The Youth Activism Gathering (YAG) is a yearly, youth organized, youth centered gathering with a mission to provide an affirming and supportive environment for young activists and/or aspiring activists to build community, and explore issues and topics that feel important to them. We share tools to help create active, informed activists and organizers within our communities. The YAG is dedicated to being an affirming and supportive space for all people, regardless of race, class, gender, age, ability status, sex, sexual orientation, religion, body-type, ethnicity, etc.
Please see our Safer Spaces Community Agreements below!
Please see our Safer Spaces Community Agreements below!
SAFER SPACES COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS
We recognize that our various identities can make finding spaces that feel safe difficult and that our various privileges can get in the way of fostering open and engaging communities and events, and for this reason we ask people to agree to our Shared Spaces Community Agreements:
1. Take Space, Make Space
If you are someone who is shy, try to challenge yourself to share your thoughts. If you are someone who has a tendency to talk a lot, try to challenge yourself to leave enough time for others to share
2. Confidentiality
We need to trust that what we share with each other will not be shared with others. It's okay to share lessons you've learned, but it's not okay to share stories that are not yours to share.
3. No racist, transphobic, homophobic, ableist, sexist, or other oppressive language allowed
This is non-negotiable. This needs to be a safe space for all. If you start sharing thoughts that are causing harm to other participants you may be asked to leave the YAG.
4. The Platinum Rule
Treat others as they want to be treated
5. Impact Over Intent
If someone says they are being harmed, we agree to stop what is causing harm and center those feelings over the intent of the action that caused harm.
6. Take Care Of Ourselves
We will honor our needs. If we need to step away, eat/drink, take a nap, etc., we will feel okay to take this care
7. Silence is okay, it helps us process!
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The YAG is a space in which we both try to organize for the world we would like to live in and model ways of interacting that we’d like to see in that world. We acknowledge that there are specific forms of oppression in the form of institutional discrimination and violence woven into our society that target people based on their race, class, sex, age, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion, survivor status, physical and/or mental abilities, immigration status, etc. Between individuals, these oppressions can take the form of harassment, exclusion, unwelcome questioning about someone’s identity (i.e. “what are you?”) and violence. Our aim is to minimize these harms to the best of our ability by aking participants to agree to engage in the above community agreements.
Below, please find values that guide us:
Respect and Consent
Accountability and Reconciliation Practices
Attitude of Self-Education
Accessibility
Sobriety
We recognize that our various identities can make finding spaces that feel safe difficult and that our various privileges can get in the way of fostering open and engaging communities and events, and for this reason we ask people to agree to our Shared Spaces Community Agreements:
1. Take Space, Make Space
If you are someone who is shy, try to challenge yourself to share your thoughts. If you are someone who has a tendency to talk a lot, try to challenge yourself to leave enough time for others to share
2. Confidentiality
We need to trust that what we share with each other will not be shared with others. It's okay to share lessons you've learned, but it's not okay to share stories that are not yours to share.
3. No racist, transphobic, homophobic, ableist, sexist, or other oppressive language allowed
This is non-negotiable. This needs to be a safe space for all. If you start sharing thoughts that are causing harm to other participants you may be asked to leave the YAG.
4. The Platinum Rule
Treat others as they want to be treated
5. Impact Over Intent
If someone says they are being harmed, we agree to stop what is causing harm and center those feelings over the intent of the action that caused harm.
6. Take Care Of Ourselves
We will honor our needs. If we need to step away, eat/drink, take a nap, etc., we will feel okay to take this care
7. Silence is okay, it helps us process!
************************************************************************************
The YAG is a space in which we both try to organize for the world we would like to live in and model ways of interacting that we’d like to see in that world. We acknowledge that there are specific forms of oppression in the form of institutional discrimination and violence woven into our society that target people based on their race, class, sex, age, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion, survivor status, physical and/or mental abilities, immigration status, etc. Between individuals, these oppressions can take the form of harassment, exclusion, unwelcome questioning about someone’s identity (i.e. “what are you?”) and violence. Our aim is to minimize these harms to the best of our ability by aking participants to agree to engage in the above community agreements.
Below, please find values that guide us:
Respect and Consent
- Respect the autonomy, needs, identities, and experiences of others
- Allow room for impacted perspectives on oppressions you do not hold
- Respect and support when somebody must disengage from a situation, even if silently
- Correct exclusionary language: When your words hurt someone, listen and try to understand why; especially when it surprises you
- Honoring boundaries; boundaries may change. Ask for consent every time before physical contact, emotional labor, and taking photos.
- Practice enthusiastic consent (the absence of a "no" does not mean the presence of a "yes")
- Actively listen when someone expresses a lived experience of marginalization, oppression, or hate
- Personal sharing should be met with validation and confidentiality - lessons learned can be shared, but exact stories cannot be.
- Respect when someone does not want to reveal information about themselves or others.
Accountability and Reconciliation Practices
- Be mindful, honest, and accountable for your actions
- Ensure space that protects survivors (boundaries that respect autonomy, situational limitations, and trauma)
- Prioritize impacts over intentions
- Believe and confirm the experiences of others, affirming all established boundaries
- Conflict can happen. Conflict transformation could lead to the harm being minimized and eventually healing (though this is not always possible and is not a responsibility the harmed person holds), the person doing the harm growing past the harmful ideas, and practice in giving and taking criticism on things larger than you. Some helpful frameworks around conflict are: “I am telling you this hurt because I am trusting that you care.” and “Its us vs the problem, not us vs each other.”
- Practice active allyship - if you see or hear someone causing harm, help the harmed person level the playing field if you hold the same privileges as the person causing harm by holding space for the harmed person if they want that, and the person causing harm to help meet them where they’re at and take that labor off of the harmed person.
- Shame is a strong feeling. It is okay to not know something and to learn it for the first time. Avoiding accountability out of a fear of shame does nothing for you or your community.
Attitude of Self-Education
- Be open to constructive criticism. Ask for guidance if you need help to understand, recognize, or address it. The Safer Spaces Team are available for this purpose.
- Take responsibility for getting education on identities and experiences you are unfamiliar with. You should not expect someone to educate you about their life. You can research sources prepared by people who volunteered to do so.
- Be mindful of when it is your turn to take space and when it is time to elevate others with more directly lived experience
- You are responsible for understanding your privileges. Challenge yourself to grow to be more aware of lives you do not live. Improve your activism by making space for those with less or different privileges, and by listening without defensiveness and shame if you are called out
- Systems of oppression shape everyone's perspective. When you are oppressive, own up to it so you can learn new habits
Accessibility
- Create inclusive communities and dialogues
- Respond to issues when they arise. Plan ahead when possible. Be responsive and proactive
- Remember everyone is different. There is no standard
- Never make assumptions about the abilities of others
- Challenge assumptions, language, and sayings that stereotype or erase other peoples. For example, not everyone can “stand up” so “stand up and fight” erases those who would fight but cannot stand to do so. An alternative might be “show up and fight”
- Normalize accessibility at all times, even if you dont need it yourself
- Create spaces that honor the abilities of all participants
- Always “call out” injustice. If a harm happens publicly, the resolution (or at least an acknowledgement) should also be public - there is a large chance that if one person was hurt and said so, at least one other person was hurt and felt uncomfortable to say so. Politeness is a value of white supremacy. We challenge supremacy culture by encouraging direct, honest communication.
- Challenge microaggressions. Microaggressions are ideas, language, and/or power dynamics that root in oppression and implicit bias. They are usually accepted as "normal" and overlooked. For more resources on microaggressions check out: https://tinyurl.com/ypuvtryf
- Express when you are unable to engage with criticism in a constructive way. Disengage and take the space to process your actions in your own time and with people who share similar identities.
Sobriety
- DO NOT drink or use substances in any space with rules against such
- DO NOT interrupt anyone’s sobriety
- Remember that substances can be triggering or disruptive
