This is a framework that has allowed us to work with schools to increase professionalism, safety, resiliency, and develop cultures of caring, communication, and accountability.
This does not constitute therapeutic advice, but is a working outline that may help you to create the shifts in culture and safety that you are wanting for your community. Please feel free to use any part of this for ideas and inspiration.
Please reach out if you need any help or guidance in this regard or have questions.
· Where are we coming from?
o What is my background as the assembler of this framework?
▪ positionality: PolyAm, Multiracial, Cismale, Capoeirista + Young Mestre, Student of Roberto Freire's Somaterapia, Creator of the Warrior Class and the Emboscada, Survivor of sexual assault, war, kidnapping, violence, family addiction.
o What is the basis of our approach?
▪ Methodology: Experiential and Embodied- Because we can't easily get to the subconscious through the head, but we can through the body.
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▪ Not an HR presentation: People often ask for the rule book. However once people have rules, they subconsciously start to find loopholes. They take the letter of the law and reinterpret it so that they can follow the letter and violate the spirit.
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▪ A therapeutic approach- can build empathy and allow participants to safely experience the feelings and the necessities that arise in these situations.
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▪ Transformative Justice: Taking Responsibility, atonement, addressing the root causes (Therapy, counseling, employment, WORK), proving change through language and behavior, resumption of previous functionality, building of a positive track record results in building positive regard. Restoration is organic, but it is not guaranteed. However restoration is contingent on the work of the responsible party and should not be blocked by the community if the person is able to fulfill their agreements.
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▪ Sex Positive: Sex is a positive and wonderful thing. We will try to think of it outside of cultural and religious trappings and look at it functionally. Sex, whether committed or recreational, is not the problem.
Sex without the elements of consent: transparency, honesty, age of majority, and without aftercare is dehumanizing.
Sex and sexual misconduct must be divorced from concepts of gender: Sex is not something that a man takes from a woman, it is something that two or more humans co-create.
Sex can then be: Consensual, Safe, Ethical - We must have uncomfortable conversations in order to ensure large amounts of fulfilling and wonderful sex.
Polyamory provides a great set of best practices for communicating about sex. Without those aspects of Consent, Honesty, and Safety, we are stepping into the "grey area", and leaning into potential sexual misconduct.
If we could communicate, and NOT LIE OR OMIT, most of our issues would be solved.
Shifting from, but not judging a hookup culture to a culture of care/nurturance culture.
Sex without care is indicative of a person using other people to fill holes in their soul, as is the case with all addictive behavior. Sex with care, regardless of “Promiscuity” can be a mutually beneficial and humanizing experience when all people involved know and agree to the terms.
The culture of shame around sex is one of the greatest blocks to healthy discussions on the subject, and healthy approaches between individuals. Shame and judgement are equally our enemies in this endeavor.
Safe Schools framework
1. A culture of communication
a. The first thing that needs to be established is a regular practice of communication
i. Regular meetings among teachers and leaders
ii. Regular meetings for the entire group, including students
iii. Meetings should be a place to talk about organizational and business matters, as well as feelings, thoughts, ideas, and issues.
iv. These create a culture of communication where people learn that their thoughts, feelings, and experiences matter. They also learn that if they have issues, they will be heard and addressed (As long as they are actually heard and addressed)
2. Democratization
a. This is a two-part proposition:
i. Leaders must be willing to give up a level of power and totally abandon dehumanizing authoritarian frameworks.
ii. Group members must be willing to step into the power, the responsibility, and the accountability of an empowered role; especially participating in the work that is required to support the community or run the school.
1. It’s no longer just the Mestre’s responsibility when things go wrong, but it is also not only the Mestre’s power that goes into creating success. In many ways this boils down to delegation without micromanaging. When successful, the result should be that teachers need to expend less energy; sharing the load is healthy and beneficial to all concerned.
b. First steps may include:
i. Asking a rotating number of beginner and intermediate students to attend leadership meetings.
ii. Allowing input in the decision-making processes around classes, events, invited guests.
iii. Rejection of privileges and absolute power.
iv. Dealing with the improper use of rank and hierarchy.
