We, as Creative Black Country, believe in making the most of the rich characteristics and stories of the Black Country. We continuously strive to reflect local people through our creative programmes led by our communities and partners.

We are committed and proud of our diverse communities and will continue to ensure that people who identify as systemically marginalised in The Black Country will have increased access to investment and opportunities.

We are proud of working with staff and a family of freelancers who share this commitment and who work towards creating a safe and inclusive working environment. Together we will honour the following actions, whilst continue to challenge ourselves to do more.

We are dedicated to making our creative initiatives accessible to everyone, regardless of background or abilities. We are continually improving our practices to better serve all members of our community. If you have accessibility concerns please contact us at info@creativeblackcountry.co.uk.

Our actions so far:

• Continue to create an annual Equity, Diversity and Inclusion plan (EDI) which is embedded across all our strands of work.

• Continue to review our language and not use terms and acronyms that crudely group people together e.g. BAME, BME.

• Signing up to the More than a Moment in Principle Pledge.

• Joining CEDIA to amplify the challenges around issues of equality, diversity and inclusion in the Arts.

• Undertaken Unconscious Bias training (with Strawberry Words) with the team and CBC Consortia Partners.

• Undertaken training with DASH around Access and Social Model of Disability.

• Ensure our commission call outs are more inclusive through Easy Read and BSL interpretation.

• Include a percentage of overall budget which supports all CBC commissioned activities with any accessibility needs.

• Analyse our stats closely to understand where, what and how we need to do more.

How we will grow and develop ourselves:

• Update our EDI plans and build in processes so we can monitor our performance better.

• Continue to expand CBC’s knowledge skills, experience around EDI.

• Recruit and retain a Changemaker* (1 each year) who will critique and advocate within our Consortia Partnership.

• Have Equity, Access and Inclusion Plan as part of a CBC Partnership agenda item which will focus on performance and what could we do better.

• Continue to have a stand alone budget line for access across our programme.

• Share learning and resources as part of our website.

These Actions will enable us to implement, monitor and review practices to eliminate discrimination and foster inclusion within CBC’s operations and delivery. The CBC Partnership will review the ongoing implementation and achievement every six months. This is a shared responsibly with partners, staff and stakeholders.

CHANGEMAKER - Deafscope are supporting CBC’s Consortia partnership to:
Share lived and past experience, so CBC can become accessible as a programme. 
Be a critical friend, be active, challenge CBC and give feedback on CBC’s work and the visibility with an equity, diversity and inclusion lens.
Share relevant insights with CBC which can help to enhance our approach to communities with protected characteristics.
Highlight details of existing and emerging challenges (‘unmet needs’) faced disproportionately by members of marginalised groups.
Help CBC to reach marginalised groups to ensure that all our open calls for creative activity and experiences leaves no one behind