Support and Wellbeing Policy
Aims
The Support and Wellbeing Group exists to provide assistance to members with interpersonal conflicts and provide structured support to resolve these issues together. This policy has the following aims:
- Support members to live well together, maximising safety and wellbeing in the co-op
- Give members a way of responding to conflict which everyone can trust
- Build a system that is realistic to current capacity and the nature of volunteer led organising, with room to expand as capacity builds
- Empower the community to support the resolution of conflicts that have become stuck
Scope
What this policy is:
- An approach to addressing conflict where members are supported to speak and listen to each other, and have direct agency over the resolution of issues with each other
- Primarily this is through mutually authored and agreed shared agreements, which can then be monitored and revisited over time, with support from the working group
- Support and Wellbeing group members are well resourced to support members dialogue and sit alongside the process of reaching Shared Agreements
- The Support and Wellbeing group is committed to staying on everyone’s side in a conflict, they do not say who is right and who is wrong, but support everyone to be heard and to find a way forward together
- Members can access support when navigating conflict, such as offers of external counselling, shuttle mediation, and in cases of extreme harm short term accommodation off site
- The Support and Wellbeing group can assist with tools such as internal transfers, shuttle mediation, signposting to external support organisations and financial support to move so that conflicts can be addressed with appropriate solutions
- The process has clear boundaries and timeframes so that harmful situations do not get stuck or escalate
What backstop exists for when mutual resolution cannot be reached:
- Where members in conflict are struggling to make or keep to a Shared Agreement (including if one or more parties are not engaging in the conflict resolution process), and significant harm is happening, a highly structured Community Resolution Meeting can be held to remove membership and form an Action Plan in the absence of a full, mutually-agreed Shared Agreement
- Membership can be reinstated if the Action Plan is completed
What is outside the scope of internal support:
- This policy is not a full internal justice system, and is managed by volunteers who are offering support as part of their membership of the community
- Where a conflict in the co-op involves threats of or actual violence, any criminal behaviour, or any other behaviour that would generally be investigated by the police or other appropriate external agency, the Co-op recommends that members contact appropriate agencies directly. If desired the Support and Wellbeing group and/or staff can provide support in contacting external agencies
- In the case of an immediate or perceived threat to the safety of members or employees, the Support and Wellbeing group may contact external authorities directly
- The Support and Wellbeing process can operate alongside an external investigation, particularly with a view to supporting the safety and wellbeing of those involved, and in recognition that external justice systems are not quick nor do they provide justice for all. The key point is that the co-op cannot be expected to investigate a case of serious harm without external support, putting the onus entirely on member volunteers to dispense community justice
Resourcing
Responding to conflict well will require significant resources and support. The Co-op will need to find the balance of how much of this can come from within the community, and how much external conflict facilitation support is needed. This might fluctuate.
The Community
- Members adopt an approach to conflict and addressing issues with other members that is in line with this policy
- Members are willing to take seriously the role of stepping in and supporting a conflict to either transform it or to remove membership from those unwilling to change harmful behaviour
Support & Wellbeing group
- A Group of around 10 members (at least 50% women) with a minimum of 6 members at any one time. This means that everyone gets to step in and step back as their capacity allows, nobody is carrying the weight of the Co-op's conflicts on their own, and the group can support each other.
- For every situation, members of the Support & Wellbeing Group will work together in pairs, to have support throughout and be able to better support members.
- The group will listen to and support members. Their role is to stay on everyone's side. Of course, judgements and ideas will come up, but the role of Support & Wellbeing is to leave those to one side and actively be on each member's side. The group won't enforce rules or decide what should happen.
- As part of the Support & Wellbeing Group, members will receive training and regular ongoing support to build their capacity to accompany people in conflict, and explore any challenges as they come up.
External facilitators
- The co-op could have external facilitators to call on for situations that are very complex, painful, or beyond the capacity of the Support & Wellbeing Group at any time. These facilitators would follow the agreed system and bring extra resources for holding conflict
- One idea for bringing in extra capacity is that ASH could link up with another Housing Co-op and set up an exchange. Members of the other Co-op could attend the training for Support & Wellbeing and then support ASH in situations where it feels helpful to have someone external. Similarly, members of ASH Support & Wellbeing could support the other Co-op when conflict arises there that they would like external support with.
Financial resources
The Support and Wellbeing group is also allocated an annual budget that may be used in the following situations:
- Hiring spaces for Group Meetings to happen in.
- Hiring external facilitators
- Ongoing training and support for the Support & Wellbeing Group.
