Abstract for: Resilient Communities: Achieving and Sustaining Equitable Communities Through Systems Modeling

In the face of persistent and growing inequities across various domains, communities need the tools, insight, and processes to develop policies to achieve and sustain equity across populations. In the United States, this is also an imperative: Executive Order 13985, the first issued by President Biden, directs federal agencies to assess equity in the operation of their programs and policies. In support of this, we are applying a group model building process as a way for governments to understand the complex dynamics driving inequities arising from their policies, solicit feedback and community participation, make better use and collect domain-specific indicators, and provide the basis for later simulation-based analysis. We are developing usable tools for community leaders to engage with their data, visualize the impact of policies on their residents, and empower them to address the needs of the community in a way that is equitable for all.