Background

On June 8th, 2020, in response to local and national calls for action to address violence against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), the Bozeman City Commission directed the City Manager to review the city’s policies, training and frameworks in the specific areas of treatment of minority populations, de-escalation policies, use of force, and the citizen appeal process, comparing them to national best practices and reporting the findings to the commission within 90 days. 

Read more below about the 24 resulting recommendations from the Inclusive City Report (2020), Equity Indicators & Gaps Analysis (2021), and Belonging in Bozeman Equity & Inclusion Plan (2023) that chart a path forward to address our goal for this work in our organization and community. 

In the simplest terms, our goal is to ensure that every resident, visitor, and City of Bozeman employee feels welcomed and valued, and can thrive no matter their race, identity, or life circumstance.

Recent Updates

Plan Adopted!

On December 19th, 2023 the Belonging in Bozeman Equity & Inclusion Plan was unanimously adopted by the Bozeman City Commission! This plan sets forth a path for collaboration across organizations, capacity building, deeper engagement, and better service delivery to those who need it most. Implementation of several recommendations has already begun!

So what’s next? Now, it’s up to City departments and lead organizations to review the implementation workbook (Appendix B) and integrate the recommendations they’re leading into their work over the next three to five years. For the City of Bozeman, recommendations will be incorporated into departmental work plans, budget requests, and staffing plan requests.

Reporting progress: Over 1/3rd of the recommendations (38/98 total) are already “In-progress” and will be ongoing efforts or are on their way to being “Complete!”

• Each year, the City will reach out to partner organizations to gather any progress updates and metrics on recommendations for an annual update that we’ll deliver to the public via presentations at Economic Vitality Board and City Commission meetings. This annual update process will be orchestrated by a new staff member at the City of Bozeman to coordinate Belonging in Bozeman Plan implementation. We hope to post this position and bring them on in early FY25 (Summer of 2024).
• In 5 years, we’ll take a comprehensive look at the plan and see to what extent it needs to be re-written to fit changing community contexts and progress made.

Equity Indicators Hub is live! 

Check out the Equity Indicators Hub with the data behind the Belonging in Bozeman Equity & Inclusion Plan!

During the Equity Indicators Project in 2021 we set out to characterize what inequity looks like in Bozeman, a city where about 55% of our residents are renters and about 86% of our population is white, non-Hispanic. Within these overall characteristics of our community, we found that people experience Bozeman differently depending on their circumstances and identity.

The Equity Indicators Hub is an open and easy to understand source of data that helps illustrate some of the ways in which the Bozeman experience is different for different people. The hub pulls in data from the Census Bureau and the American community survey, as well as from local sources like partner organizations at the Help Center, Bridgercare, Gallatin College, Child Care Connections, Streamline and the city of Bozeman’s own databases. We set up data sharing agreements and automated processes wherever possible to maintain these high level indicators that help underlie the reason for this work and characterize some of the disparities that the community thought were important to track as we develop our equity and inclusion plan.

This platform was made possible with the expertise of GIS professionals in the city's Asset Management Division, the data team within the Belonging in Bozeman Core Team, and our data sharing partners. Data on the site is available for download and use by the public.

Indicators from all 8 topic areas of the plan are included on this site and can be explored at https://belonging-in-bozeman.hub.arcgis.com