Creative expression as a catalyst for personal transformation.

At Unlock the Arts, it is the commitment of our staff, Board of Directors, and volunteers to champion equity, diversity, and inclusion. Our lived experiences have continued to inform us that social and economic equality, along with mental health services have been the most important challenges for our participants.

Many of these challenges involve systemic disparities and unfair treatment deriving from racial injustices and socio-economic status.

All members of the Unlock the Arts community commit to bringing together community partners, volunteers, and other parties with diverse backgrounds and lived experiences to expand and evolve our healing-based programming.

We engage and interact with our expressive writing participants along with Returned Residents to create curriculum, policies, and re-structure programs and/or activities when necessary, to assist with the identification and avoidance of any discrimination or access to our programs.

We are committed to tracking data (race, age, gender, national origin, income level, andlanguages other than English) of our participants to evaluate our equity and diversity goals.

Sustaining a culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion at Unlock the Arts requires consistent intention and effort. For this reason, our operations and programs will continue to be evaluated to ensure we dismantle structural or systemic injustices of our participants, Board of Directors, and communities.