EN Accountable Spaces Systems

Summary

1. Each house has their own manner of dealing with a first occurrence of sexual/domestic assault, but we ask that all events are reported to a nominated record keeper.
2. Each house has a record keeper, they keep analogue notes.
3. Record keepers meet once every few months to share their notes.
4. If a named actor comes up twice on these shared lists a cross house/ network wide process is triggered:
   1. the record keepers email the twice - named party to state that their name has come up on our system twice.
   2. the email invites the said party to come to the community to explain how these harms came to be. they are given one week to do so.
   3. if this response does not come, the wider community is informed. the wider community includes residents in houses participating in this system. a meeting is called within one week.

Background

For the purposes of these descriptions, communities are defined as the individual locations, such as The Red Victorian or The Embassy House, and the network is the group of linked communities, namely The Embassy Network.

This is the basic Embassy Network Accountable Space Policy upon which each community may iterate and amend, but which provides the basic tenants of accountable spaces across the network that our communities seek to uphold alongside other Embassy Network values.

As an intentional network of communities, we are dedicated to building a supportive and self reflective culture around respect and clear communication. We make this declaration of our values not only to communicate this culture but also in public recognition that we actively reject rape culture* and other forms of oppression.

We invite you to challenge yourself to make no assumptions about others, and to enter with an open heart and mind for the incredibly diverse amalgamation of humans that you share this existence with.

Our network, and the state of California, have adopted Affirmative Consent as a policy. This means‘yes, means yes’as opposed to the old model of ‘no means no’. In practice, this means that if you want to touch someone, you need to get an explicit “yes” from them. For example, “Hey, I’d like to give you a massage, would that be ok with you?” or “Can I have a hug?” a ‘maybe’ or silence, or even a yes under persuasion does not count as consent and will be treated as a consent violation in our community. Remember that consent can be withdrawn at any time. This means checking in regularly!

Additionally, accountable space also involved sex positive space. What does this mean? Sex positivity allows for and celebrates sexual diversity, different desires and relationship structures and individual choices, based on consent. This does not mean that anything goes, but rather involves an attitude that respects whatever choices an individual makes about their sexual and romantic behavior, which may include asexuality or abstinence. Sex positivity is not about having as much sex as you can, it is about open-mindedness, compassion, and respect. This aspect of the policy also amplifies the necessity of consent.

Sometimes, people get hurt in communities and violations do take place. We are committed to maintaining the safety of people in our spaces. What this means is that anyone accused of violating the Accountable Space policies may be asked to leave the space. In certain circumstances we will help rehouse them in the short term. We offer alternative justice processes as a way to amplify options for actors and victims/targets/survivors. Additionally, as part of our accountable space, we practiceNon-Violent Communication, a communication process based on the principles of self-empathy, empathy, and honest self-expression.

Our spaces are ones where everyone is encouraged to look inwards, to recognize personal biases, experiences, and background, and to continue to grow. By entering into our community we request that you heed these cultural norms. If you have any questions, do please ask! This is also an iterative process and if you have any suggestions or feedback on our process or culture, we’d love to hear about it.

Goals of this system:

1. Empowering actors to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions

2. Taking the burden of responsibility off victim/survivors

3. Upholding accountable space policy of Embassy Network

We prioritize it this way because empowering actors takes burden off victims and upholds accountable space policy.

Incident reporting system:

All members of the network are highly encouraged to at minimum take part in the record keeping aspect of this project, as it empowers all members of the network to feel safer, and empowers more people to participate in Restorative justice. The preferred information to be shared will include both actor/perpetrator, victim/survivor and other parties involved in the AltJ process, should one take place. In addition to this information pertaining to dates and other details can be recorded. Victim/survivor names may be left anonymous if this is the only way a person is willing to participate in the list. In the case that victim/survivor is made anonymous, more details will be required to prevent the same incident from appearing on the list twice should the involved parties later come to the record keeper in a non-anonymous way.Additionally, we highly encourage the efforts of actor/perpetrators who seek to add themselves to this list and initiate a process of Restorative Justice, especially in cases where it may not be clear to either or both parties if a violation has taken place.

