Membership Expectations

These expectations outline what you can expect from the staff who run the Adopteens project and what staff expect from you when you attend any of our events.

Being clear and explicit from the beginning helps everyone’s understanding.

What you can expect from us

• We will treat you with respect and kindness
• We will aim to be open, honest and approachable.
• We will communicate clearly with you in a way that works for you
• We will always aim to provide a fun, safe place for you to be yourselves and make friends with other Adopteens members.
• We will do our best to help you develop your skills by gentle guidance and support within a group setting.

• We will try to resolve fairly any problems, grievances and difficulties you may come across at our events

• On some occasions if we have any concern about an issue we may need to contact your parent/parents to discuss the matter to try and resolve the issue

• If the problem is still unresolved, we will offer you and your parent/s an opportunity to discuss the issues in line with our complaints policy.

What we expect from you

Please read these carefully. We will send these out again before events on the consent forms for your parents and yourself to sign and agree to.

• Respecting others – This service works with a diverse range of people in terms of age, race, gender, neurodiversity, and physical ability. We expect all members to treat others with respect, respecting differences in others. We will not tolerate bully, discrimination, or abuse in any form.

• Physical contact – It is very important to respect others’ personal space. Everybody has a different view on touch and personal space. We want to ensure everyone feels safe and respected at our events and therefore we ask that there is no physical contact.

• Phones – If you have a phone please ensure this is turned on silent and put away for the duration of the event.

• Confidentiality – People may choose to share personal details about themselves at our events, please remember that this is their information and is not to be shared with others.

• Social media – Please do not share our event details on social media – we do not do this prior to events due to their confidential nature.

• Photographs – Please do not take pictures of other members without their permission. Also, we ask people not to share pictures of others on social media, again for privacy and confidentiality reasons.

• Smoking and Vaping – We do not allow any smoking or vaping at any of our events.

• Energy drinks – We do not allow energy drinks at our events

• Zoom – if you are attending a Zoom event we require you to have cameras on at all times – this is for reasons of confidentiality. We need to ensure that no one is present in the room who does not live in your household.

• Issues with other members – If you have an issue with another person who is part of the project that cannot be resolved between you, we ask that you raise this with the Adopteens project workers. Although seeking support from other members about your issue might feel like the right thing to do, this can put the other member in a difficult position and cause distress.

• Arriving and leaving – when you arrive you and your parent need to check in with a worker. When leaving an event we need to know who is collecting you and a worker needs to do a handover back to the person collecting you. If you are making your own way home, parents need to confirm this with us first and this MUST be sent to us in writing before an event takes place
  
  Please do not leave an activity without letting a worker know.

• Medication – If you take medication please ensure you do this prior to activity. If you need to take it during the activity it is important that the parent writes this on the consent form associated with the activity and that consent is given for staff to administer this, with clear instructions on how to do so. This information MUST be returned to us in advance of an activity taking place by the date requested for return.

• Appropriate clothing – It is important that people are appropriately dressed for activities. We will offer guidance as to what is expected for specific activities. If we do not feel you have suitable clothes on this may prevent you from taking part in an event.

• Drugs and Alcohol – We cannot work with anyone who is under the influence of drugs or alcohol. If you arrive at any of our events and we are concerned that you are under the influence we will contact your parent/s immediately to enable them to collect you.

• Safety Concerns – If you are concerned about another young person’s safety please tell an appropriate adult.

We ask members to share any concerns with the Adopteens Project staff in the first instance. Please do not discuss safety concerns with other members or post on social media groups  

If these expectations are not adhered to, in the first instance we will speak to you, in the second instance we will speak to you and your parents and, if the issue cannot be resolved then this may result in you not being able to be part of our service.

In circumstances where behaviour poses a high level of risk to others or yourself, we will follow safeguarding procedures and review whether it is safe for you & and others to continue being a member of the service.

We are mindful of the role social media plays in the lives of young people and this is an important means of communication for many people. Whilst we cannot impose any requirements on your activity outside of your membership with Adopteens or at one of our activity events we do take seriously exchanges on social media platforms that impact any of our members negatively. We urge members to be respectful and confidential in their exchanges with one another at all times. If a matter of concern is shared with us where a member’s behaviour is a concern depending on the nature of the concern this may result in that person’s membership ending.