Contact Us
Phone
Email
Equity and Inclusion Advisor: Aneesah Smith
900 E. Broad Street, 5th Floor, Suite 501
Richmond, VA 23219
Office of Equity and Inclusion
The City of Richmond’s Office of Equity and Inclusion was established in 2021 and aims to work alongside city leadership and staff, community members and partners to build a strong foundation for the collective work of advancing equity, inclusion and justice within the City’s internal and external facing policies, practices, operations and overall culture. Our goal is to create a more equitable and inclusive culture that benefits all Richmonders, particularly the City’s most historically marginalized communities, as well as city staff.
Mission and Purpose
The City of Richmond’s Office of Equity and Inclusion seeks to provide guidance, facilitation, tools and resources to city staff that will increase awareness around critical concepts such as racial equity, inclusion, belonging, cultural competency, why these concepts matter and the role that local government plays in advancing equity and inclusion on a daily basis in Richmond.
The Office of Equity and Inclusion aims to increase the collective understanding of the City’s role and responsibility in advancing equity within and across all city offices and departments in order to dismantle institutional racism and other oppressive elements that have been historically engrained within city policies, practices and culture and that have led to generations-long disparities along racial and socioeconomic lines within the City of Richmond.
The goal: to purposefully and intentionally institutionalize equity, inclusion and justice in ways that will lead to meaningful, long-term, population-level outcomes across all issue areas for the City’s most historically marginalized, overlooked and underserved communities.
The work of the Office of Equity and Inclusion is collaborative in nature.
Objectives include:
To help develop a collective, cohesive understanding of racial equity, inclusion, cultural competency and belonging amongst city leadership and staff
To help city leadership and staff better comprehend and embrace the role of government in advancing racial equity and justice
To help create the groundwork for normalizing and operationalizing equity and inclusion throughout all city departments/offices so that all leadership and staff operate with an equity lens and that equity and inclusion become embedded within all city policies, daily operations and overall culture
To work with community members and other stakeholders to collaboratively advance equity work within the City
Human Rights Commission
The Office of Equity and Inclusion also oversees the City of Richmond Human Rights Commission. The Human Rights Commission was established to advise the City Council and the Mayor on matters involving human rights violations occurring within the city of Richmond. The mission of the City of Richmond Human Rights Commission is to safeguard the rights of all its citizens. It seeks to protect individuals from unlawful discrimination because of race; color; religion; sex; pregnancy; childbirth or related medical conditions; national origin; age; marital status; disability; sexual orientation, transgender status or gender identity.
Learn more about the Human Rights Commission by clicking here.
Richmond LGBTQ+ Community Assessment
We listened. We learned. Now we move forward together.
In 2026, the City of Richmond’s Office of Equity & Inclusion launched its first LGBTQ+ Community Assessment to better understand how LGBTQ+ people experience safety, support, and belonging in Richmond—and what the City and its partners can do to strengthen those experiences.
More than 700 community members responded to the survey, nearly 400 shared additional feedback in their own words, and almost 40 community members participated in a series of conversations that allowed us to go deeper into the experiences behind the numbers.
What we heard provides Richmond with an important baseline—and a starting point for action.
What We Learned
The assessment revealed both strengths to build upon and opportunities for continued work.
- 83% of survey respondents reported feeling safe in Richmond as an LGBTQ+ person.
- 64% reported feeling supported as an LGBTQ+ person by the City of Richmond.
- About 4 in 10 respondents reported experiencing or witnessing discrimination related to sexual orientation or gender identity in Richmond within the previous 12 months.
Community members also identified priorities including transgender-affirming services, housing stability, healthcare access, mental health resources, stronger community connections, trusted public systems, greater visibility, and accountability.
But the numbers tell only part of the story. Written responses and community conversations helped us better understand why these issues matter and what LGBTQ+ community members believe belonging requires.
Richmond’s Roadmap to Belonging
A Community-Informed Framework for LGBTQ+ Safety, Support, and Belonging
What we heard across the survey, open-ended responses, and community conversations informed Richmond’s Roadmap to Belonging—six interconnected conditions identified through this assessment:
- Build the Foundation — Basic needs come first.
- Build Safe Systems — Every interaction matters.
- Make Support Visible — Visibility builds trust.
- Strengthen Community Infrastructure — Belonging needs places to grow.
- Center Those Facing the Greatest Barriers — Equity requires intention.
- Turn Commitment into Action — Residents want accountability.
The Roadmap is specific to the experiences and priorities shared through Richmond’s LGBTQ+ Community Assessment. It provides a framework for moving from what we heard toward practical priorities and action.
From Findings to Action
The assessment is not the finish line.
The Office of Equity & Inclusion is using these findings to guide continued work with City departments, LGBTQ+ residents, community organizations, service providers, businesses, and other partners.
Our next phase will focus on translating community priorities into action, strengthening and connecting residents to resources that already exist, identifying opportunities for partnership, improving awareness of City resources, and establishing ways to measure and report progress.
As this work continues, we are committed to maintaining community feedback loops and sharing progress—not simply asking residents to continue providing input without demonstrating what happened as a result.
You shared your experiences. We commit to sharing our progress.
Explore the Findings
Read the Executive Brief
Start here for the big picture.
A quick overview of the assessment, key findings, and priorities for moving forward.
Read the Full Community Assessment
Go deeper into what we learned.
Explore the survey findings, community voices, Roadmap to Belonging, and priorities for action.
Stay Connected
Building LGBTQ+ belonging requires continued partnership between the City and the community.
Stay connected with the Office of Equity & Inclusion to learn about opportunities to engage, community partnerships, resources, and progress on the priorities identified through the assessment.
STAY CONNECTED / JOIN OUR LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY LIST
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