Addressing Harm In Communities

The creative intervention framework aims to empower survivors, their immediate support networks (friends & family), and wider communities to respond to acts of abuse & interpersonal harm. The goal is to disrupt cycles of violence and prevent future harm.

Interpersonal violence can include physical violence, emotional/verbal violence, sexual violence, economic abuse, stalking/surveillance, weaponzing someone else’s vulnerabiliby or own marginalization as a means to manipulate/control others, aggressive self-harm, etc. This form of violence tends to be one sided, with one person more afraid than the other (even if harm is committed on both sides - reactive abuse is not abuse), and is often rooted in one party exerting power and control over another.

Interpersonal violence is a community problem:

Sustained violence means communities have ignored/minimized/enabled harm
Often takes advantage of power imbalances and structural inequalities (age, gender, race, socio-economic positions, social capital, etc)

Community interventions have three core areas:

Supporting the survivor (emotionally, physically, financially, etc.) and their dependents, partners, family, friends, etc.
Naming the harm and making others aware of it in the hope that the person who harmed (and the community members who enabled the harm) will recognize and take responsibility for their actions, whether or not the harms were intended
Working with the community as a whole to recognize and take responsibility for harmful attitudes and actions to decrease the likelihood that these harms will occur again

This model is not mediation - mediation is not recommended in situations of abuse as mediation is meant to happen between two parties of equal standing. By contrast, abuse tends to occur between individuals with unequal power, and abuse also actively disempowers survivors.

This model also does not necessarily require engagement with the person perpetrating harm. In an ideal scenario, a transformative justice model can involve leading the person that caused the harm though an open accountability process to rehabilitate them and facilitate reparations between them and the wider community. This is a long term process of rebuilding trust and should be sustained by the person who committed the harm. The goal of the transformative justice model is to enable the perpetrator to recognize their harmful behaviour and work towards change to prevent future violence. This approach is not recommended in situations where engaging with the perpetrator may be too risky for survivors and community at large, or when they are not willing to acknowledge that they have caused harm.

Accountability also does not require forgiveness - it is possible to address harm in a community and rehabilitate a perpetrator without requiring the survivor to forgive the person who harmed them. Forgiveness is personal and should not be a goal of community intervention.

Responding to a Disclosure of Abuse

Listen to the survivor - centre and validate their feelings

Remind them you believe them if they start to minimize their experiences
Let them know nothing makes abusive behaviour okay

Support the survivor and let them take the lead on how to respond or move forward

Don’t be a vigilante or pressure them to report their abuse
Don’t impose your ideas of what is right on them

Make sure the survivor is safe and help them meet immediate needs

Timely follow through on any promises/commitments to the survivor

Name the harm and raise awareness

Aims to push a person who perpetrated harm to take responsibility for their behaviour
Allow the person who harmed to experience consequences for their behaviour, such as removing access to community spaces

Work with the community as a whole to recognize/take responsibility for harmful attitudes & take actions to decrease likelihood of recurrence

It is possible to both support a person who has harmed and believe a survivor. Expulsion from a community should be a last resort tactic if the person who has harmed refuses to take responsibility because it frees them to continue perpetuating cycles of violence in new communities. An attempt should be made to get the abuser to recognize harm & change behaviour wherever possible. To facilitate this, form a group of friends around the abuser who are willing and able to help them with accountability and with whom supporters of the survivor can touch base throughout the process.

Create multiple pods of support:

A group of people actively supporting and advocating for the survivor
A group of people helping the person who harmed recognize and change their behaviour
A group willing to provide emotional labour for those supporting both parties

The survivor’s pod:

Directly supporting to ensure survivors safety and meet immediate needs
Help survivor articulate experience and outline steps for healing (and repair - if applicable)
Check in with pod of person who harmed to see if progress is being made

How to support a survivor:

Listen to them, offer companionship, provide emotional/religious/spiritual support
Help them meet their immediate needs (safety, health, shelter, financial, etc)
Support them in accessing resources, navigating systems or institutions (for example police or legal matters), medical care, counseling or mental health support, etc
Help take care of dependents/pets/plants/etc
Help them identify the kinds of support they want/need (or the kinds they don’t) and/or advocating for these needs on behalf of the survivor (for example to the person that caused harm/their pod, the wider community, applicable institutions, etc)

The harmer’s pod:

