Safer & Brave Spaces

CKXU 88.3 FM (CKXU) is committed to maintaining a safer and brave space for all individuals who contribute, participate, or who are involved with the station including staff, volunteers, members, listeners, and general supporters.

For the station, this means that we strive to maintain a harassment-free and supportive environment where everyone has the right to feel comfortable, free, in possession of their own privacy, and included regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, age, language, body size, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, socioeconomic standing, or otherwise. The organization and staff will make every effort to validate, respect, and accommodate reasonable requests received in relation to these values.

These values contribute to CKXU’s dedication to maintaining a space that will not contribute to the erasure of any identity or expression, and will actively provide a space and attitude that seeks to enthusiastically support and accommodate any person with any identity or needs, within reason. Our organization will treat every individual with respect, dignity, and an approach that recognizes their identity, if they would like that identity to be recognized.

CKXU strives to be actively engaged and present in the feedback process and ongoing development of our approaches. In doing so, we aim to cultivate and maintain an environment where all individuals can feel safe, considered, and free to communicate their needs, knowing they will be heard, taken seriously, and will not face judgement. CKXU is also dedicated to ongoing training and education opportunities that further organizational knowledge and understanding of safe, inclusive and trauma informed practices, active bystander techniques, responding to disclosures, active listening, and consensus-based decision making. If you have or know of training that would further benefit our organization, please feel free to share these resources via email to [email protected].

Accessibility

CKXU encourages and promotes the use of open and accessible language and actively works to avoid excluding others from understanding, or deliberately obscuring what is being said to hide meaning.

If you have a disability, you can submit requests relating to accessibility to our Operations Director, at [email protected]. This can be done anonymously via the in-station mailbox, and is also included in the volunteer intake process.

When discussing potentially triggering or deeply personal questions surrounding topics such as mental illness, sexual violence, personal identity, etc. CKXU encourages all individuals to preface and ask for consent prior to starting a discussion. This can be done by simply asking “Is it okay if I talk about this?” or “Would you feel comfortable if we discussed X topic?”. If the answer is not an enthusiastic yes, we ask that the topic is not further discussed or pushed. As an organization, consent is of high importance in our operations and interactions with volunteers, members, supporters, listeners, and other involved individuals. In return, we ask the same for our staff and board.

Pronouns

A pronoun is how you refer to someone, for example “she,” “he,” or “they.” CKXU staff will never assume the gender identity of any person and will always confirm pronouns with volunteers, members, partners, or any other individual involved with the organization. During your volunteer intake process, you will be asked your pronouns. This information will be shared with the organization’s staff to ensure correct pronouns are used in any interactions.

Additional Resources: • Pronouns Matter • Understanding Gender • Practice with Pronouns

Pronouns

A pronoun is how you refer to someone, for example “she,” “he,” or “they.” CKXU staff will never assume the gender identity of any person and will always confirm pronouns with volunteers, members, partners, or any other individual involved with the organization. During your volunteer intake process, you will be asked your pronouns. This information will be shared with the organization’s staff to ensure correct pronouns are used in any interactions.

Additional Resources:

• Pronouns Matter

• Understanding Gender

• Practice with Pronouns

Reporting an Occurrence

CKXU believes all individuals who come forward with a notice of an occurrence and does not tolerate abusive or discriminatory behaviour. The organization’s Governance and Human Resources-2 (HR-2) Committees have worked hard to develop and maintain a policy and reporting process that is equitable, simple to follow, and based in trauma-informed practices.

Reports can be submitted anonymously, and can be reported verbally or in written form to any of the following:

• HR-2 Committee at [email protected]

• Dami Idowu, Board President at [email protected]

• Genna Bourchier, Executive Director at [email protected] or 403-329-5189

• By physical notice via Station Dropbox. The mailbox is located on the Executive Director’s door in the University of Lethbridge’s Students Union Building, Level 1 – Room SU-162 and is checked multiple times a week

• For Programming-Related Reports, please contact Mike Doherty, Program Director at [email protected]

Once the Occurrence has been reported, the following steps will be taken:

1. Within 48hrs of receiving the report, any individual(s) who are implicated and/or responsible for the occurrence will receive a Letter of Warning from the organization. This letter will include disciplinary action, including barring access to the organization’s spaces, privileges, and events while the report is being reviewed
2. Within 72hrs of receiving the report, the individual(s) who submitted the report and/or who are the object of the occurrence will be contacted by a CKXU Representative to book a meeting with the HR-2 Committee. This meeting should take place within 1 week of receiving the report

From here, there are 3 potential options to assist in finding a resolution and building recommendations moving forward:

NEGOTIATED RESOLUTION

The first meeting after the report has been received is considered a Negotiated Resolution. The goal is to determine whether the occurrence falls into the official definitions of harassment/violence, review the occurrence, clarify details, and discuss the steps involved to reach resolution from the perspective of the individual who has experienced harm. This can include continuing negotiated resolutions, or moving into Conciliation or Investigation.

CONCILIATION

In order to move into conciliation, all involved parties must agree to engage in conciliation, and must collectively establish who will be facilitating. The Facilitator will meet with both parties separately and together to assist in finding a resolution.

INVESTIGATION

An investigation may be requested at any time during the resolution process. The individual who has experienced harm must inform the HR-2 Committee of this decision. From there, a notice of investigation will be sent to all individuals involved, and 2-3 HR-2 Committee Representatives will be selected to proceed with the investigation.

The HR-2 Committee Representatives will investigate the occurrence and put together a report outlining a general description of the occurrence, the investigation’s conclusions, their recommendations pertaining to the support and actions identified by the individual who experienced harm to comfortably and safely move forward from the occurrence, and any recommendations to eliminate or minimize the risk of a similar occurrence in the future.

A copy of the Investigation Report will be provided to all involved individuals – the report will not reveal, directly or indirectly, the identity of the persons who were involved in the occurrence or the resolution process. The Executive Director and HR-2 Committee will meet to develop a timeline and action plan to implement any recommendations made in the Investigation Report.