Community Safety Facilitation Program
Brinkman takes complaints and instances of violence, bullying and/or harassment very seriously. We expect all our employees – from field workers to senior management – to conduct work activities, as well as their shared free time, respectfully and professionally. Instances of harassment, bullying, or violent behavior – should they occur – will be dealt with through our Community Safety Facilitation Program.
In early spring 2021, Brinkman’s Respectful Workplace program was expanded to become our Community Safety Facilitation (‘CSF’) program. This program provides the structure within which we can better prevent harassment and misconduct, as well as more effectively respond to incidents of harassment and misconduct when they do occur, and are subsequently reported or disclosed to one of our Community Safety Facilitators.
We expect all our employees – from field workers to senior management – to conduct work activities, as well as their shared free time, respectfully and professionally. We also understand that our projects pull together large groups of people with diverse values, cultural norms, and personal histories, and that bringing these into alignment with each other – and with Brinkman’s values – takes intentional work. Living and working in closely integrated community settings puts pressure on relationships, and recognizing and addressing the harm that emerges from this pressure is a normal part of maintaining a safe and healthy work-live community.
We approach our Community Safety Facilitation work from a restorative justice perspective, which is victim/survivor-led, and seeks to facilitate repair and deepen understandings of impact, alongside eliminating further harm. Where possible (when accountability has been meaningfully accepted, the persons(s) who experienced harm are in full support, and all other conditions have been met), we will try to provide opportunities for reintegration. We believe that a restorative justice approach gives our communities the best chance at healing and reparation, and therefore longterm resilience.
Our CSF Program is also the project-level container for Brinkman’s commitment to Indigenous-Settler Reconciliation, specifically the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action #92, i, ii, and iii, regarding the corporate sector’s responsibility to provide skills based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism. The Community Accountability and Consent workshop held on your project during the first shift will address whose traditional territories you are living and working on, as well as some of the history of those territories, including the specific impacts of colonialism there. You will also learn about relevant resources and learning opportunities connected to the local First Nation(s), including community events that are open to the public.
Brinkman recognizes the prolonged oppression and harm experienced by Indigenous populations, through colonization and ongoing colonial practices – and we are committed to advancing our long-term, collective journey towards reconciliation, through learning, evolving, and relationship-building. Our CSF program recognizes that the antidotes to the colonial legacy of disconnection, individualism, and aloneness, are connection, healing, and being and living communally – but within a framework that values and supports community accountability. The ongoing violence and trauma of colonialism lives in our relations – but it also means that we have a real opportunity to heal this violence, through community accountability: strengthening the networks of relationships, emphasizing mutual responsibility for addressing the conditions that allow violence to take place, and compassionately holding people accountable for harm, following principles of restorative justice.
Brinkman’s CSF Program will continue to develop, as we learn from our people and our experiences.
Our 2024 CSF program consists of:
One or two Community Safety Facilitators per field project, who have received both internal and external training. Along with facilitation of the Community Accountability and Consent workshop, each CSF is responsible for working with the Project Manager, Regional Manager, OH+S Coordinator, and other employees on community building processes and activities, which are crucial elements in the prevention of community safety incidents. If a community safety incident occurs, the CSFs are trained to provide support to folks who’ve experienced harm. The support given can range from intaking a disclosure, to composing a safety plan, to assisting with filing a formal report, to accompanying someone through an investigation process. The CSFs are not counsellors, although they can direct employees with non-community-safety-related issues towards various resources.
Formal establishment of a Respectful Workplace Executive Committee (RWEC), through which all community safety Investigations occur.
Guidance materials for all levels of management, for responding to Community Safety incidents with a consistent process. We have many projects each season, and while we love how each one develops its own micro-regional culture – when it comes to recognizing and addressing instances of harm, we require that this be done according to our established process.
Pre-season, internal workshop training for all Managers and all Supervisory-level staff: Crew Leads, Tree Runners, Quality Assessors, and Cooks, in both implementation and embodiment of the CSF Program. Worker-level employees are required to complete Respectful Workplace awareness training pre-season.
A mandatory Community Accountability and Consent workshop, conducted in person by the project’s Community Safety Facilitator, on each project. This workshop is held separately from initial project Orientation, but prior to the project’s first night off. It will include a section on how to respectfully speak about gender diversity, as well as how to respectfully speak to those whose gender goes beyond the binary. Each CSF will also be required to provide an external report of the Community Accountability and Consent workshop, to the OH+S Coordinator and relevant Regional Manager. When two or more projects join up, a subsequent Community Accountability and Consent workshop is also required.
A pre-season ‘Quartet’ meeting between the CSF, Project Manager, and OH+S Coordinator, and the relevant Regional Manager. The Agenda for the Quartet meeting will also have input from the HR Manager, to ensure that all relevant items (such as historical Community Safety incidents and the resolution or conditions thereof) are addressed.
Shiftly Vibe Checks are intended to provide structure for the sharing of relevant community safety information from the CSF, to the PM and the RM, about how the workers are doing in a psycho-social sense – and also about what could be done to improve the psycho-social realm, like organize a community-building Day Off activity. Each CSF will be required to compose two separate Vibe Checks, at the designated frequency: one that is directly verbally shared with the Project Manager, and a second that is shared (via email or phone) externally, off the project – either to the Regional Manager, the OH+S Coordinator, or another Senior Manager.
Our collective goal is the creation of a safe, positive, and fun experience for all workers, in a healthy body and an injury-free workplace. Living and working closely together for months at a time is inherently challenging, but with good processes and effective support, working through these challenges is what leads to rich relationships within a resilient community.
