Principles of participation

Nurturing an environment where each person feels seen and heard, with an acknowledgment of their experience, contributes to a work flow that welcomes shared learning, intersectional conversations, mutual support, and creative collaboration. 

Here are our principles and valued practices of participation: 

• Creating a welcoming, safer and more accessible space for all participants.
• Acknowledging and valuing different histories, diverse identities, lived experiences and the knowledge that everyone offers as well as brings into the shared space.
• Recognising that consent, privacy and confidentiality are non-negotiable and unconditional as a baseline of trust.
• Handling disagreement constructively and non-violently.
• Having zero tolerance for disrespect, harassment and violence in any form.
• Embedding the politics and practice of self and collective care.
• Being collaborative, open and participatory in your approach.
• Being mindful of language, access layers and context diversity; being supportive of self-expression to the autonomy, extent and pace of each person.
• Self-reflecting and recognising the spectre of power and different (or lack of) participation privileges in terms of situational capacities and structural inequality – including context, access, race, class, language, gender, different accessibility needs, public speaking and participation skills, or any other status.
• Being willing to de-center your perspective and always listening to each other with an open mind and heart.
• Extending compassion and kindness to everyone we are sharing the space with.
• Attributing and giving credit to previous projects, sources, contributions and the investment from everyone in the shared space.
• Adjusting the participation pace to your needs. Reach out if you need support at any point.