D.E.I Statement

STATEMENT

Westport School of Music is committed to growing, modeling and fostering attitudes, and retaining policies that reflect diversity, equity, and inclusion in all recruiting, hiring, training, compensation and benefits, programming, marketing, dismissals, and community interactions, internally within our workforce and externally within the community. The summation of our employees’ diverse experiences, accomplishments, abilities, and expression are what make WSM a valuable and unique organization. This policy includes but does not limit our commitment to developing a work environment built upon the values, beliefs, attitudes, and actions of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We acknowledge and welcome all differences in ethnicity, physical traits, family or marital status, gender identity, physical and mental ability, religion, economic status, age, political affiliation, and differences in all areas of diversity. We affirm the value brought to our organization through each individuals’ unique lived experience.

COMMITMENT

  • All WSM board members, faculty, staff, and contractors have a responsibility to understand and embody our definitions of diversity, equity and inclusion during work, at work functions, when representing our organization, and on and off the work location, Whether faculty, staff, and contractors are working or not. We expect that our board members, faculty, staff, and contractors abide by these principles in their personal lives.

  • All WSM faculty, staff and board members will be required to complete a DEl training.

  • Faculty, staff, and contractors who have been subjected to any kind of discrimination should seek assistance from a supervisor or member of the WSM Board of Trustees.

  • Any faculty, staff, or contractor found to have exhibited inappropriate behavior or conduct toward others may be subject to disciplinary action at the determination of uninvolved parties of the WSM Board.

  • We adopt this policy as a starting point for WSM to create a diverse, equitable and inclusive climate in our operations and mission.

DEFINITIONS

DIVERSITY:

In the workplace, this word refers to the presence of difference in identity markers. A person is not diverse. However, all persons can contribute to the diversity of a group. We embrace and encourage diversity and recognize it as differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics such as personality and personal interests.

EQUITY:

Equity recognizes that not everyone starts from the same place. It seeks to correct systemic imbalances by ensuring that people with marginalized identities have opportunities to develop, contribute, and advance, specifically in areas where they have been historically denied.

We recognize equity within a framework where people's inputs (time, energy, effort, etc.) match their outputs (achievements, growth, validation, acceptance, etc.) We acknowledge that these inputs and outputs can be impacted by biases that work for or against an individual. In recognizing that oftentimes these factors are outside of an individual’s control, we endeavor to correct for inhibitors and multipliers of the input/output framework stich as historical and systemic privileges and barriers.

INCLUSION:

Inclusion has to do with varying identities, feeling and being valued, welcomed, and able to influence the workplace. Diversity does not bring about inclusion, but inclusion is the action that must accompany all diversity. All must be welcomed, valued, and given opportunities to grow.

We acknowledge that inclusion is a construct that guides how our workforce and students function and perform based on the quality of social connections and openness to learning. We commit to creating a cultural norm where everyone can bring their whole selves to our environment and don't feel pressured to assimilate to the dominant culture.

Adopted by WSM Trustees on May 16, 2023