Download a pdf version of this policy here.
ABOUT SQIFF
SQIFF (Scottish Queer International Film Festival) was formed with the aim of adding to the exciting and growing amount of queer film stuff happening around Scotland. Since 2015, we have held an annual Festival in Glasgow alongside providing year round events across various locations. SQIFF aims to build community through queer films. Our goal is to get people watching, talking about, and making more queer films. We want to screen movies that people might not otherwise get a chance to see and create inspiring and informative events across Scotland. Moreover, we want to support marginalised groups within the LGBTQIA+ community by providing a networking system for queer filmmakers, as well as filmmaking workshops for audiences wanting to start on the medium. We want to challenge inequalities and barriers to accessing the arts.
This Care and Wellbeing Policy outlines SQIFF’s commitment to ensuring the care and wellbeing of its audiences, staff, participants, and volunteers.
This Care and Wellbeing Policy includes information on:
- Policy Statement
- Purpose
- Principles
- Our commitment to ensuring safe environments for Trans, Non-Binary and/or Gender Diverse People and people of the Global Majority.
POLICY STATEMENT
SQIFF is an organisation formed to promote care and wellbeing in the area of LGBTQIA+ film exhibition. As such, SQIFF is fully committed to providing and promoting care and wellbeing in all its activities, including its public events and persona, and in all its other dealings.
PURPOSE
The purpose of this policy is to ensure care and wellbeing is provided and promoted to all in SQIFF’s employment, all who access SQIFF’s services, and all with whom SQIFF has dealings. It lays out our specific commitments to care and wellbeing and makes SQIFF responsible to the public as well its employees, voluntary staff, and audience members for acting on those commitments.
PRINCIPLES
Our care and wellbeing strategies are intended to build an environment where staff, audience members and artists feel valued, respected and cared for in their dealings with SQIFF. Many factors can impact the health and wellbeing of SQIFF staff, audiences and artists. Centering the importance of care and wellbeing, and implementing strategies to promote care and wellbeing, can improve the general wellbeing of all involved with SQIFF’s activity.
Our commitment to care and wellbeing includes:
Employees and volunteers
- Provide information and raise awareness of mental health issues. – Encourage self-care and individual’s caretaking of their own mental health issues.
- Create a supportive workplace culture, proactively tackling factors that may have a negative impact on the emotional wellbeing of SQIFF employers and volunteers.
- Offer non-judgemental support to any employee or volunteer experiencing mental health issues.
- Commit to continuously evaluating how SQIFF’s working conditions and organisational policies are impacting mental health.
- Deliver a thorough onboarding for all new starters, offering an outline of the organisation, the policies and the role they are expected to play.
- Dealing with conflict quickly and ensuring the workplace is free from bullying, harassment, racism or discrimination.
- Providing team members with clear job descriptions, objectives and responsibilities. – Ensuring clear communication between the SQIFF team.
- Treating all matters relating to the mental and emotional wellbeing of SQIFF team members and clients with confidence and only sharing information with prior consent from the individual concerned.
- Recognising that workplace stress is a health and safety issue.
Audience members, artists, performers, and guests
- Provide access notes for all exhibitions with information on the sensory experience, available in person and online for all audiences.
- Provide content notes for all exhibitions with relevant signposting of depictions and themes, available in person and online for all audiences.
- Create a welcoming environment which warmly welcomes audiences, artists, performers and guests to take care of their wellbeing.
- Provision of designated quiet room across the festival for all audience members, artists, performers and guests as a place for rest, recovery and self-care.
- Allowing service and support animals throughout CCA’s building and associated venues hosting SQIFF events, in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 which states that service providers must make reasonable adjustments for disabled people.
- Provision of comfy seating throughout CCA (bean bags) available by reservation upon request.
- Committing to working in collaboration with all artists, performers and guests to ensure their dealings with and during SQIFF are caring and comfortable.
- Remaining transparent with all audience members, artists, performers and guests about SQIFF’s commitment to providing and promoting care and wellbeing and where limitations may impede SQIFF’s ability to provide on all related requests.
Recruitment
- Committing to offering interview applicants interview questions in advance of interview.
- Welcoming interview applicants to communicate relevant care and wellbeing needs in advance of the interview and committing to meeting these needs as much as is possible and equitable within a recruitment process.
- Where possible, offering a quiet space for interview applicants to rest after interviewing within the public areas of the CCA building, where SQIFF’s office is located.
- Proceeding with interviews with as little stress as possible, committing to centre care within the recruitment process and facilitate the interviewing process with kindly and calmly.
COMMITMENT TO TRANS, NON-BINARY AND/OR GENDER DIVERSE PEOPLE AND PEOPLE OF THE GLOBAL MAJORITY
We are committed to providing an environment that is welcoming, accessible and inclusive for all attendees, staff, guests and volunteers, in person and online. In particular, SQIFF works to provide the safest environment for Trans, Non-Binary and/or Gender Diverse People, and people of the Global Majority.
Please refer to SQIFF’s Trans, Non-Binary and/or Gender Diverse People Statement and our Anti-Racism policy to see our full statement and measures.
We welcome any comments and suggestions that can help us to develop our Care and Wellbeing Policy: [email protected].