At Lone Star Wind Orchestra, a diverse, inclusive, and equitable organizational culture is one where all LSWO Stakeholders (regardless of gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation) feel valued and respected.
We are committed to a nondiscriminatory organizational culture and provide equal opportunity for employment and advancement throughout our programs. 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 entire arts industry of the nonprofit sector, and to maintaining an inclusive environment with equitable treatment for all.
We expect all LSWO Stakeholders to embrace this culture and to express it in daily interactions and practices.
To provide informed, authentic leadership for cultural equity, Lone Star Wind Orchestra strives to:
- See diversity, inclusion, and equity as central to our mission and critical to ensure the well-being of our LSWO Stakeholders.
- Acknowledge and dismantle any inequities within our policies, programs, and services, and continually update and report organization progress.
- Explore potential underlying, unquestioned assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness.
- Advocate for and support board-level thinking 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.
- Practice and encourage transparent communication.
- Commit time and resources to expand more diverse leadership within our board, staff, committee, and advisory bodies.
- Lead with respect and tolerance.
Lone Star Wind Orchestra abides by the following action items to help promote diversity and inclusion in our organization:
- Pursue cultural competency throughout our organization by creating learning opportunities and transparent policies.
- Generate and report organizational metrics related to equity to make incremental, measurable progress toward the visibility of our diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts.
- Annual program, staff, and board metrics will be added to our website for public access by September 1st of each calendar year. (Board Chair and Director of Programs to coordinate updates.)
- Create and support exceptional educational and artistic programs that reflect the diversity of American society.
- Regularly collaborate with other arts/community organizations committed to diversity and inclusion efforts.
- Develop a system for being more intentional and conscious of bias during the hiring, promoting, or evaluating process. Train our Executive team on equitable hiring practices.
- Advocate for policy that promotes diversity, inclusion, and equity. Challenge systems and policies that create inequity, oppression, and disparity.