Yiddish Café Trust Safeguarding Policy: February 2023

Yiddish Cafe Trust and its Trustees have a responsibility to ensure that no harm comes to any volunteers or participants in our activities. A safeguarding culture means:

• we protect people
• we minimise the risks of any harm or abuse
• everyone has confidence their concerns will be dealt with appropriately
• everyone at the charity understands their role

Every Trustee must make sure Yiddish Café Trust undertakes the actions stated below. Members of the Safeguarding Committee, in particular, are to be tasked with ensuring that policies and procedures are developed and disseminated in order to allay any safeguarding issues on an ongoing basis.

This safeguarding policy will be assessed and reviewed periodically to ensure that it remains appropriate for its purpose, in light of the Yiddish Café Trust’s experience and as activities expand and develop.

Context

Who we work with:

Adults over 18 and children under 18 who are supervised by a parent or guardian or an adult nominated by their parent or guardian.

Where we operate:

At one day or part-day events online or in-person and at an annual residential weekend

What we do:

We promote Yiddish language and culture

Who works with us:

Adult volunteers, taking on a variety of tasks

Identify and manage risks

Have suitable policies and practices in place

We will ensure that parents or guardians are aware that children under 18 are their responsibility at all times, or the responsibility of someone nominated by the parent or guardian, who is known to them.

The Trust will invite all participants to make it known in advance if they are in any way vulnerable or concerned about their wellbeing. These declarations will be treated in the strictest confidence.

If a vulnerable adult attends one of our events, at their request (or the request of a companion) one or more of the Trustees will make themselves known to the person and be available to assist them if they have any concerns about their wellbeing. Upon request, one or more of the Trustees will also check on the person at regular intervals.

Carry out necessary checks

Yiddish Café Trust does not employ staff. It is not appropriate for the organisation to carry out checks on those who volunteer with the Trust. The Trust will ensure that volunteers behave in an appropriate manner when representing the Yiddish Cafe Trust, by highlighting the Trust’s determination to respect and protect all participants and, as necessary, disseminating guidelines to volunteers.

Protect our volunteers and those who attend meetings and events

We will protect volunteers and those attending our events by:

• inviting volunteers or attenders to declare their concerns
• ensuring that these declarations are treated confidentially and shared only with consent or as absolutely necessary
• making it clear that any inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated
  • any discriminatory behaviour as defined by the 2010 Equality Act, such as, but not restricted to:
    • verbal abuse
    • intimidation
    • physical abuse
    • unwelcome physical contact
    • bullying
    • harassment
    • gender discrimination
    • homophobia
    • transphobia
    • age discrimination
    • racism/anti-semitism/discrimination on the basis of identification with any particular religion or belief (or none at all)

Handle and report incidents appropriately

A named Safeguarding Representative and three other members of the Yiddish Cafe Trust will form the Safeguarding Committee, which will be available to deal with complaints and issues. All volunteers and participants will be made aware of the members of the Safeguarding Committee.

If anyone reports an issue or a complaint, either verbally or in writing, to a member of the -Committee, this will be recorded (upon agreement with the complainant) and, if necessary, discussed in confidence with the other Committee members in order to form a plan of action.  This will apply even if the person complained about is one of the Trustees.

Action taken can range from an organised discussion between the parties to an exclusion of the perpetrator. If appropriate, the perpetrator may also be banned from any future activities of the Yiddish Cafe Trust, both in-person and on-line activities.

Working online

Yiddish Café Trust will monitor online meetings and respond to any behaviour or use of language which appears abusive or inappropriate. If it is not possible to stop or modify the person’s behaviour or language in the meeting, the person may be excluded or muted and will be communicated with afterwards to ensure that there is not a repeat of the behaviour. If this is not possible, they will be permanently excluded.