Oceanside Theatre Company DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION POLICY
At Oceanside Theatre Company, we are committed to a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace and community gathering place. We strive to value, respect, and engage all OTC employees, arts practitioners, volunteers, board members, donors, funding entities, and community members, whatever their race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education, physical or mental ability, gender identity and expression, citizenship or immigration status, language, color, religion, belief system, or veteran’s status.
We are committed to a non-discriminatory approach to provide equal opportunity for employment and engagement in all of our services, programs, outreach, and worksites. We are equally committed to be non-discriminatory in serving our audiences and our community. We respect and value diverse life experiences and heritages and will ensure that all voices are valued and heard.
Oceanside theatre Company is further committed to modeling diversity and inclusion for the entire theatre arts industry of the nonprofit sector, and to maintaining an inclusive environment with equitable treatment for all.
To provide informed, authentic leadership for cultural equity, Oceanside Theatre Company strives to:
- See diversity, inclusion, and equity as integral to our mission, vision, and values to ensure the well-being of our staff and the arts communities we serve.
- Acknowledge and dismantle any inequities within our policies, systems, programs, and services, and continually update and report organization progress.
- Promote and ensure that everyone knows we follow a Zero Tolerance Policy when it comes to discrimination, harassment, or deliberate omission/roadblocks to employment, advancement, and engagement.
- Explore potential underlying, unquestioned assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness.
- Advocate for and support board-level thinking about how systemic inequities impact our organization’s work and how best to address that in a way that is consistent with our mission.
- Help to challenge assumptions about what it takes to be a strong leader at our organization and who is well-positioned to provide leadership.
- Practice and encourage transparent communication in all interactions.
- Commit time and resources to expand more diverse leadership within our board, staff, committee, and advisory bodies.
- Lead with respect and tolerance. We expect all employees, volunteers, and patrons to embrace this notion and to express it in workplace interactions and through everyday practices.
Oceanside Theatre Company abides by the following action items to help promote diversity and inclusion in our work and community gathering place:
- Pursue cultural competency throughout our organization by creating substantive learning opportunities and formal, transparent policies.
- Generate and aggregate quantitative and qualitative research related to equity to make incremental, measurable progress toward the visibility of our diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts. Once the content is curated it will be added to our website so others can access.
- Improve our cultural leadership pipeline by creating and supporting programs and policies that foster leadership that reflects the diversity of American society.
- Pool resources and expand offerings for underrepresented constituents by connecting with other arts organizations committed to diversity and inclusion efforts.
- Develop and present sessions on diversity, inclusion, and equity to provide information and resources both internally, and to members, the community, and the theatre arts industry.
- Develop a system for being more intentional and conscious of bias during the recruitment, hiring, promoting, or evaluating process. Train our hiring team on equitable practices.
- Include a salary range with all public job descriptions.
- Advocate for public and private-sector policy that promotes diversity, inclusion, and equity. Challenge systems and policies that create inequity, oppression and disparity.
- Institute casting practices that encourage and welcome diverse arts practitioners, directors, designers, stage managers, technicians, and other persons involved in OTC productions or programs.