an “equity lens”?

• How can it be used to articulate and operationalize racial equity goals?

• How are other cities are using equity lenses to move beyond inclusion by interrupting biases, increasing transparency and accountability, and shifting long-standing inequitable institutional patterns?

• What opportunities does Nashville have right now to employ this policy tool?

A Voice for the Reduction of Poverty and the Nashville Rising coalition are extremely excited to announce that the Metro Council unanimously passed our Community Covenant Resolution (RS2019-31) at the very first meeting of the new Council!

We trust that this resolution will set the tone for the new Council’s commitment to economic equity and that it will serve as a foundation for future concrete action and new policies and funding that will ensure that all Nashvillians benefit from our city’s prosperity.

Our recent Op-Ed in The Tennessean explains why we decided to write a mission statement for Nashville — what we are calling a “Community Covenant” — and includes the text of the Covenant. It also lists the 50 candidates who have agreed, if elected, to sponsor or support the Community Covenant and its recommendations in the form of a non-binding resolution to the Metro Council.

Professor Ken Chilton summarizes our April 6th forum on Work, Wages, and the Future of Nashville. And he issues a call-to-action to Nashville residents, business leaders, non-profits, clergy, and elected officials to join us in tackling the critical issue of economic equity.

Our Op-Ed about our forum “Nashville Rising: Work, Wages, and the Future of Nashville” on April 6, 2019 at Tennessee State University's Avon Williams campus, which was focused on the realities of and solutions to income inequality in Nashville.