Our goal

Juan Ugarte, Clinic Manager, Virginia Garcia Cornelius Wellness Center

Washington County’s mission is to provide excellent and cost-effective services that support healthy, peaceful, safe and sustainable communities and encourage meaningful participation in community activities and county governance. We are committed to addressing past and ongoing harm and obstacles certain communities face within our government systems. To learn more, read the Washington County Equity Resolution (English only)

What is equity?

Equity results from fairness and justice in public policy. We believe equity will exist when everyone in Washington County can:

  • Participate fully in economic vitality
     
  • Access services and resources
     
  • Reach their full potential
     

What is inclusion?

Inclusion is welcoming and supporting the active engagement and participation of diverse people in Washington County’s decision-making processes and outcomes.
 

MSTIP equity and inclusion goal

Our MSTIP equity and inclusion goal is to involve all Washington County residents – particularly people living with lower incomes; people living with disabilities; Hispanic/Latinx, Pacific Islander, African, African American, Indigenous, Asian and other people of color; and people who do not speak English as their primary language – in this public process.

In addition to this online open house, Washington County Department of Land Use & Transportation, the Office of Equity, Inclusion and Community Engagement and Espousal Strategies, LLC are collaborating to engage communities that have historically been excluded from the public engagement process. This will include:

  • An interactive webinar
     
  • Targeted focus groups
     
  • Comment opportunities through community-based organizations
     
  • A second, project-focused online open house
     

Washington County’s Land Acknowledgement 

In January 2022, the Washington County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution calling for a land acknowledgement honoring the first inhabitants of the land now called Washington County. The land acknowledgement is read aloud at the County’s public meetings. 

While this is not a meeting, we want to recognize those who were here first to build real, authentic relationships with Indigenous people and to carry our actions beyond the words of the acknowledgment to support Indigenous communities. 

We want to acknowledge the people on whose land we live—the Atfalati-Kalapuyans also known as the Tualatin Band of Kalapuyans—the first inhabitants of Washington County. We are grateful for the land we are on, Kalapuyan land.

Signers of the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855 were removed from their homelands to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation. Today their descendants are tribal members of Grand Ronde and Siletz tribes, carrying on the traditions and cultures of their ancestors.

We acknowledge and express gratitude for the ancestors of this place and recognize that we are here because of the sacrifices forced upon them. In remembering these communities, we honor their legacy, their lives, and their continuation in our community.  Please reflect on the role government has played in the painful, colonial history and reflect as well on the resilience and healing of the Indigenous land and communities.

We would like to invite everyone to collaborate and work together with the tribes to take care of the land and water and the people who inhabit these spaces.