Principles for a Safer Space

Safer Space is Built with Conscious Actions

Safer space is a constantly changing and developing concept. A safer space can be upheld, fixed, and renewed with the help of jointly agreed guidelines.

Safer and more equal space makes you feel heard, seen, connected, understood and safe. Safer space is conscious actions and creating one means you have to constantly co-operate with others to maintain and develop the space according to the guidelines of this chapter. In a safer space, everyone commits to maintaining the space and making necessary adjustments in order to create one.

Guidelines are always created based on the needs and backgrounds of each community, and in an ideal situation, they are created together with the participants and the organisers. It is important to discuss as well as to agree on the principles for a safer space together with the participants and the organisers, if the organised activities are recurring or the co-operation is to be continued for a longer period of time. The guidelines of this manual should not be directly copy-pasted into use as guidelines should always be created on the basis of the shared desire, understanding and decision to create a safer space. You can start approaching the creation of safer space guidelines by asking the following questions:

What is permitted in a conversation/communication with others?
What is not allowed?
What makes me feel safe?
What makes others feel safe?
How can I figure this out?
What does this require from my end when it comes my behaviour, words I use, listening skills, and learning?

You can access the different sections of this chapter by clicking their headers.

1. A Safer Space Takes Everyone’s Needs into Account

A safer space is a supportive and safe environment that encourages open-mindedness, respect, a willingness to learn from others as well as physical, mental, and social safety.

In a safer space, the power structures and privileges affecting our everyday lives are consciously considered. Safer space emphasises how big of an importance our different backgrounds have in how our behaviour affects others. It pays attention to norms and the principles as well as the requirements for the feeling of safety. A safer space extends the terms of participation of different activities so that everyone knows they are welcome to join.

The principles for a safer space help us to make our values visible. If inclusivity and diversity or positive special treatment, for instance, are part of the community’s values, the principles for a safer space facilitate the community to strengthen these values and ensure they are upheld.

The principles and guidelines of a safer space need to be explicit, and a group agreement can complement them. In this chapter, the requirements for the creation of a safer space, how you can take safer space into account already in the planning process as well as practices for fixing and maintaining a safer space are discussed. A safer space is built piece by piece over time and in this chapter, we will show you how you can get started.

References: Tackling Discrimination, My Learning Diary. Section 3.3. Safer Spaces. Written by Tadeja Pirih.

2. What Is a Safer Space

The purpose of a safer space is to take everyone’s backgrounds into account, not just the assumed backgrounds, the ones complying with the norms. The purpose of these jointly agreed procedures is to make participating into discussions and activities easier and safer for also those who do not usually feel welcome or safe enough to even consider participating.

We use the term “safer” instead of “safe”, as safety of a space is something that needs to be constantly maintained. No space is safe in absolute terms and safety is not something that you can decide on beforehand. Safer space is built with conscious actions, it is not just a matter of decision.

Safer space puts the goals and wishes of the jointly agreed operational culture into words and actions. It is not just a collection of individual rules on allowed and forbidden topics of discussion. It is the community that creates the rules and boundaries of discussion. The goal of a safer space can, for example, be to take other’s safety and respectful language into account. This can be achieved by avoiding discriminatory language and quitting the use of discriminatory expressions once they are identified or pointed out, for instance.

We have created safer space guidelines (in Finnish) that we use in our organisation’s events. You can explore these guidelines and consider how you could utilise them within your own community.

The first point of these guidelines is:

We are aware of the assumptions we make about people’s gender, age, disabilities, profession, language background, religion, sexuality, health, and nationality, but we do not base our behaviour on these assumptions. We do not make any assumptions about each other’s ability to function, or background based on appearance, actions, or behaviour either.

We make assumptions and the attitudes, values, the entire way our society works and who are seen in its different roles teaches us to do so. Who can start political discussions or organise events, who can be a teacher, a journalist, a doctor, or a lawyer? In a safer space, it is necessary to acknowledge that we all make assumptions and that we can fix our own behaviour once its problematicness is noticed by the person themself or by others.

