Code of Conduct – digilocal.org.uk

Last updated: 1 Sept 2020

Community

We want to provide a safe, fun, and supporting environment for young people to learn the skills to equip themselves for technologies that are an increasingly important part of our day-to-day lives. This code of conduct is not meant to be a legal text, but to represent the spirit of what makes a safe, fun, and supporting learning environment that we expect everyone to aspire to.

To this end we ask that

Young People:

listen and respect the advise and guidance from our volunteer Ambassadors, they are giving up their time to support your learning;
don’t bully or harass others, report any incidents of bullying or harassment to a volunteer;
respect and celebrate differences in the club, and not discriminate against anyone for any reason;
treat all other young people with respect;
help make DigiLocal a safe, fun, and supportive environment within which to learn about tech.

DigiLocal clubs in communities

stay in the room / area being used by DigiLocal, don’t leave or wander off without telling a volunteer;
take care of our equipment;
attend regularly, or make sure someone tells us when you are unable to attend;
do not consume food or drink in the club;

DigiLocal Online

keep your password for DigiLocal Online secure, never give it out to anyone;
never enter a 1-2-1 video chat with another person (includes other young people);
No bullying or harassment
No discrimination against anybody for any reason
Keep the chat / text friendly
Don’t spam
Respect people and their opinions. Everyone is different
If you have issues or complaints, contact @John
If people ask for help, try your best to offer help
respect other people’s effort, remixes & using other people’s code is normal but you must credit their work; don’t pass their work off as your own;

Volunteers:

implement our safeguarding policies and practices;
report any concerns about, or allegations of abuse, to our Designated Safeguarding Lead;
respect young people’s trust and rights, whilst being honest and open with them;
challenge and address instances of poor, negative, aggressive, or bullying behaviour among young people;
support young people’s learning, this mean not just giving them the answer, but helping them solve the problems for themselves;
support everyone’s right to take part, and celebrate the differences within our clubs;
recognise that you don’t have all the answers, and to use the resources available to you (other volunteers, project guides, stackoverflow, etc) to demonstrate to young people how engineers and developers work in the real world;
help make DigiLocal a safe, fun, and supportive environment for young people to learn about tech;

DigiLocal Online

never enter a 1-2-1 video chat with a young person
always have at least two (2) volunteers in any group video call
No bullying or harassment
No discrimination against anybody for any reason
Keep the chat / text friendly
Don’t spam
Respect people and their opinions. Everyone is different
If you have issues or complaints, contact @John
If people ask for help, try your best to offer help
respect other people’s effort, remixes & using other people’s code is normal but you must credit their work; don’t pass their work off as your own;

Responsible Adults:

ensure their child / children arrive on time, and are collected promptly after the club session;
talk to us if you have any concerns about the involvement of your child / children;
remember that we are supporting the development of problem solving skills, and building resilience, yes through coding, but learning the syntax of a particular language is less important than learning how to structure a problem so that it can be solved in whichever is the appropriate software language needed;
listen when your child says they don’t want to do something, an unhappy child is not a learning child;
respect and celebrate the differences within the club, it takes an incredible range of people and skills to produce modern software and engineering systems;
help make DigiLocal a safe, fun, and supporting environment for young people to learn about tech.

In return we will:

strive to ensure that people enjoy their time with us (as volunteer, young person, or responsible adult);
ensure everyone with us is in a safe environment;
ensure everyone knows who they can talk to if something is not right, or doesn’t feel right;
ensure everyone is informed about what is happening at the club, and what to expect;
aim to involve everyone in decisions about their club;
respect everyone within DigiLocal, and treat everyone fairly;
celebrate achievements and contributions;
work to make DigiLocal a safe, fun, and supportive environment for everyone.

Disputes

We hope that everyone adheres to the above code in spirit as well as letter. Our first recourse will always be to resolve any situations within a club through discussion and mutual agreement to modify behaviour / performance. However, if behaviour or performance continue to fall outside of what is considered acceptable we have 3 tier approach to recovering the situation:

Note: this is separate from our safeguarding / whistleblowing policy, please see the appropriate policy for those procedures.

Yellow warning

We will advise the individual that their behaviour is not acceptable, and highlight in what way.
We will give them clear guidance on what is expected from them.
A note will be attached to their CRM record, to that effect.
In the case of young people, their responsible adult(s) will be informed by email along with our consideration on what would represent an acceptable modification of behaviour / performance
All new Yellow warnings will be reviewed at the following Trustee’s meeting (held Quarterly)

Red warning

We will advise the individual that their behaviour / performance continues to be unacceptable, and highlight in what way.
We will give them clear guidance on what is expected from them, and clear notice that this is their final warning.
A note will be attached to their CRM record to that effect.
In the case of young people, their responsible adult(s) will be informed by email along with our consideration on what would represent an acceptable modification of behaviour / performance
Trustee’s will be notified immediately by email that a Red warning has been issued.
All new Red Warnings will be reviewed at the following Trustee’s meeting (held Quarterly)

Withdrawal from DigiLocal

In the event that behaviour / performance has not improved following a Red warning, DigiLocal reserves the right to remove an individual from attending our clubs.
If there hasn’t been an opportunity for Trustee’s to review a Red Warning, an extraordinary meeting will be called (by electronic means if necessary) to discuss the case before a final decision to withdraw is made.
The Trustee’s will be notified immediately by email that a person has been withdrawn from DigiLocal.
Upon withdrawal the contact records for the individual, and responsible adult(s) in the case of young people, will be deleted