1. In word and deed, validating that hierarchy may be valuable in the teaching and class context as well as the roda; entailing both priorities and responsibilities rather than privileges. For example:
a. Teachers’ roles are to guide and model things for students, so it is reasonable for teachers to play the first couple games in a roda.
b. A teacher must also provide a student with opportunities to learn, so it is not appropriate for teachers to repeatedly cut off students who are waiting to play.
2. In word and deed, validating that hierarchy may not be valuable outside of the context of a class or roda. Potential things to consider. How and if these apply will depend on the culture of your community. Remember that the goal here is to shift that culture in a way where everyone is taken care of:
a. Discarding titles outside of class, rodas, or the studio setting.
b. At events, rotating who serves food, and including teachers in that rotation.
c. Lining up for food on a first come, first server basis (especially if one is not an elder teacher. However, even if one is an elder, these practices benefit you by creating greater sense of safety and investment on the part of the students who pay for your classes)
3. Through study and training, learning the huge impact that rank and hierarchy have on a student, even an adult student’s ability to consent to or deny a demand from a teacher.
a. Because this happens on a neurobiological level, it is generally impossible to feel when one is at the top of a power gradient.
b. Practices of learning and mindfulness must be put in place in order to prevent issues around consent.
c. Teachers in Capoeira should maintain the same professionalism, and possibly the same professional consequences as teachers in school, therapists, doctors etc. For is not Capoeira an art that educates, heals the body, and heals the soul?
3. Structural resiliency
a. Judiciary board
b. Multiple reporting methods
i. Google form that allows anonymous submission
ii. Google voice line and voicemail box
iii. Reporting email
iv. Trained personnel
c. Support personnel or roles
i. Administrative committees:
1. Events
2. Teaching
3. Fund raising
4. Marketing
ii. Judiciary committee
iii. Vibe Checkers (This can also be everyone if everyone trains Bystander Intervention)
d. Rolodex of external resources
i. RAINN
ii. Local Therapists and service providers
iii. RJ and TJ consultants
iv. Immigration lawyers
v. Rehab facilities
e. Regular trainings for teachers and the community at large:
i. Recognizing behaviors and patterns that may be harmful
ii. Bystander intervention
iii. Trauma informed communication
iv. Diversity and Inclusion
v. Accountability practices
vi. Healthy ways of verifying consent
vii. Sport Safe Certification
viii. First aid, CPR, Stop The Bleed
ix. Community farming
4. Accountability
a. Center the complainant
i. Centering the complainant is always step one, and the central core of finding community healing.
ii. This is also necessary because many uninvolved people will express needs and opinions.
iii. There will never be any way to address all of the wants of uninvolved parties in a way that makes everyone happy.
iv. Thus, it is important that the express goal is to address the needs of the complainant first, then next those of the entire community at large.
v. Additionally, this may help to prevent the tendency for people to choose sides and divide the community.
b. The carceral system (Law Enforcement, Courts, Jails, Prisons)
i. Is neither effective nor fair to any of the parties concerned.
ii. Traumatizes and retraumatizes survivors severely.
iii. Usually does not result in justice or betterment.
iv. Usually does result, if a conviction is reached, in the responsible party leaning more into harmful behaviors rather than rehabilitation.
v. May be the simplest way to discard the responsibilities of community leadership.
vi. However, in some cases, depending on the occurrence and the desire of the complainant, this may be the direction that is indicated.
c. Community accountability : Transformative Justice, going beyond restoration to addressing cause.
i. Is neither easy nor one size fits all. However, this carries the potential for responsible parties to accept that responsibility, make amends, take part in the healing of the complainant, and prove their growth and ability to participate safely in the community.