The safer space guidelines engage everyone to commit to being responsible for adjusting one’s attitudes and aiming to act as kindly as possible.

The guidelines we have gathered also include the following:

We ask why someone is acting and behaving in a certain way before making any assumptions.
We do not cause disturbances to others or criticise, harass, embarrass, or bully each other. We will prevent this and intervene if we see this happening.

This also means that if a person does not commit to this process, they are not welcome to participate and in the worst-case scenario, they can be removed from the event. One’s preferences and desire to use certain type of language cannot supersede other’s right to remain unhurt. If one consciously refuses to correct the racist or ableist dysphemisms they have used or chooses to aim them at other members of the group, they do not commit to the point mentioned above. Safer space rules promise the participant, who encounters derogatory behaviour in their everyday life in the form of microaggressions, for instance, that these types of situations will be intervened in and fixed.

Think of the following questions: What makes you say “Yes, I can” when receiving feedback?

What type of issues dare you bring up in the presence of other participants and what type of issues not? Why or why not?
What type of issues dare you bring up to the attention of the organiser? Why or why not?
How do you know you have been listened to?
How do you know you are listening?
How do you know you are being listened to before you grant your wish, give feedback, or present your needs?
How do you know you have been listened to after you have granted your wish, given feedback, or presented your needs?

How to Discuss and Bring up Issues?

The existence of a safer space cannot be one-sidedly declared without discussing it first, but you can give outlines for creating it. In larger public events, the safer space guidelines can be brought to everyone’s attention in the invitation or on the web page, and you should ask the participants kindly to check them out beforehand. Commitment to these guidelines can be set as a prerequisite for attending the event.

The principles for a safer space are discussed at the start of the event by, for example, going through each point or reminding where to find the guidelines and who to contact if behaviour that is not in line with the guidelines is encountered, whether you were the victim or witness of such behaviour. In the first section of this chapter, it was already stated that the principles and guidelines of safer space must be created within the community. This is the desired state of things. Some basic principles, however, can be considered defaults, such as everyone’s right to physical, mental, and social safety as well as the obedience of law.

Deploying and reviewing safer space guidelines does not by itself mean that there would be a suspicion of discrimination, harassment or bullying taking place in the space. The guidelines are there to ensure that if something like this were to happen, the participants as well as the organiser care about the other members or participants of the event so much that they have spent time thinking about how to take care of everyone. Deploying the safer space guidelines and going through them with everyone is the organiser’s way of being responsible for everyone’s wellbeing.

From time to time, there are media statements stating that racism is a topic that should not be talked about. There, however, is a difference between racist discussion filled with discriminatory expressions and assumptions and a discussion about racism as a phenomenon and taking care of everyone’s ability to carry on in panel discussions, for example. Everyone has a right to leave a situation where their boundaries are crossed or which creates mental or physical pain, for example.

Although the safer space principles say that one must leave a situation like this to take care of themselves, it must not be the primary solution or operating model. Proceeding this way excludes people from activities and discussions and prevents them to effect on matters concerning themselves. The safer space is hence already broken or does not even exist.

Additionally, those who do not see there is a problem to be involved in discussions about certain topics or do not feel the topic or discriminatory speech (or examples of it) to be burdening, are most likely in social positions in which they are not actively discriminated because of these topics. Participants should be warned about the use of discriminatory statements as examples* so that everyone can prepare themselves for it mentally, feel that they are being taken into account or to ask postponing the discussion, or to feel like they can leave the event momentarily (from the audience, for instance).

The purpose of a safer space is to take everyone’s backgrounds into account, not just the assumed backgrounds, the ones complying with the norms. The purpose of these jointly agreed procedures is to make participating into discussions and other activities easier and safer for also those who do not usually feel welcome or safe enough to even consider participating.

Here, fitting the norms means that you do not have to think about your skin colour, religion, weight, functional abilities, disabilities, language skills, sexuality, or gender when you are attending an event. When you fit the norms, you do not have to think about your diet or allergies either. The world works in these people’s favour and fits their needs by default while others can only guess how easy, safe, and possible it is for some to attend an event or how easy it is to respond with a “Yes, I will definitely come” to an event invitation, for example.