Invite person that harmed to participate in an open accountability process to begin rehabilitation & see them through this process
Hold them accountable and allow them to experience consequences without demonizing the person – balance firmness and consequences with support
Encourage them to seek out professional support or help them access external resources that apply to their situation (therapy or counselling, substance use recovery programs, accountability circles for people that have committed sexual violence, etc)
Set an example that recognizing/ending/taking responsibility is an act of courage, not of shame
This process of change can be painful but will benefit the person causing harm – not just for avoidance of negative consequences but the possibility of positive gain
Liaise with the survivor's pod and external community members to provide updates on progress and facilitate eventual reintegration into community (without imposing any timeline on this process - this is slow, long term, based on evidence of change)
Note: the person who caused harm must take initiative and show commitment to this process in order for a transformative justice model to apply. Holding people accountable is not a punitive process and forcing accountability on someone who doesn’t want it is an ineffective use of resources that could better be put towards supporting a survivor

Community accountability:

Community accountability works best if the community can recognize its own participation in contributing to or letting the harm happen, while holding the person doing the harm accountable. Community accountability looks like:

Naming the ways it has participated in the harm
Changing conditions that allowed it to happen
Supporting the survivor and offering reparations to them
Supporting the person doing the harm through an accountability process
Changing attitudes & behaviour through policies, new practices and new skills, and maintaining these changes over the long term

Taking Accountability

Accountability can happen over a continuum of time.

Accountability is something someone can take in the short term. We may:

• Stop using violence

• Slow down and listen to understand how our actions have impacted those around us

• Take action to repair the harm that our actions have caused others

• Identify and try out new ways of thinking and behaving

• Get support and encouragement for our efforts and successes

Taking accountability is also a long-term and life-long process. We may:

• Grow our confidence to face our imperfections and turn away from patterns that harm others (and ultimately ourselves)

• Grow our ability to feel our emotions without acting them out

• Practice and promote behaviors that honor ourselves and others

• Humbly support others around us to do the same

• Learn from and move beyond mistakes and set-backs

• Practice self awareness and self reflection to build mutually supportive and enjoyable relationships

Accountability can happen along a continuum of depth.

Any of the following can be thought of as elements of accountability:

• Being confronted at all, even just once about the violence that was done

• Experiencing and understanding that violence has natural negative consequences

• Stopping or reducing violence – even if doing so is a response to social pressures from friends or community, or to a threat of losing relationships due to continued use of violence – and not because of deep change

• Listening to the person who was harmed talk about their experience of violence – without being defensive, interrupting or reacting against this story

• Acknowledging the reality of the experience for the person who was harmed – even if this is not at all what was intended

• Acknowledging that the use of violence was ultimately a choice – not something caused by someone else

• Expressing sincere apology, taking responsibility, and showing care to the person who was harmed

• Giving financial or other significant reparations to the person who was harmed including acts of service, replacing damaged property, etc

• Agreeing and taking every step possible to assure that these harms will not be committed again

• Knowing and agreeing that any future acts of harm will result in certain negative consequences

• Telling others about one’s own uses of violence not to gain followers or sympathizers, but to stop hiding private interpersonal violence

• Telling others about one’s own uses of violence to ask for support in changing and to show that taking accountability can be an act of honour and courage

• Making it one’s own choice, commitment and goal to address root causes of violence, to learn new skills, and to deeply transform violent behaviors

• Showing actual changes in thinking and behavior during the good times, and also hard or stressful times

• Supporting others who have used or are using violence to take steps to towards accountability

The accountability staircase does not have to be a consecutive model, it is possible to work on multiple steps at once or go back and forth between the steps as needed. Think of it as a stairmaster rather than an escalator.

There is no blueprint for accountability, every situation is different and calls for a unique, tailored response. Accountability doesn’t always have to be punitive, painful or retaliatory - some aspects of accountability can feel like a relief. It helps us feel seen and understood by the people around us and push for the kind of transformative change we want to see in the world. That being said, accountability does not have to be the goal for every violent situation or intervention. Sometimes a community does not have the time, opportunity or resources to engage a person that has committed violence - and sometimes those that have harmed may be unwilling to acknowledge their harm or show capacity for change. However, these efforts are important. Though resulting positive changes may not be immediate, visible or lasting, any efforts to break the cycle of violence rises above silence, inaction and passivity. Peace and wellness in our communities becomes a constant, active and ongoing process.