For over 40 years Wac Arts has enriched the lives of young people from diverse backgrounds. Our belief in an inclusive society has shaped our work but the response to the killing of George Floyd has brought into sharp focus that we need to do more to create an organisation that reflects the community it serves.
We have considered where we can make the most difference and:
- We commit to increasing the breadth of voices that impact our decision making and will continue to develop our Youth Forum into a formal sub-committee of the Board by July 2021.
- By next year, we will also create a Board Apprentice scheme to nurture talent from an under-represented group.
- We will build on our programme of community curated work so that our artistic focus increasingly reflects our community’s interests.
- We will hold unconscious bias and privilege training annually and formalise it into our induction processes by this October.
- We will start a programme of reverse mentoring to provide opportunities for the Board to hear, first-hand, the lived experience of Wac Arts students.
- We will increase representation across the Charity by adapting our recruitment practices. For example, advertising roles in non-traditional forums and ensuring broader representation on interview panels. Our initial focus will be diversifying the Board by 2021.
- We will maintain our focus by making diversity a standing Board agenda item, using improved employee data to track our progress.
To bring about these improvements, we will provide forums for those across our local and regional community to share their views. Our first step will be to consult with all staff.
