Public stewards working in local and regional government created GARE because of their commitment to racial justice. In 2004, the City of Seattle launched the first formal initiative for racial equity in government, the Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI). Over time, racial equity leaders in jurisdictions across the country found each other and began to exchange experiences and ideas. During this early phase of work, practitioners developed strategies and approaches leading to an organizational change model for local government grounded in what is now known as “the GARE Approach.” In 2012 RSJI convened a Governing for Racial Equity Conference for local jurisdictions. Although intended to be a regional conference, the demand was high with over 500 elected officials and government staff attending from across the country. As this momentum grew, GARE found its first home at the Othering & Belonging (formerly, the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society) at the University of California, Berkeley.
By 2014, “early adopters,” of the GARE Approach emerged with 37 racial equity practitioners working across 13 local and regional governments including Seattle, WA, Fairfax County, Ramsey County, Hennepin County, Dane County, finding common cause and interest in forming a national cohort. GARE hosted its first official meeting in 2014 in the Twin Cities, with over 500 attendees. That year, GARE also hosted a peer-to-peer learning exchange between Multnomah County and City of Madison. A membership structure was created that year – with just over a dozen jurisdictions joining. Membership grew steadily over the years, just over 40 members in 2017, and more than doubling by 2018, and doubling again by 2019. The GARE membership network expanded in membership rapidly in 2020, following the largest racial justice uprisings in our nation’s history. Today, GARE has over 400 member jurisdictions and more than 13,000 racial equity practitioners in its network.