USING THE CODE

HOW TO IMPLEMENT THE CODE IN YOUR OWN DANCE ORGANISATION

1. Read the whole Safety in Swing Dance website, paying particular attention to the ‘Notes for Organisers’ page.

2. Make a plan for how reports of inappropriate behaviour will be handled and recorded (where will your log live? Will it be an actual book, or an online, password protected document?) and who will be recording them?

3. Compile a list of charities and support available in your local area (see Resources page).

4. Nominate someone to be a point of contact for reports, and take steps to ensure that the nominated person is able to deal with complaints sensitively and appropriately. Seek training if required, and be prepared to periodically update that training.

5. Copy and paste the code onto your own website / social media, filling in the blanks where appropriate. For confidentiality reasons, access to the mailbox(es) should be restricted to the nominated safety person(s), and not a general mailbox that can be accessed by the wider team.

You might set up a completely new mailbox for this purpose, but it must be checked regularly. Be mindful that publishing an email address online can invite spam, and so you may consider a web form, or write addresses in a manner that confuses the robots (spelling out “at” and “dot” for example).

6. If possible, larger dance organisations should offer both male and female contacts, and all teachers and organisations must make it clear that any person making a report has the option of contacting someone outside of their home scene (via list of subscribing organisations) for any reason; including personality clashes, wrong vibes or simply a personal preference for distance.

Cross scene reporting options are absolutely vital, as they ensure that no one, not even listed code organisers and nominated safety people are beyond scrutiny.

They also make the acknowledgment that the code is for all of us, and not some unnamed, unknown, other.

In the case of serious code transgressions, an option for a ‘first aid’ type response from a different organisation’s safety person (who can pass the report on to a home-group organiser, or provide additional support while the reporting person tells a home-group organiser themselves) could be the very thing that enables a person to come forward at all.

It should also be made clear that advice, information and support is offered to anyone suffering within the Swing Dance scene and dancers asking for assistance do not have to be attendees of a code event.

7. Then provide a link back to this website, so that the code can be viewed in context by those seeking further information.

After that, contact the site administrators, so that they can add you to the list of dance organisations using the code.

In the rare instance of a code application from teachers or scene leaders that have faced allegations themselves, further guidance is available here (?)

NEXT: Handling Disclosures