Purpose

Submit a Grievance

The Rainbow Bridge Community Center reflects its core values, such as respect, inclusivity, consent, and love, in the words and actions of its leadership, staff, volunteers, and participants, and therefore, will not brook violations of its values in those words and actions.

But the Center also recognizes that we are all human, brought up in and constantly exposed to a world filled with toxic influences; and thus, everyone can make honest mistakes, and learn from them. We are committed to restorative justice, second chances, and making the world better by making ourselves better.

This grievance policy intends to provide a means by which all participants in the Center have a chance to raise concerns, and feel safe doing so, focusing not on blame or recrimination but on constructive resolutions, and finding a path towards healing. Many queer people have suffered prejudice, dismissal, intolerance, hatred, and trauma; ensuring that we can all feel safe at RBCC’s facility and events is of utmost importance. But we must remember that this feeling of safety includes freedom from being unjustly accused by another community member and driven away without opportunity either to refute the concerns, or to learn from them and adjust behavior to correct them. Whenever possible, we want everyone involved to come away feeling safe, welcome, and satisfied with the outcome, and we believe that this is possible in all but the most extreme cases.

The objectives of this policy are:

  • Everyone feels that they can safely present their concerns, and that they will be taken seriously and treated fairly, in a timely fashion.
  • Concerns can be raised by anyone, and about anyone and anything, even RBCC leadership.
  • Those who raise concerns will not experience any retaliation, or fear of retaliation.
  • Positive and constructive resolutions rooted in restorative justice, and focused on opportunities for reconciliation and betterment, will always be prioritized.

What Is Restorative Justice?

Conventional correctional justice focuses on blame, and on separating the person harmed from the person responsible, which in many cases prevents both parties from healing and moving forward, and creates self-perpetuating cycles. This approach may be justified in a tiny handful of cases, such as those of violent offenders with little hope of rehabilitation, but its application has gradually broadened throughout history vastly beyond the scope of its applicability, in essence creating the problems it is intended to address.

By contrast, restorative justice focuses on bringing together all parties, and giving each of them the chance to learn from one another, to correct errors in communication, to repair harm, to reduce the chance of further incidents and thus restore a sense of safety, and to focus on positive outcomes. While it often begins with one person who caused harm and another who suffered it, it acknowledges that there is harm on both sides, and also opportunity for growth and healing, and that each party can help the other. Much of restorative justice consists of various methods, usually facilitated, to foster communication and break down barriers, through techniques like mirroring, active listening, and the identification of different reference frames and cultural contexts.

Reporting Process

When Possible, Speak To The Other Person

It is expected that, when it is possible to do so safely, the person with a grievance will attempt to address the issue directly with the person or persons being complained about, before filing a grievance. RBCC recognizes that this may not be possible or practicable in some cases, especially when safety is involved. But it is surprising how often a frank and forthright approach to the problem, stated in a non-confrontational tone, informed by the realization that we all have unconscious prejudices, and we all still have work to do on ourselves, can be fruitful. Many conflicts are rooted in miscommunications or in unexamined assumptions, and are really an opportunity for mutual growth and understanding.

Report Your Grievance

If you feel unsafe or uncomfortable directly addressing the other person or persons, or you have already tried this and it proved unsatisfactory, the next step is to bring your concern to a member of the RBCC leadership team. Some ways you can do this include:

Complaints should be specific in nature about the incident or incidents and the harm caused, and should include any information or evidence available that will allow a fair, impartial, and complete evaluation of the accusation. However, RBCC will not put the burden of investigation on the complainant, so a complaint can be made with whatever information the complainant has available.

Your grievance will be kept confidential; see Documentation of Grievances below.

Making Anonymous Reports

You may wish to make your report anonymously, especially if your concerns are centered on one of the people on RBCC staff who may otherwise be tasked with investigating and adjudicating your grievance. Methods of reporting anonymously include:

See Grievance Investigation below for some information about how such a grievance will be handled.

Reporting About Incidents Affecting Others

The same procedure applies if you are reporting a concern in which you are not the injured party, such as if you observe an incident of someone harassing someone else. Please be sure you are clear about who the affected party is, and that you are an observer.

Grievance Investigation

Once a grievance has been raised, RBCC will identify who will investigate, always attempting to assign someone who is as uninvolved and unbiased as possible. In cases where a grievance is raised against the RBCC leadership team itself, the grievance will be directed to a third party, as part of a cooperative mutual support policy.

In cases where the complaint suggests the possibility of immediate harm or raises concerns about safety, investigators may take appropriate action to reduce or eliminate the threat before the investigation begins or concludes. This may require retracting such measures later, should the investigation find the concerns are overstated or inaccurate, or could be addressed by less strict measures. In such cases, the swift action should not be taken as a judgment of the merit of the complaint, but simply a ‘safety first’ attitude.

In evaluating all complaints, RBCC will focus on identifying the facts of the situation and considering all sides, including a consideration of past complaints and accusations and their resolutions. RBCC will not dismiss either the complainant nor the accused without a fair hearing.

Grievance Resolution

While every grievance begins with an investigation and moves towards a resolution, these are not distinct phases; often they will have considerable overlap. For instance, some aspects of resolution may arise naturally during the discussion with the complainant, or the subject of the grievance. The nature of restorative justice provides a focus on constructive outcomes rather than on blame, which innately breaks down the conventional concept of investigative justice (that a ‘verdict’ is reached, and only then is a ‘punishment’ meted out). Some methods of grievance resolution, such as guided discussions and mediations, serve simultaneously as both investigation and possible resolution, by their nature.

The grievance resolution process may include the use of many tools and techniques.

  • Discussion is always the heart of any grievance resolution process, especially one centered on restorative justice. RBCC staff may speak directly to the parties involved, both to determine the nature of the disagreement, and to seek constructive methods of resolution. In some cases, third parties may be employed for mediation and conflict resolution.
  • If a grievance reveals a shortcoming in RBCC policy or procedures, changes may be enacted in such by the RBCC leadership team or board of directors, both to address the grievance and in some cases to try to ensure similar incidents are less likely to happen in the future.
  • RBCC may choose to dismiss a volunteer or staff member based on a grievance found substantive, if it feels their behavior is unacceptable and no method of correction seems feasible, or when the safety of the community and its members is at risk. However, RBCC will always prioritize restorative justice and focus on giving everyone opportunities to redress their harm, learn from their mistakes, and demonstrate their good intent through subsequent words and actions. We recognize many complaints arise from communication difficulties and from differing styles of thinking, feeling, and expressing; and that we, as a community, grow stronger by finding ways to reconcile communication clashes and coming together, not pulling apart, when we are in pursuit of common values and intentions.
  • RBCC may be obligated by law to report certain types of incidents to law enforcement. However, we always prefer to focus on more constructive methods and will only move to legal means when obligated to do so by law, when necessary for the safety of the community and its participants, or when no other resolution seems possible.

Documentation of Grievances

The nature of the investigation will depend on the accusation, the evidence RBCC can obtain, and any safety concerns implied by the complaint, but its findings will be documented internally.

In most cases, these records will be kept confidential; if they must be shared, for instance due to request from the involved parties or for legal reasons, RBCC will endeavor to use redaction to preserve the confidentiality and safety of the involved parties as much as possible, consistent with their wishes.

Acknowledgements and Further Reading

Some aspects of the above are inspired by the grievance policy of Birds Connect Seattle.

Additional references and inspirations: