Sounds great - How do I join in?

Ash Mann, Managing Director at Substrakt, is the founder of this initiative. So far Substrakt have invested in the setup and admin for the group. Please contact him to get involved: [email protected].

Sounds great - but if I join, what will I have to do?

Organisations who join will get out what they put in. This is a partnership about a shared spirit. Get involved where something sounds appealing, and politely decline if something isn’t relevant, possible or right for your organization at that moment.

This group is about taking responsibility for your organisation within a collective; you still have control over what you choose to do for EDI in your business. If you’re not sure, lean in and ask your fellow Partners.

Ok I understand what this is, but is anything actually happening so far?

We’ve created this collective with the aim of announcing our commitments and we’ve approached organisations we know to invite them to become part of the partnership.

We are happy to share the limelight if it helps reach more people. We have started arranging a series of speaker swaps - sessions where multiple organizations can dial in to hear from speakers on a range of topics, but importantly showcasing the unique stories of people in our industry already.

As we mentioned, we’re not here to take over your EDI work, but the list of things you could get involved with will grow, the more organisations that join in and share their work. Here is a menu of activities you could participate in based on conversations with the partners we have spoken to so far. This list will evolve and grow as we speak to more organisations.

I already signed up to a load of schemes - why should I do this?

This collective isn’t just about what you do, because one organisation is unlikely to be able to shift the picture of the entire pipeline of talent. It’s about all the organisations who are looking to improve inclusion in the Arts to make progress together, because a rising tide lifts all boats. There’s no point having a watertight boat when your hull is grounded on the riverbed.

We want all the schemes you’ve signed up to to be as successful as possible, and the more business and attention they get, the better it will be for you!

Additionally, we want to work with other charters/groups. We’ll happily work with other organisations, pledges and charters and we don’t expect organisations to work exclusively with this Partnership.

Our leadership team does not look good in a photo… how do we sign up for something like this without drawing negative attention to ourselves?

We are all part of businesses and face challenges every day on how decisions affect our brand, PR, services, reputation etc. We don’t shy away from any other business challenge because doing so would rely on admitting it could be better.

Ultimately if you’re a leader in a business, EDI problems are your responsibility to solve.

Pushing that responsibility towards people in minority groups exacerbates the problem. It puts more onus on minority groups to solve what is ultimately (in this context) a business problem, drawing their attention and efforts from the work they have chosen to do in our sector.

If you’re not sure about how you would message this, lean in and ask. Some of the organisations in the Partnership are already taking steps to best position their efforts in light of this type of commentary and can probably share their learnings for how to do so as successfully as possible.