At Arts for Learning Connecticut, a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace and organization is one where all staff, Teaching Artists, board members, partners, students, families, and volunteers—whatever their gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education or ability—feel valued and respected and have a sense of belonging.
We are committed to a nondiscriminatory and anti-racist approach and provide equal opportunity for employment and advancement throughout our organization. We respect and value diverse life experiences and heritages and ensure that all voices are valued and heard.
We are committed to modeling diversity and inclusion for the arts, education, and non-profit sectors, and to maintaining an inclusive environment with equitable treatment for all.
To provide informed, authentic leadership for cultural equity, Arts for Learning Connecticut strives to:
- See diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging as connected to our mission and critical to ensure the well-being of our staff, students, teachers, and the arts communities we serve.
- Acknowledge and dismantle any inequities within our policies, systems, programs, and services, and continually update and report relevant organization progress.
- Explore any potential underlying, unquestioned assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness.
- Advocate for and support thinking at the board and staff level 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.
- Model and uplift inclusive behaviors across the staff and organization, such as respectful curiosity, listening, and making others feel welcome.
- Practice and encourage transparent communication in all interactions.
- Commit time and resources to expand more diverse leadership within our board, staff, Teaching Artist community, and volunteer community.
- Ensure our compliance with applicable laws, policies, and standards relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Lead and act with respect and acceptance and civility; we expect all employees and representatives of Arts for Learning Connecticut to embrace this notion and to express it in workplace interactions and through everyday practices.
- Ensure that our programs fit within an equitable, inclusive, anti-racist, culturally responsive framework, and provide support to Teaching Artists in further developing programs to meet this framework when necessary.
Arts for Learning Connecticut will pursue the following specific goals in FY26—as aligned with our strategic operating plan—to further our commitment to this effort and the framework laid out above:
- Substantively join in the diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts of the networks and organizations we belong to and affiliate with, including but not limited to: Young Audiences Arts for Learning, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, CT Office of the Arts, and any other programmatic or funding partner doing meaningful work in this context.
- Share publicly (on our website and in printed materials) our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging, including parts (or all) of this statement, as well as outside resources that support and illustrate this effort.
- Understand, appreciate, and celebrate the diversity represented among our staff, board, Teaching Artists, and students, and make a conscious effort to reflect further diversity in those groups where and when needed and appropriate.
- Prepare our leadership to be intentional and conscious of bias during the hiring, promoting, and evaluating process (e.g. through trainings, specialized resources, or consultants)
- Ensure our Teaching Artist Agreement is written according to this policy and is updated for the FY26 cycle.
- Identify the demographics of our Teaching Artist community and investigate any inequalities related to booking and payment that might correlate with those demographics.
- Identify the demographics of our student clients and set FY26 programming targets related to those demographics: at least 55% of the students we serve in FY26 will be Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and 45% will be eligible for Free or Reduced Price Meals (FRPM)
- Ensure that our Higher Order Thinking (HOT) Schools partner schools meet our equity profile: with at least statewide averages of FRPM and/or BIPOC students (above) at each school.
- Develop and implement the Arts Learning Framework—through content creation; professional development for Teaching Artists, board, and staff; and programmatic alignment—and strengthen AFLCT’s capacity to provide programs that are aligned with best practices in Culturally Responsive Teaching, Social and Emotional Learning, and Universal Design for Learning.
- Aspire to have at least 25% of staff identify as BIPOC by end of FY26.
- Reconsider this policy and update these related goals annually.
This updated policy on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging was approved by AFLCT’s Board of Directors on 11/11/2025.
We want to acknowledge that Arts for Learning Connecticut’s office is located on the traditional lands of Quinnipiac and Wappinger Peoples past and present. We have gratitude for the land itself, as well as for the people who have stewarded it throughout history and present day.