Let’s take a simple example: Plant-based food is slowly becoming a norm in many events. This ensures that vegetarians do not need to ensure that they have enough time to eat before the event or ask the organisers to take their diet separately into account. This way vegetarians also have a lower threshold to attend and get excited about events without unnecessary worries.

Agreeing on and deploying safer space principles means that those who already have a low threshold to attend, thanks to norms, get to also learn how to be a good ally. Being an ally is a process too. Tackling Discrimination, My Learning Diary’s section 3.4 [PDF] covers this topic really well, for example. When you are learning about good allyship, you should especially listen to those whose ally you want to be.

The next section will cover group agreement and how it should be created when planning an event or activity. In practice, this covers the issues the group wants to include in the safer space guidelines and how the group will uphold these practices.

*This is known as a trigger warning as well. Other examples of trigger warnings: graphic or verbal description of physical violence, mention or description of sexual violence, war footage or discussion of hate crimes against different minorities.

References: Tackling Discrimination, My Learning Diary sections 3.3 and 3.4 written by Tadeja Pirih and section 3.5 written by Eeva-Liisa Kiiskilä and Tadeja Pirih have been used as references in the sections about allyship and norms.

3. Group Agreement and Online Group Working

Creating a safer space is all about a shared process; the principles are not given from some kind of a higher level, but they are agreed on within the group. The process of creating a safer space can be started by asking the group what they need in order to feel safe, to learn, to participate and to feel appreciated. Based on their answers, you can discuss how you want to share the space where you are supposed to grow, learn and understand together with the group.

What is a group agreement?
What are the different steps of group agreement?
What makes a group?
What should be considered when the group is attending an online event?

Firstly, the following statement should be stated loud and clear: “This is a safer space.” Allocate enough time for discussion before starting the actual activities. Tell the participants that in this space, you will mutually agree on certain type of behaviour and rules by making a group agreement, for instance.

Making a group agreement can be used as an introductory activity in any group process and it works well as a grouping method for several types of groups. Group agreement is always based on each group member’s needs.

You can also go back to the questions of sections one and two together as a group.

The Steps of a Group Agreement

Step 1

Explain why making a group agreement is important for the sake of group dynamics and the feeling of safety as well as for everyone to be able to fully participate.

Step 2

Ask the group members to think of the following questions by themselves and to write their answers down on post-it notes (one answer per note):

What do you need to be able to participate/learn well?
When do you feel you are being respected
What do you need to be able to feel that you are an equal part of the group?

Step 3

The group leader collects the answers, reads them aloud and groups similar answers under one theme. Under each theme, ask the following question: “How can we all try to fulfil these needs?”

Step 4

Next, together with the group, create a group agreement with a list of all the needs mentioned. Add a few of the most important principles for a safer space to the agreement, if needed.

Step 5

Finally, read the group agreement aloud and check if anyone wants to add or edit something in it. If everyone is content with the agreement, it will become a shared promise of that specific space that everyone should respect. Do also mention that points can always be added to the agreement if mutually decided so, and the agreement can always be referred to. Everyone signs the agreement, making it symbolically official.

Tips:

The group agreement should always be placed on a visible spot in the group space where it is accessible to everyone.
When a new member enters the group, the group is regrouped and the process needs to be repeated, i.e. a new agreement should be made.
If you are working with the same group for a while, you should refer to the agreement regularly.
This exercise should be done sitting in a circle so that everyone can see each other.
It is important to acknowledge that creating and upholding a safer space is a process that requires more than just going through this exercise. It requires constant work and commitment. This exercise can be used to support this process.

Online Group Working and the Main Principles for a Group Agreement

Groups, communities, and group situations are created online too. It is vital to respect everyone’s boundaries and take everyone’s feeling of safety and different ways of communicating, getting heard and ways of participating into discussion into account when working online as well.

