Agenda Item 4d_ AFD — original pdf

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2021 Budget Recommendations Root Cause Analysis Story: What did you hear from the community? <The Austin Fire Department (AFD) does not reflect the diversity of the Austin community, relative to Asian Americans Problem: What is the problem you identify? <From 2017 – 2019 there was limited increase of Asian American in the AFD applicant pool and academy participants. However, Asian Americans are still vastly underrepresented. In 2019, the department only received 179 Community Interest Cards from Asian Americans and had 83 Asian American applicants and six individuals registered in the academy. Source: Data provided by AFD. How does the problem show up in your community? Who is most impacted by the problem? <Asian Americans represent 7.5% of the total City population but only .4% of AFD uniformed officers. When the community isn’t representated in Public Safety, there is less trust and poor communication. This can hinder prevention efforts and response effectiveness. Considering all of the information you have or have not collected above, how do we solve for this problem? 1. Provide recruitment funding specifically targeted to the Asian American community 2. Assure that Asian Americans are represented in the panel that reviews and scores applications 3. Encourage Asian American representation on the City Civil Service Commission After question three, which questions from the flowchart are you prepared to answer? __Is there funding? Available within existing funding (assumed) __Which department holds the funding? Austin Fire Department ___How much funding is there? ___Which orgs receive it? __How is success measured? __What are the impacts, and gaps? __Check All