Safe(r) Spaces & Anti-Racism | Common Ground Arts Society

Common Ground Arts Society is committed to creating a space and experience that is welcoming, safe, and healthy for everyone.

We value and respect everyone that participates and contributes to our organization regardless of their identity or practices.

We embrace diversity and expect respect, openness, consideration, and kindness to all individuals within our space.

We recognize that our work regularly intersects with historically excluded populations and expressions. We always commit to learning, improving, and making our spaces more accessible as we go.

We expect all individuals who participate and contribute to our organization to uphold our organizational values, commitment to safe spaces, and adhere to organizational policies and procedures.

Should individuals not participate as outlined, Common Ground Arts Society reserves the right to request the individual to leave and impose possible sanctions against the individual.

Click for our complaint review policy.

Submit a Report

Thank you for helping us maintain a safer space by submitting a report. We are grateful for your willingness to come forward. This report form can be used for incidents that violate Common Ground’s Code of Conduct, or to file an incident report even when no follow-up is required.

All reports are received and read by Found Festival Director Whittyn Jason (whittynjason@commongroundarts.ca) and CG Managing Producer Mac Brock (macbrock@commongroundarts.ca). You may report an incident by completing and submitting the form below, or directly by contacting Whittyn Jason and/or Mac Brock as above.

Common Ground Arts Society commits to taking immediate and appropriate action, reporting and following up with any incident of harassment, violence, discrimination, bullying, or abuse that is witnessed, disclosed, or reported. Every report will be followed up in a timely manner.

Safer Spaces

Name (Optional)

First Last

Email (Optional)

Phone (Optional)

If you choose to include your contact information, how do you prefer to be contacted (ie, text, email, phone call)?

Text

Phone call

Did this incident happen to you, or did you witness it?

It happened to me.

I witnessed it.

Do you wish for this incident to remain anonymous to those involved in the incident? (please note: anonymous disclosure may limit our ability to conduct a thorough investigation)

Keep it anonymous.

It doesn’t have to be anonymous.

We respect your right to make your own decision about how we should process this incident. Please choose one of the following:

I am disclosing an incident

I am making a formal complaint for the purpose of initiating an investigation and resolution (please note: if you choose this option, we ask you please include your full name and contact information)

Date of incident (MM/DD/YYYY)

Time of incident

Location of incident

Please provide a description of the people and/or the names of those involved:

Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

CGAS Anti-Racism Commitment

Common Ground Arts Society recognizes injustice and racism are deeply entrenched in our society. We acknowledge that the current oppressive systems of power advance non-racialized groups. We recognize that silence makes us complicit in these oppressive systems.

Black Lives Matter.

Change must come. Change starts with the individual, it starts in community, it starts with us. We commit to being part of that change.

The work we do will be ongoing. We commit to doing this work within our organization and in collaboration with the greater Edmonton arts community.

We commit to:

providing and requiring anti-oppression training for our board and staff;
developing and implementing an anti-racism policy that all board members, staff, artists, and volunteers must commit to;
increasing the representation of Black and Indigenous artists in our programming;
changing our recruitment practices to improve BIPoC representation on our staff, on our board, and in our volunteer program;
developing an organizational succession plan that invites BIPoC artists and administrators into the core of our organization;
working to secure funding for a Black, Indigenous, PoC emerging artist in residence program, including paid mentorship from established BIPoC artists;
offering ongoing mentorship to BIPoC artists, technicians, and arts administrators;
listening to and uplifting the voices of BIPoC artists in our community;
continuing to educate ourselves around anti-racism practices; and
implementing these commitments into our organizational strategic plan, including timelines and accountability measures.

Below is a list of resources we have found helpful in our ongoing education. We will continue to update this list as we learn and grow.