WHAT IS CONSENT?
Give Only What's Appreciated, Take Only What's Offered.
At Nowhere, we are free to express ourselves, to share, to co-create, to be in the moment: but when our actions directly alter someone else’s experience, we need to get their consent.
As a community with diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and communication styles, it’s best to use clear verbal communication to make sure everyone’s boundaries are understood and respected.
Because respecting each other is a value held above any other within our community, and facts show that not everyone understands how to respect themself and others.
Because ANYTHING wonderful can be terrible if given without consent. This includes sex experiences, food, any form of touch, a picture taken… Even a cool spray of water!
Because what feels great for you right now could be exactly what another person does NOT want, or what you would not appreciate for yourself, in a different setting.
Because it is horrible to realize that what you gave with good intentions may have been experienced in pain. Just take the extra step and check.
We promise you will find people who want and appreciate what you have to offer, or want to offer what you want to receive.
Find them, talk with them, and have fun!
How Can You Find Them If You Don’t Ask?
Don’t settle for anything less than ”hell, yes!”
You deserve it!
The community may decide at some point to make it a principle. Ultimately, whether it is a principle or not doesn’t change the fact that we value consent and remain dedicated to creating an event in which everyone’s boundaries are respected.
If you’d like to learn more, we have a detailed wiki page with tips and additional resources: Dusty Consent Wiki
IF YOU EXPERIENCE A CONSENT VIOLATION AT NOWHERE...
On site:
In case of emergency:
A Nomad or anyone around can help
Welfare Enough is open 24/7 for confidential emotional support
Malfare is open 24/7 to assist with injuries, safety concerns, and interpersonal conflicts in confidentiality
And also:
The two Consent Violation Reporting Boxes are checked every day at 15:00-15:30. One is at Welfare Enough, and the other is in a Yellow Tent in the green freecamping zone.
The Safer Space is open each day, Tuesday to Sunday from 16:30 to 18:30. Trained volunteers are available to support you for as long as needed, even if you arrive at 18:29.
What is the Safer Space ?
The Safer Space is a secure cabin specifically designed for listening to you without being disturbed. In this environment we invite you to have a confidential support talk with a qualified volunteer (1).
Anybody who feels impacted after a consent breach (whatever it is, not only sexual or physical assaults) is very welcome to have a confidential chat in the Safer Space.
The Blue Hats are ready to welcome you in the Safer Space Welcome Zone next to Welfare Enough. They will greet you with a smile and invite you to walk together to the Safer Space.
(1) All volunteers involved in the Safer Space and Box project are experienced as good listeners (in some cases by their profession). All of them have signed a Written Agreement To Maintain Confidentiality.
In between events:
What are the Consent Committee priorities and goals ?
- Community Safety
- Nowhere Integrity
- Nowhere Values
- Clear Process
- Communication
- Confidentiality
The goal of a Consent Committee is NOT to determine guilt or innocence … but to define with both parties how to protect our community from any other reported breach of the Participant Code of Conduct and ensure the community’s ability to hold our events.
As of 2020, each report collected will be checked for eligibility, and may result in the opening of a Consent Committee session.
If eligible, the Consent Committee leads will select three of the nine Consent Committee Members to conduct the session. Only this team of three people will have access to the full details and identities of the individuals involved to determine an appropriate plan to protect our community from any additional reported breach of the Participant Code of Conduct and ensure the community’s ability to hold our events.
Eligibility criteria for reports to result in the opening of a Consent Committee session:
- The report is submitted directly by a participant impacted by a breach of the Participant Code of Conduct
- The event happened on site, at any other official Nowhere event, or on any official Nowhere social media or online space.
- The event happened between two or more participants in possession of tickets for the same Nowhere event.
- The reportee is identified.
Each situation is different, however when appropriate, our preferred result of a Consent Committee session, starting from a scale to qualify what happened, is to form an Participant Agreement, agreed upon by the Reporter(s) and Reportee(s), which enables the involved parties to feel safe and able to enjoy future Nowhere events.
One goal of creating an Participant Agreement is to give the Reportee(s) a fair opportunity to demonstrate to the community that they will make efforts to change their behavior moving forward to make sure no additional reports are issued about them.
Participant Agreements may include action points such as: avoiding certain areas or types of activities at Nowhere; restricting interaction between the parties involved; prohibition from taking specific volunteer or leadership roles at Nowhere; assigned reading materials; writing assignments; periodic check-ins by the Consent Committee Lead to ensure that reading and writing assignments are done.
Refusal by the Reportee(s) to participate in any steps of the Consent Committee session or a breach of the Agreement after signing it would result in a ban.
Any Nowhere Participants may report any incident in which another participant is behaving in an abusive, intimidating, threatening, or unsafe manner and consequently questioning the initial commitment to respect the Participant Code of Conduct which all participants agree to when purchasing a Nowhere ticket.
Incidents can be reported any time of year, at the event or afterward:
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However any participants who submit a report through this email or interpersonal contact with NOrg between events will be invited to complete a Consent Incident Report Form to ensure that the information shared with the Consent Committee is in the Reporter’s own words.
All reports submitted will be used to help us keep track of patterns of behavior and issues on site (a statistical summary of reports is published each year), and will be kept in case it is useful in connection with a later report.
Additionally, a report would trigger a Consent Committee Session if it is:
- Within the scope of the Participant Code of Conduct
- The event happened on site, at any other official Nowhere event, or on any official Nowhere social media or online space.
- The event happened between two or more participants in possession of tickets for the same Nowhere event.
- Submitted by the participant directly impacted by the events described
- Able to identify the reportee
Any new events that take place on site, and confirmed directly by the person(s) impacted, would be considered a breach of the Agreement and would call a new Consent Committee session that may result in the Consent Committee recommending a definitive ban of the Reportee(s), depending on what was defined in the agreement within the duration of the agreement (usually over the course of several editions of Nowhere).
Under the recommendation of this new Consent Committee session, the Directors may issue an official ban letter if a prospective participant continues engaging in harmful behavior after having agreed to an Participant Agreement.
The Consent Committee reserves the right to also propose the following actions if necessary:
- Involve local law enforcement.
- Communicate with other Burns (under the condition they have set a similar Consent breach management project and have signed a confidentiality agreement) the name of the reportee, Consent Scale rating.
The Consent Committee is at the step to be launched, starting by a call for Members ( followed by some mutual trainings) and will be ready to deal with the Nowhere 2020 requests and open a session for those for which the reporter is asking for it..
They are Nowhere community members who volunteered to take part in this important challenge with us by serving for a (almost) year-long term as Consent Committee Members.
The Consent Committee Members must sign a confidentiality agreement. This role is only active between events; the Consent Committee members do not have any responsibilities during Nowhere.
8 community members are selected each autumn for this non-event time volunteer role.
The applicants and solicited candidates are assessed based on certain criteria, such as:
- Significant volunteering/professional experience in managing consent-related events
- Significant Burn/Nowhere experience (participated in at least 2 Nowheres minimum)
- No report has been received about them of a consent violation on site