LUCILLE LORTEL FOUNDATION EDIA STATEMENT


Administration

  • We will evaluate our current hiring practices through an anti-racist lens and develop new organizational standards accordingly. These efforts will include:
  • Publishing salaries on job postings.
  • Excluding mandatory education requirements.
  • Using language that is free of bias.
  • We will provide a supportive onboarding process, with dedicated resources to ensure a safe, successful, and happy work environment, especially for individuals from Marginalized* groups.
  • We will provide Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism training for all employees.
  • We will provide a retribution-free safe space for employees to discuss incidents inconsistent with the Lortel’s EDIA Policy to ensure that the policy is upheld and maintained.
  • We will establish and widely promote a clear, confidential process of reporting problems with formal response protocol companywide.
  • While we are on this evolving journey, we are committed to accountability, transparency, inclusiveness, and serving as better allies.
  • Any employee (including interns) will receive minimum wage or higher.

Funding

  • We will apply an anti-racist voice and culturally competent lens to all communications and visuals in connection with all funding.
  • We will identify funding to support anti-racism activities.
  • We will maintain a zero-tolerance policy for disbursing funds from/to individuals and/or organizations which knowingly uphold racist, sexist, homophobic, and other practices inconsistent with our EDIA policy.
  • We will work to establish an intervention protocol for recipients whose behavior is inconsistent with our EDIA Policy.
  • We will request an EDIA census from all grant recipients to advocate for more EDIA in the Off-Broadway theaters, organizations, and the overall community. When considering grant recipients, we will ask the following:
  • What is the diversity amongst the staff (including, but not limited to, artistic and management leadership, board members, subcontractors, vendors, etc.)? We will ask grant recipients to provide percentages of the following demographics:
    • Race
    • Gender Identity/Sexual Orientation
    • Disability
    • Age
  • What percentage of resources are dedicated to predominantly white projects versus non-predominantly white projects?
  • What percentage of contracted playwrights, artists, directors, designers, and other creatives identify as being from Marginalized* groups?
  • What is the diversity amongst your funding sources, including foundations, major donors, and other large gifts?

*When we use the term Marginalized, we are describing a person or group that is treated insignificantly, pushed to the margins of society and rendered powerless. Marginalized groups include Black, Asian, Latine, and Indigenous peoples; women; people with disabilities; the LGBTQIA2S+ community; people of a lower socio-economic status; and many others. All of these groups have been historically disempowered and oppressed by influential and discriminatory groups.


For more information and resources, visit:
https://www.cultureally.com/blog/what-does-marginalized-mean-and-why-does-it-matter
https://yali.state.gov/five-ways-to-be-an-ally-to-marginalized-groups/