7 minutes
What we actually mean The toolkit is a method before the lock — not a values paragraph and not a form you attach after.
What you’ll be able to do Identify the practical implication of “What we actually mean” and apply it to one live DHS decision connected to DHS Equity Analysis Toolkit. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: When should the method be used? Document a next step for What we actually mean: Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed. If you cannot name the work in one sentence, stop. The toolkit has nothing to hold yet. Minimization in this work: a blank toolkit after the vote. Adaptation: name who, look at the data, date an owner — before the lock. This course does not assign a score.
Why this is a course and a walkthrough Minnesota DHS expects staff to use the Equity Analysis Toolkit when work will last and needs leadership approval — policy, budget, hiring, IT, contracting, service delivery, community engagement. Teams still treat it as a cover sheet. This course teaches what the toolkit is for. Then each lesson makes you write against one live piece of work.
The official toolkit and User Guide remain the form you file. This is original One DHS instructional content so a working unit can actually run it.
In this lesson Separate a method from a slogan.
Name when a full analysis is required and when a scan is enough.
Hold education and practice on the same page: learn it, then write it.
Pick the live work you will walk for the rest of this course.
If the decision is already made and the toolkit is a cover sheet, you are not doing an analysis. You are decorating a choice.
Key terms Equity analysis
A written look at how a decision will reduce or grow disparities — before you lock it. Not a values statement. A method.
The toolkit
The official DHS / enterprise steps: results, data, engagement, benefits and burdens, impact statement, accountability, alignment, sustainability.
Equity scan
A shorter honest page when time is tight. Still names outcome, groups, data, benefits/burdens, what you will change, and who you will tell. A scan is not a skip.
Apply this
Every lesson ends with writing on your live work. If you skip those prompts, you took a course. You did not use the toolkit.
Full analysis or scan? Full analysis Equity scan Not optional
The work will last, needs a supervisor or above, or changes access, budget, staffing, IT, contracting, or how people get a service. Walk all eight toolkit steps. Write it. Share it.
Time is short, or you already did a full analysis and need a check. Shorter page. Same honesty. Not a blank.
Hiring, RFPs, IT funding, budgets, legislative proposals, strategic plans, service-delivery changes. “We already know” is not a method.
What sits with you versus specialists You own the packet You write who is affected, what the data shows, who you heard, and what you will change. Equity staff do not do this for you.
Equity director and committee Alignment in the later steps. A conversation before the freeze — not a bcc after.
Formal doors stay formal Civil rights, Tribal consultation, labor relations. The toolkit does not replace them.
Start here: name the work this course will walk. Apply this — write this before lesson 2 The work, in one sentence (a policy, budget line, hire, IT change, or service path).
The approval date.
Full analysis or scan — and why.
Who is walking this with you.
Next: the pattern — how we still skip the toolkit after promising equity, and how to see that skip on your own packet.
Put this lesson to work What you can change You control whether what we actually mean changes a live DHS process connected to DHS Equity Analysis Toolkit or remains information on a page.
What to watch for The team completes the learning, keeps the same default, assigns no owner, and never checks who carries the burden.
Your next step Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Carry this forward The toolkit is a method before the lock — not a values paragraph and not a form you attach after.
You control whether what we actually mean changes a live DHS process connected to DHS Equity Analysis Toolkit or remains information on a page.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Completion is shown by a scenario decision, a knowledge-check response and a saved one-minute commitment.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
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Course overview Next lesson Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
