I'm worried or uncomfortable

What to do if you feel concerned or someone has breached our code of conduct.

You can speak to a member of our care team at any time if you feel worried or uncomfortable. We promise to:

• Listen to your concerns and take them seriously
• Talk to you about what you’d like to happen now, and honour your wishes wherever possible
• Protect your confidentiality as much as we can

We will never make you confront someone who has hurt you or made you uncomfortable.

We do our best to make sure everyone involved in running the event is invested in our values and abides by our code of conduct. Everyone will be held to the same standards of behaviour and misconduct will be addressed regardless of the status or identity of the perpetrator – that includes our organising team.

We will try to make sure there are multiple ways of making a report, so you never have to complain about an organiser to that person.

So you messed up:

What happens when you breach our code of conduct?
 

We operate on the precautionary principle – in simple terms, this means that if we’re in any doubt about whether you pose a risk, we may act as to protect our community until we are reasonably confident that we can safely welcome you back into it.

We need community, and we need to protect the most marginalised people in our community. We don’t believe in punishment or retributive justice but we do believe in supporting victims and survivors. Consequences of breaching our code of conduct are designed to keep Kaleidoscope a safer space for everyone.

If we believe you may have breached our code of conduct our options include:

• Speaking to you privately to reiterate and clarify the expectations we have of attendees
• Give you a written warning as a formal reiteration of the code of conduct and our expectations of you
• Restrict particular behaviours at our events – for example asking you not to dance in close embrace
• Ask you to leave the event on this occasion, so we have time to fully understand what’s happened
• Remove you from positions of influence – such as teaching, DJ’ing, volunteering or organising
• Ban you from future events either temporarily or permanently
• Share information with organisers in our wider community so that members of our wider community are also kept safe

There’s always something to learn. Our first two options focus on helping you to understand what behaviour is acceptable and learn more appropriate ways to behave. If you engage with us in good faith, and show that you understand and will adapt, we hope that this will be enough. For more severe breaches, or where we see no evidence of your behaviour improving, we will use additional measures.

After being asked to leave one of our events, or being banned for a period of time we may allow you to return if you can show us that you are not likely to harm the people at our events. This may come with conditions.

At a minimum, we would expect you to be able to show that:

• You know what you did wrong and can explain to us why it was harmful
• You’ve learnt from it and can demonstrate to us how you will make sure that it doesn’t happen again

Change takes time. It is unlikely that if you have been banned for a breach of our code of conduct that you’d be able to show us that you have really done the work needed in less than 12-18 months of dedicated effort.

We will always consider the comfort and safety of the community, victims and survivors before allowing someone to return to Kaleidoscope after a ban.

For serious or complex cases we may allocate a team of people to decide the best course of action. They will:

• Have some knowledge of the subject matter.
• Declare any conflicts of interest they have, such as relationships with the victims or perpetrators.
• Be open to all possible outcomes – including e.g. lifting OR extending a ban on attendance.
• Work with the perpetrators and victims to decide how to proceed, based on our values and code of conduct.

When appropriate, we might work with organisers from other scenes to do this.