In the organisation process of an online event, the organiser should consider and ask or inform about the following points:

Requirements and expectations for participation:
- Microphone practices
- How you should communicate (in text format, over a microphone, direct message to the organiser)?
- The ways of asking for a turn to speak, who is in charge of granting one? 
Visibility settings:
- Can cameras be turned on/off?
- What should the display name be like?
Recordings and privacy:
- Is taking pictures and screenshots allowed?
- Will slides be shared later or will there be a follow-up email?
- Saving participant data and chat history: who saves and reviews this data, where it will be saved to and for how long will the data be retained?
Assumptions and interactive situations:
- The data we have on other participants is even more limited and restricted online compared to when we are meeting face to face. That is why it is especially important that we do not make any assumptions or act based on the limited information we have on someone’s background or functional abilities. 
Ensure the effectiveness of feedback channels:
- Contact information and instructions for using feedback channels should be shared right away at the start of the event. The contact information of harassment contact person should also be shared.
- If anyone falls of the grid or if the event takes longer than expected, there is a possibility that not everyone gets the info. You can also utilise pinned messages in chat or profile views, for example, to communicate this information to all the participants.

Please bear in mind the importance of online accessibility as well. This topic is further discussed in the next chapter, Accessibility in Mind, of this guide. In online events, there may be a possibility to only communicate via text or provide the material for a screen reader beforehand, if there are presentations to be held at the event. Remember that offering a recording afterwards is not a way of inclusion.

The next section focuses on what to do when the safer space gets (momentarily) broken or when the practices need to be re-evaluated and updated. What to do when something happens? What does it mean to consider participants’ position and physical and emotional stress management? How to give and receive feedback?

4. Maintaining and Fixing a Safer Space

We all want everyone to feel connected, heard, and safe. We take responsibility for our mistakes and want to constantly learn how to make a space even better with all the methods we have not yet learned.

How can one learn to act in new ways and to keep an open mind for new questions? You have now discussed what makes everyone feel safe, confident, and heard with the guidelines of the previous section. The space has been announced to be a safer space and the group agreement has been amended or gone through.

We will now set clear goals for things we see lacking and think of ways to develop them in practice. Later on in this section, we will go through different practices we can deploy so that we can continue developing or upholding a safer space.

Wish 1: The ones using less turns to speak wish they would have easier time finding a spot to speak their mind.
- Recommended solution: Let’s practice listening and giving space to others and using the popcorn method (the participants get to choose when they want to speak instead of sticking to a predefined order of turns). Alternatively, you can also practise asking kindly for a permission to speak while giving space to others. We should not demand or choose when the quieter participants should say something, but instead as organisers of the event lead the discussion more clearly.

Wish 2: Everyone should be on time.
- Recommended solution: Everyone should naturally aim to be on time, but if something that delays one’s arrival happens, we should agree on how one should act. Should you arrive during a break or quietly enter the space and proceed to the back of the space? Additionally, who should you inform about showing up late? Agreeing on these practices prevents no-shows due to being late as a consequence of public transportation issues, for example.
Wish 3: Names should be pronounced and inflected correctly.
- Recommended solution: Let’s give everyone a permission to correct the wrong spelling or pronunciation of their name. Although it would be okay to some to have their name pronounced incorrectly, let’s not slip of the practice to learn how to correctly pronounce everyone’s name.
- Please note that even if someone has been used to their name being pronounced incorrectly by mistake or intentionally their whole life, it does not mean that this person does not have the right to be called by their correct name. The group aims to ensure everyone’s right to be called by their correct name and kind feedback is always welcome. Pronouncing names correctly applies to group leaders and other participants as well. Others can correct the incorrect pronunciation even when the person whose name is being pronounced incorrectly is not present.
Wish 4: Let’s encounter young people as individuals, not as representatives of their groups.
- Recommended solution: Let’s call people by their own names and let’s refer to them as they wish they would be referred to. Let’s not emphasize anyone’s nationality, background, religion et cetera unless they specifically wish so.
- Creating safe encounters is important for all young people. However, it is especially important for those young people who have to encounter discrimination and fear of discrimination in their lives. Racist discrimination and social exclusion experiences are common within young people belonging to minorities. Young person belonging to a minority often has to consider if they have the courage to participate in a new type of activity and how will they be treated and encountered there. Young people belonging in visible minorities also encounter more prejudices and are encountered as “the representatives of their group” and not as individuals. Youth workers and other educational professionals have an especially significant role in strengthening the identities of these young people and as creators of safe and equal encounters.

