Fairfax County, Virginia is one of the wealthiest counties in the nation — but not all of its residents have been able to participate and share in its prosperity. In 2015, as part of a larger effort to address structural barriers to inclusion, community leaders working inside and outside of government partnered with the National Equity Atlas team at PolicyLink and PERE to produce an equitable growth profile of the county. That report highlighted how communities of color are driving the county’s rapid population growth and now represent 45 percent of its population, yet racial inequities persist across a multitude of indicators.

Equipped with the facts, local leaders worked to educate decisionmakers and build broad support for an equity approach. In 2015, the Board of Supervisors acknowledged equity as a key principle in its Strategic Plan to Facilitate Economic Success, and a core group of equity leaders proposed a countywide “One Fairfax” resolution, asking county and school district leaders to develop and implement a data-driven racial and social equity policy. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors adopted the resolution last week, making its commitment to equity official; the school board is expected to vote on “One Fairfax” before the end of the month.