- Support-to-move-on money pot to help members to move on if they would like to and need help with a deposit. This could be something available as an option to those facing an NTQ. It is certainly much cheaper than pursuing an eviction through court
- Providing access to temporary accommodation in a void within the Co-op or outside of the Co-op, if needed. Usually, off site accommodation will be offered for a maximum of 3 weeks
Group Membership and Decision Making
Because part of the work of the group involves facilitating members in conflict, it has been agreed that members attend an introductory course on conflict facilitation before participating in that work for the group. Members can get involved in supporting the group with admin before training.
The group has no elected co-ordinators and is instead run as a flat structure. Membership of the group requires participation, and if group members miss several meetings in a row they may be asked to step back.
Group spending and emergency decisions are made by agreement of at least 3 members of the group. This is also to avoid members directly supporting a conflict making decisions about spending money to support the conflict without consulting another group member outside of the situation.
Process
Here is what to expect from the process and offer from the working group. For visual processing people, the flow diagram in appendix 1 may be more helpful for you.
Initial Conversation
Reach out to the Support & Wellbeing Group (or the office) when you need help with a conflict. Within 3 days of Support & Wellbeing receiving the request, you will have a chat with one or two members of the Support & Wellbeing Group and see together what support is needed.
Member
If you feel confident to address the matter yourself at this stage:
Facilitated Conversations
The Support & Wellbeing Group will have individual conversations with everyone involved, giving space for everyone to be heard, and will then organise a Group Meeting for people to hear each other and make Shared Agreements.
Within three weeks everyone in the conflict comes together for a Group Meeting, hosted by the Support & Wellbeing Group or an external facilitator. This is a structured conversation, which is tightly held so that everyone can actually hear what is important to each other. It is a space for understanding why things have happened as they have. The Group Meeting is also a decision-making space. Together members in conflict make Shared Agreements for transforming the situation.
With more understanding and connection to each other, the situation changes. After one month, the Support & Wellbeing Group will bring people together for a review meeting to see how the agreements are going, and whether anything needs to be heard or agreements upgraded -so that the change can last!
Community Resolution Meetings
In cases where members cannot reach a Shared Agreement together, or the Shared Agreement has been broken, the Support and Wellbeing Group can call for a Community Resolution Meeting if two conditions are met. These are:
- the conflict is ‘stuck’ i.e. the Group feels that the existing tools in the process have been exhausted, and need wider community action
- significant harm is happening, causing serious distress or disruption to one or more members
Community Resolution Meetings are a space for the whole community to consider the conflict, and support its transformation by removing membership (which triggers an 8 week NTQ) from those members who are causing harm, while also offering a clear action plan for them to change their behaviour and have their membership restored
Preparing for the meeting
- Members involved in conflict will have at least one months notice of a Community Resolution Meeting being held
- Support & Wellbeing will reach out to all members in conflict to support them presenting their needs and their requests for a Shared Agreement for the Agenda.
- Agendas for Community Resolution Meetings will be anonymous
- The Agenda will contain contributions from each member involved with their needs and their requests from a Shared Agreement to transform the conflict.
- Support and Wellbeing will provide a summary of their process of support so far, and where disagreements exist, may suggest text towards an Action Plan that considers everyone’s needs
- This can involve, if necessary, Support and Wellbeing holding confidential information regarding members needs that is inappropriate to disclose to the whole community (information regarding someone’s health for example)
What happens at the meeting
This is a space to listen to the impact of the harm and hear what terms of the Shared Agreement are not being met or which parts of the potential Agreement aren’t agreed on by the members in conflict.
Meeting Agendas will be anonymised, with members identity shared in the meeting itself. The Support and Wellbeing Group will have worked with members in conflict to have all necessary information ready for the meeting. Members may bring new relevant information to the meeting about their own circumstances or experience, but should not disclose new details about other members in the meeting
Community Resolution Meetings will be tightly facilitated, and members expected to follow the guidelines in the Meetings Conduct section of the Secretarial Policy
The meeting will decide which members need Action Plans (when significant harm is being done), and be presented with proposals towards forming an Action Plan which will cover a two-month period
The community will remove membership from any member given an Action Plan and an 8 week Notice to Quit will be issued. The Action Plan will outline what needs to happen for a member to remain living in the co-op after the two months After the Meeting
The Support and Wellbeing group will continue to provide support to members after the Community Resolution Meeting, to check in and support the action plans that were agreed
Any member who has had their membership removed as part of the Action Plan will need to have their membership reinstated at a meeting. Support and Wellbeing will check in throughout and towards the end of the 8 week period, and recommend restoring membership to a meeting if an action plan has been successful
The Coop will begin application to court for any members who have not been reinstated at the end of the 8 weeks
Policy review
This policy should be reviewed annually