As an organiser or a leader, you must be consistent and obey the agreement and rules too. Some ways of maintaining a sustained feedback culture at the workplace are discussed below.

Reference: Antirasimi nuorisotyössä – opas nuorisoalalle, written by Hanna Mithiku, The Peace Education Institute, 2023, p. 51.

Our constant message in a safer space is that we all want everyone to feel connected, heard, and safe. We take responsibility for our mistakes and want to constantly learn how to make a space even better with all the methods we have not yet learned.

What needs do you have? What kind of feelings does it evoke if these needs are not fulfilled?
Do you bring up small insights or just the larger ones into discussion? What does it feel like?
What does it feel like to succeed? Do you want to hear others telling you that you have succeeded? Why?
What does it feel like to fail? Do you want to hear others telling you that you have failed? Why?
Do you know the practices that are already working? What if this changes, how can you find out about it?
Do you feel changes can be made? What are these things?

Receiving Feedback

Giving feedback is putting the current situation into words. It can include insights and suggestions to act in a different way or it can be used as a tool to put the feelings related to being connected, heard and able to participate into activities into words. Constructively received feedback can be used to repeat, fix, and strengthen the safer environment over time. Giving and receiving feedback should have their specific allocated time slots so that both the organisers and participants know that feedback is welcome.

In big, public events especially, the sign of successful deployment of safer space guidelines is that the target audience arrived at the event is larger than before and that there is no feedback concerning behaviour that is against the guidelines. Sometimes the lack of feedback, however, can be a sign of the target audience not changing and that there has been nothing in the space that would not fit the participants’ needs by default already.

The organisers will not receive any feedback about the building being non-accessible, for example, if the person who needs it to be accessible has not been able to attend the event in the first place. In these types of cases, it is important to listen the feedback given via social media, for instance, and to solve the issues causing problems for those who have not been present or those who have had to leave before the feedback has been collected.

This manual mentions that safer space is all about conscious actions and practices. It is a constant process. Safer space is not a production-ready solution, the organisers are also part of its creation. Safer space is built on the basis of backgrounds of the community members, and this refers to work communities and organisers as well. Power-structure-wise, the organisers are above the participants, which also gives them responsibility for supporting other’s wellbeing and intervening in situations.

Instructions for Organisers:

If something needs to be developed or if something goes wrong (needs, adjustment, or communication-wise), admit that it has happened. Admit it to yourself and to other organisers and inform the participants, who it affects, about it. If there is a person who is considering participating and contacts you about necessary adjustments, which cannot be made, tell them that these adjustments cannot be made this time but will definitely be made for the next event or that you will take a look into the issue and give a deadline for the decision. Alternatively, you can give this person a reason why you cannot take their points into consideration, if it has to do with setting up devices of some sort, for instance.

If Something Goes Wrong or If You Intervene in a Situation:

Please bear in mind that privileges affect if we feel that something hurts us or what kind of feelings we assume it will evoke. Take time for your own feelings and unpleasant experiences too and process these feelings.
We all wish to achieve our shared goals and usually people want to do their own and joint part as well as they can. If this is not the case, would it be possible that tasks and workload are unequally distributed, which in turn has caused motivation to die?
Validate the reaction. This applies to working life too, as we cannot hide our identities or features at work neither.
Take time to deal and process the issues, if needed. You can always go back to addressing the feedback if you have something to add. You can also agree together when you feel like the issue has been fully addressed.
Make sure that addressing feedback can take up as much time as needed; no one should be forced to act or share their thoughts immediately.
Remember to keep practical solutions at hand.
On an agreed time slot, put it into words why this situation took place, why it was possible to happen and how one can prevent it from happening again.
Provide the participants a chance to talk about the issue with someone who has not been involved in the situation. Do not offer it as an only solution, however.
Is there still something I need to learn what I have not had time for before, or what I have not been able or given a chance to learn yet? Give others and yourself too a chance to learn.

