Process for Harm Done Outside JCUA

If you have caused great harm and are wanting to engage fully in the JCUA community, we invite you to participate in this process with us. We recognize that it is a choice to disclose harm you may have caused outside of the JCUA space. The person initiating this process will be referred to as the “participating member” throughout the rest of this policy.

We aim to meet the needs of all of our community members. The goals of this process are to:

• Enable further access to the JCUA community.
• Prevent future harm from occurring at JCUA to the best of our ability.
• Prevent members of the JCUA community from feeling unsafe or negatively impacted by the presence of the participating member.
• Honor the humanity of the participating member.
• Embody a restorative organizational mindset, rather than a punitive one..

Through restorative conversations, JCUA and the participating member will co-create a written agreement for expectations and boundaries around participation in JCUA. This agreement will be a living document subject to change based on new information or circumstances, including if JCUA learns that another member of the community has been impacted by the harm caused.

At a minimum participants in the process will include:

• The person who has caused harm (participating member)
• A member of the Restorative Justice working group

Based on the circumstances and desires of those involved, additional participants may include:

• A support person for the participating member
• A JCUA Board representative
• A specific member representative, for example, someone from the area of our work in which the participating member is hoping to engage most closely.

In creating the agreement, guiding questions for the participating member may include, but are not limited to:

• Ideally, what would you like your participation in the JCUA community to look like?
• What do you need to be in right relationship with others in the JCUA community?
• Who is a support person outside of the JCUA community who can help you maintain this plan/support you in your work? (could be a therapist, friend, etc.)
• Who in the JCUA community may have been directly impacted by your actions? Who may have been indirectly impacted?
• Who in our broader community (coalition partners, neighbors) may be directly/indirectly impacted?
• What kinds of repair / accountability / healing work have you already engaged in? Are you interested in resources to further support you in this work?
• How do you continuously assess your own risk of repeating this harm? What steps will you take if that risk increases?
• We strive to balance confidentiality & autonomy with transparency & accountability. How do you plan to communicate about this incident to JCUA community members, if/when it comes up? What information are you comfortable sharing?
• If a community member feels unsafe sharing space with you due to being impacted by the past harm you caused, what ideas do you have about how to remedy this situation? What accommodations might you be willing to make? What support might you need?

The agreement will capture in writing:

• Identification of a support person outside of JCUA.
• Plan for disclosing (or not disclosing) with other members.
• Contingency plan if someone expresses they feel unsafe.
• Any specific decisions made about how this person will continue to participate (e.g. circumstances for virtual vs. in-person participation).
• Plan for revisiting this document if someone comes forward about feeling unsafe.
• Action steps: “I will do…. JCUA will do….”

*“Great harm” is to be defined by the person/people engaging in this process, but some examples that may initiate this process are: sexual violence, domestic violence, abuse of power