Code of Care 🔐

We all have a right to feel welcome and included. For this to happen, we help to make the space safe for each other. As your hosts, we will protect and uphold this at all times. Racist, homophobic, transphobic and ableist (what’s this?) comments or behaviour aren’t tolerated. Our Code of Care includes: 

• Everyone has something to offer. We give no special privileges to people with more education, confidence or high-paying jobs. Everyone is an expert based on their lived/living experience and we all have unique contributions to bring to a design process.
  
  

• Unless we’re endorsed by our community, we don’t speak on behalf of others. We’re here to talk about our views and experiences. We don’t make generalisations about others (e.g. what all consumers or staff think).
  
  

• We believe people about who they say they are. We don’t challenge each other's identities, including ethnicity, gender, background and knowledge. We use people’s chosen names and the pronouns they ask us to use (what are pronouns?)
  
  

• We acknowledge each other’s emotions and experiences. There is no place for minimisation (e.g. ‘are you sure it happened that way?’)
  
  

• We are tough on systems and gentle with individuals. We’re committed to challenging each other in ways that recognise that we all have learning and growth to do. We know systems can limit individuals’ good intentions.

Breaking the code of care  💔

If someone breaks this code of care, the first step is for the person who notices it to say something. If it's safe, this could be a private conversation between two or more people to agree on how to address the issue. If the person who notices the issue isn’t comfortable, or an agreement isn’t reached, they can raise this with the session facilitator(s). 

The facilitators may exclude an attendee if they harm other attendees.

How we act on issues

We’ll keep your feedback confidential and act quickly to address harm. We focus on marginalised people’s safety over the comfort of people with more power and privilege.

Where this code comes from  🗺

This code comes from 12+ years of experience gathering diverse groups. It’s also inspired by the Co-design Club, Queer Design Club, trauma-informed practice, intersectional environmentalism, emotional CPR, Design Justice, the Decolonizing Solidarity book club and Beyond Sticky Notes, the book.