Trusting Issues will be Fixed and Taking Responsibility of Other’s Wellbeing

Maintaining a constant environment of trust creates established practices in many ways. In this chapter, we already discussed what creating a safer space requires and here are a few suggestions on how to turn principles for a safer space into permanent practices. Communication and upholding the feeling of trust with equal measures have big roles in this. It helps if everyone is aware of the safer space and what it means and if everyone can ask about it when they enter the group or the space. Agreeing on the feedback methods at the early stages is also important in regard to upholding a safe space.

You can try some of the following ways of creating a permanently safer space:

If the group expands with a new employee or a member, introduce them to the principles for the safer space as well as the group agreement. Give them a chance to ask questions about it (practical ones too).
When the safer space is being adjusted, remind all the members that safer space is a process and the need for adjustments does not mean that the group has failed, but that it now has an opportunity to learn and adjust individuals’ own actions.
Identify individual needs, for example, in communication, schedules, transitions and sensory environments.
Draw more attention to the quieter ones. Ask, in a sensitive way, if they would like to take more part or participate in a different way or if they need more support or if they would simply like to be the quieter members of the group.
Be ready to adjust the guidelines and re-evaluate them with the group.

If Something Bad Happens or the Safer Space Is Invaded:

Try to understand the reason behind this.
Admit that something bad indeed happened and that the space is not safe (as safe as it should be) at the moment. Do not ignore the happened issue.
Check how everyone is feeling.
When the issue is being solved, make sure that one member’s need for contact and discussion do not supersede other member’s needs when it comes to emotion regulation, time needed or boundaries.
Make sure that there is a possibility to take more time to solve the issue later on. Give everyone a chance to exit the space if they want to.
Try to make sure that no one is being hurt (more than they already have been).
If there is a person or a group of people guilty for breaking the safer space, have a separate discussion with them and make sure that they understand the consequences of their actions as well as their own and others’ needs.
Agree on the practices for handling challenging situations well beforehand with other organisers. Agree on what to do and how to process possible feedback or if any of the participants does not feel safe (anymore).
Make sure that the participants as well as you as the person responsible have a chance to discuss about the issue outside the situation and the group and to get support.

Utilise restorative practices, i.e. practices that aim to repair the situation, in especially challenging situations. These also include different dialogue methods, problem solving methods, empathic listening, and trust-repair exercises. Give the activity in question a chance to repair the happened too.

Encourage the one who has made the mistake to learn from their mistake, but do not push the responsibility to the person hurt or harassed. Instead, instruct the person who has made the mistake to learn from other resources, such as web pages or literary sources, or alternatively, discuss with this person on a specified time slot.

The next chapter focuses on accessibility and taking it into account from the early stages of planning onwards. As many of you working as event planners know that before the first meeting or the first email concerning an event, there are multiple planning steps, years of experience of similar events and a lot of discussions required. The next chapter will guide you into how to take accessibility into account from the early stages onwards. While you read the next chapter, keep in mind the things we have talked about in this chapter about safer spaces facilitating the maintenance of your values and putting them into practice. Please also bear in mind the answers to the questions regarding how to know people are being heard and connected with their needs and feelings.

Reference: Tackling Discrimination, My Learning Diary. Section 3.5, p. 163–174. Written by Tadeja Pirih and Eeva-Liisa Kiiskinen.

References

Antirasimi nuorisotyössä – opas nuorisoalalle, The Peace Education Institute, 2023.
Tackling Discrimination, My Learning Diary [PDF] sections 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5.
Transforming Hate in Youth Settings [PDF]. An Educational Tool and Practice Manual for Those Working with Young People, The Peace Education Institute, 2018.
Transfroming Hate in Youth Settings. Practical Toolkit [PDF].