Interagency Diversity, Equity, and Language Access Discussion Group

Background
State agencies have a common goal of engaging and supporting all communities in the Commonwealth. These same agencies may have some similar legal and regulatory requirements to ensure equal access to services for racial/ethnic minorities and other underserved populations. Some agencies have designated programs or offices that are responsible for diversity and/or equity initiatives. Other agencies have identified staffs that are responsible for developing and managing contractual relationships for language and cultural services. And still others have staffs that are responsible for developing policy and practices to comply with federal laws related to non-discrimination in the workplace and in services. Although many of these tasks and responsibilities intersect, there has not been an avenue for the individuals involved in these activities to share resources, clarify policies, and gather lessons learned. This informal interagency group is designed to address this need.

Participation
Any employee with responsibilities such as the ones described above or who has an interest in such an interagency collaboration is welcome to join the discussion. Participants should have an interest in advancing interagency collaboration related to diversity, equity, and language access. Participants should also feel some obligation to utilize the information, resources, and partnerships that are developed through the discussion group to enhance their own agencys capacity to address diversity, equity, and language access issues.

Goals
This discussion group is designed to support collaboration and awareness on topics related to diversity, equity, and language access. As such, initial goals of the group are as follows: To Identify where these issues fit in state policy. To identity current agency policies related to diversity, equity, and language access for possible duplication or collaboration across agencies. To identify current workforce development initiatives related to the same. To identify current state agency vendors used in the provision of language access services. To identify areas where interagency collaboration could be used to address such gaps.

Meetings
Meetings will be held every other month in central locations to be determined.