ii. The goal is to, whenever possible, grow in strength and care rather than throwing people away.
iii. We must be ready to acknowledge when a community accountability process is not possible.
iv. Requirements:
1. Agreement to participate from both the complainant(s) and the responsible party.
2. The ideal goal is transformational, not just restorative justice. This means that we look not only at how amends can be made, but how to address the root causes of the issue. This may include:
a. Addressing patterns of and the cultures of dehumanization that are part and parcel of the societies that we live in:
i. Colonialism
ii. Classism
iii. Racism
iv. Sexism
v. Sexual dehumanization
vi. Homophobia
vii. Transphobia
viii. Patriarchy (Does not mean that “men are bad”. It does mean that since the Neolithic era people have, in the process of learning how to cultivate, accumulate, and protect grain, wealth, land, and belongings, learned to dominate and dehumanize other humans. In those times, it usually meant strong men imposing their will on women, children, and men with less power. However, anyone can be in the driver’s seat of patriarchy, regardless of gender.)
b. Addressing unmet needs that may be leading to regressive behaviors:
i. Addiction
ii. Financial issues
iii. Housing and food insecurity
iv. Mental health issues
5. Transparency and Confidentiality
a. It is a clear necessity that things are neither hidden nor swept under the rug when they happen.
b. It is also a clear necessity to preserve the safety and privacy of both the complainant and the responsible party.
c. We are not investigators, and thus must rely on the given statements of the parties involved, corroboration from witnesses, when available, and the alignment of facts from the various accounts, once collected.
d. Any premature and unsanctioned release of information may endanger the complainant and may also raise issues of libel or defamation with regards to accusations that have not been adjudicated through legal means or admitted to by the responsible party.
e. Information should be released in a prompt, yet limited way when an issue happens:
i. “There was an incident, and we are in talks with all parties involved to resolve it”
f. Once a resolution is reached, then high level information about the resolution can also be shared.
i. “The responsible party took responsibility for what they said/did and acknowledged the harm done. The complainant has accepted the apology. The responsible party has agreed to pay for and attend an issue specific training / Volunteer at an issue specific support center / Work with a therapist and provide a release of information to the head teacher. They will then be allowed to return to training for a probationary period before being fully reinstated” is a possibility.
ii. It may also be as simple as “Apology was tendered and accepted. It is agreed that the responsible party’s intent was not to do harm, and also acknowledged that the impact was unintentionally harmful. The complainant has forgiven the responsible party, and requires no further action now that mediation has been facilitated”
iii. It may also be that “Responsible party has failed to acknowledge the harm done and is not seen as fit to continue to participate in this community. They are hereby barred from attending classes, or events.”
g. Finally, information should be shared in a way that prevents the retraumatization of the complainant as well as the secondary traumatization of those who receive the information.
6. Follow through
a. Rinse and repeat
i. All of these measures are practices necessary to creating a healthy and resilient community. They correspond to similar practices that exist in the corporate world, Health services, and Education.
ii. These are not one-and-done operations, they are practices that should be continued, and that will also continue to benefit the community.
iii. If we believe what the old Mestres and scholars of capoeira tell us about the art, these things correspond to behaviors and practices of community building and collective responsibility that allowed the quilombos to survive and thrive. So although it may look like many additional layers and responsibilities, all that I have mentioned in the above outline can and should be thought of as the basic foundation that allows for a practice of capoeira; a foundation that has been destroyed in many cases by colonialism, dictatorship, and generations of repression. However this foundation can be seen plainly in capoeira based social programs all over Brasil and the world. This community foundation is demonstrated by the Capoeira Inclusiva philosophy, Capoeiristas who regularly join in freedom struggles around the world, and Capoeiristas who use their art to provide education to youth who may be lacking opportunities. Welcome home Capoeiristas. It is time to bring those lessons back home and refurbish our own communities; making them safer for all who choose to participate.
