“Putting our energies into recruiting staff, board, and volunteers that reflect our community enables us to better connect with our community and is the foundation on which to build inclusive programming, inclusive outreach and marketing, and develop a more diverse base.” – Diane Davy, Executive Director, WorkInCulture

 

 

In 2015 TRIEC partnered with WorkInCulture – a non-profit organization that services Ontario’s cultural sector and offers career development and business skills training – to help build more inclusive workplaces within the sector.

Comprised of medium, small and micro-sized organization, the Ontario culture sector has been serving its multicultural audiences and meeting their diverse needs and interests for many years. The challenge was to embrace the same diversity and inclusion treatment internally.

With assistance from the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, Immigration and International Trade, and expert partners, TRIEC and Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, WorkInCulture was able to create a program of resources in diversity and inclusion targeted to the culture sector.

WorkInCulture approached TRIEC and asked to leverage its knowledge, best practices and resources to improve inclusion in the sector and focus on the organizations themselves and their HR practices.

“Our partnership has emphasized the value of cross-sectoral collaboration in addressing a broad topic through shared resources, narratives, and strategies by adapting information already developed and tested by TRIEC,” says Diane Davy, Executive Director at WorkInCulture. “In doing so, we were able to avoid duplication of effort in the creation of related materials and were able to make full use of each other’s expertise to improve and deploy materials more effectively.”

The result of the partnership is a program that supports the efforts of the sector’s smaller workplaces to build inclusive workplaces by offering practical and adaptable content including informational resources, tools, and training. Materials and information have been written from the perspective of those working and volunteering in a typical small arts and culture workplace, and wherever possible the examples and language are taken directly from the sector.

Through this program, WorkInCulture has been able to make a compelling case for the benefits of an inclusive workplace, one where the full talents and abilities of everyone are given the opportunity to be used and developed. Working closely with TRIEC allowed WorkInCulture to create and advocate a framework for change.

“We customized two TRIEC e-learning modules and a workshop curriculum to meet the needs of the cultural sector,” Davy shares. “Through TRIEC guidance and expertise, we were able to articulate our vision of inclusion within our sector and produce truly engaging and impactful resources.”