Buncombe County Reparations Committee

In 2020, Buncombe County Board of Commissioners and Asheville City Council passed a resolution in support of Reparations for Black residents. As a result of the resolutions, a Reparations Commission was created in order to provide both the City and County with short, medium, and long-term recommendations.  Since the creation of the commission, Impact Focus Area (IFA) Workgroups have been developed to assess the following areas: education, health & wellness, housing, economic development, and criminal justice. The IFA’s will work to develop a set of recommendations based on the review of policies, and existing data to ensure all harms and unfair practices are discontinued. Two recommendations have already been brought forth. The first recommendation was for both Buncombe County and the City of Asheville to incorporate reparations into all future budgets. Second, the commission recommended the hiring of an external audit team to conduct internal audits for both the City and County to review policies and practice to ensure no further harm. Both recommendations have been accepted, and the Commission is in the process of developing a Scope of Work in order to release a request for proposals. 

Buncombe County Government's Racial Equity Action Plan

As one facet of the Buncombe County Racial Equity Action Plan, the Buncombe County MEET (meaningfully engaging equity together) Team was created to facilitate and enhance anti-racist learning initiatives for Buncombe County. In 2022 the MEET Team facilitated 80 hours of equity and inclusions courses via four modules presented 10 times each for all County employees. The MEET Team worked with 258 County employees, had a total of 915 people attend the 36 modules, and spent 156 hours preparing for trainings (not including content creation, team education, and other necessary prep outside of team meetings).

Reparations Commission & Cease the Harm Audit

As part of the City of Asheville and Buncombe County’s commitment to ending the harms against the Black/African American community an RFP application was released in search of a third-party audit team. Ultimately, the Carter Development Company based in Florida was selected to lead an audit of both the City of Asheville and Buncombe County to assess and identify any policies or practices which perpetuate harm against the Black community. The audit consisted of cohort meetings with City and County staff and the review of artifacts. Upon analysis, the Carter Development Group identified over 70 preliminary recommendations across the seven focus areas including Health & Wellness, Economic Development, Housing, Education, and Criminal Justice. In January 2024, the Carter Development group presented some of their findings to the Reparations Commission.