This is not a bad actor list, and not a record of guilt or innocence. The list is a record of incidents that have been raised that may have violated the accountable space policy. The list contains no more information the the humans who operate in the communities, and due to the clear levels of accountability around the list, actually helps perpetuate cultures of honesty and %%% and fights perpetuation of false information regard both victim/survivors and actors/perpetrators.

Automatic Reporting:

Additionally, some members of various communities may elect to be “automatic reporters”. This fact is made clear to all members of the network as well as guests. These people will automatically report incidents to the list, thus removing the burden of having to ask to be put on the list from the victim/survivor or actor/perpetrator. Simply by speaking to these members means that the incident will end up on the list.

Role of the Record Keeper:

The record keeper tracks information regarding incidents of violation of community standards, primarily around consent violation, violence, and hate speech. The record keeper also keeps information on the restorative justice process around those incidents. The person in this position should know how to hold that kind of information in large volumes without it overwhelming them, should be able to keep this information secure, and should be good at methods of tracking this information, such as spreadsheets; although use of spreadsheets is not required as the exact method of record keeping is up to the discretion of the record keeper.

Depending on what each community decides, the record keeper can be the person in charge of reminding people when to check in on the Restorative Justice process, and also be the person to communicate information with other houses and get information from other community record keepers, depending on their policies regarding information sharing.

Each community chooses a record keeper and it is up to the community as to whether that person needs to be a resident of their particular community or if they can simply be a resident of the network. However, if the record keeper is not a resident of a particular community, they are still bound to whatever level of confidentiality regarding the records that the community that chose them has decided upon. Thus, Autumn who currently resides at the Red Victorian, could be chosen as the record keeper for the Amsterdam House, but no matter what level of record security the Red Victorian chooses, Autumn must keep the Amsterdam houses records according to their chosen security level. (For more information on record security levels see below)

For more clarity here is an example of how the role of record keeper might work:

Autumn has her consent violated by another resident, Tai. Autumn goes to Brittany for support because she trusts Brittany. They chat. Autumn then asks brittany to give the name of the person to Stef, the record keeper, with a small set of details regarding the incident. Stef keeps this record. Autumn decides to move forward with some type of restorative justice process with Zarinah as the altj point person for that process. Zarinah tells Stef that three meetings have happened and all parties feel safe and JUSTICE HAS BEEN RESTORED. Stef, the record keeper, documents this information as well.

Here is another example:

Tai and Autumn get drunk and wake up in the same bed naked. Tai is unsure what happened but is worried they may have violated Autumn’s consent. Tai goes to the Record Keeper to report the incident and goes to Zarinah to request that she speak to Autumn and see if there was a consent violation and if Autumn would be open to starting the Restorative Justice process. Zarinah talks to Autumn, who feels her consent was violated but is open to working with Tai and Zarinah on a Restorative Justice process. Zarinah reports this information to the Record keeper. After the process, JUSTICE HAS BEEN RESTORED and Autumn reports the results to the record keeper.

Here is one involving automatic reporting:

Autumn is an automatic reporter and this information has been shared across the network and with guests. Sami, a resident of the Embassy House SF, who knows Autumn is an automatic reporter, tells Autumn that another resident of the Embassy House SF has violated their consent. Sami does not want to participate in the RJ Process. Autumn, as an automatic reporter, tells TONY, the Record Keeper of the Embassy House SF, all the details Sami has given her. Tony keeps the record of this event.

How to tell the Record Keeper:

Each record keeper decides how, through which medium, and when, they want to be informed of incidents. Options include, texts, in person hours, regular meetings with RJ advocates who often take cases on. You can also tell an automatic reporter and they will report the incident for you. You may also ask anyone in the house to report to the record keeper on your behalf.