Regional Equity Atlas 2.0 Planning Process

Purpose and Goals

CLF’s original Regional Equity Atlas aimed to create a more equitable Portland metro region by highlighting disparities and providing insights into more equitable approaches to planning and development. The Regional Equity Atlas documented the region’s geography of opportunity by using maps to analyze how well different populations and communities were able to access key resources and opportunities. Building on the success of this project, the Regional Equity Atlas 2.0 was created to institutionalize a regional commitment to equity by providing a dynamic mapping tool with comprehensive data to inform regional policy, planning, and strategic investments.

Target Audience

The target audience for the Regional Equity Atlas includes government agencies, elected leaders, advocacy organizations, nonprofits, community-based organizations, and neighborhood groups. The Regional Equity Atlas was designed to be relevant and accessible to lay people as well as a useful tool for technical experts.

Definition of Equity

CLF engaged community leaders from around the region to develop a definition of regional equity that served as the foundation for the original Regional Equity Atlas project. During the planning for the Regional Equity Atlas 2.0, CLF worked with a broadly representative advisory committee to update and expand this definition, incorporating input gathered through a stakeholder engagement process and building on the work of key local and national partner organizations. The updated definition of regional equity explains why equity is important and includes a call to action.

Scale and Scope

• Geographic scope: The geographic scope of the Regional Equity Atlas is the four-county Portland metro region. CLF chose this scope to promote a regional approach to policy and planning and provide data to inform decision-making across the entire metro area.
• Geographic scale: CLF chose to map the Regional Equity Atlas indicators at the highest level of spatial resolution possible—typically neighborhood, census tract, block group, or points. This level of resolution maximizes the Regional Equity Atlas’s analytical power.
• Topical scope: The topical scope of the Regional Equity Atlas is quite broad, encompassing a wide range of issue areas that were identified as priorities by regional stakeholders.
• Indicator scope: The Regional Equity Atlas aims to provide an extensive repository of regional data by including a broad range of indicators. The wide indicator scope increases the Regional Equity Atlas’s relevance to diverse stakeholders and its applicability to a variety of issues and decisions.
• Degree of interactivity: The original Regional Equity Atlas was a book of static maps and analysis. For Regional Equity Atlas 2.0, advances in mapping technology allowed CLF to create an interactive online mapping tool that enables users to create customized maps to meet a diverse range of interests and needs.
• Scope of interpretive content: The Regional Equity Atlas 2.0 mapping tool is accompanied by a website that includes a gallery of key maps and analysis, a white paper series that examines key issues in greater detail, a storytelling project that uses photos and videos to examine the impact of the disparities shown in the maps, and a summary of findings.

Project Budget

CLF launched the Regional Equity Atlas 2.0 project with core funding from two local foundations: Northwest Health Foundation and Kaiser Permanente Community Fund. These grants were awarded early in the planning process and enabled CLF to move forward with the initial planning and development. In-kind contributions of time and expertise from the project’s core partners were also essential in the early phases of the project. CLF continued to raise additional funding and in-kind contributions throughout the project.