Reporting
When to report a safeguarding concern?
Whether you are working at OCC Greece or Spain, you should always report any (potential) safeguarding concern that happened while working and that made you feel uncomfortable, unsafe or that affected you mentally and/or physically. It can also be an issue that affected someone else or a group of people, whether it included you or not, and can be about team members and/or the people we work with (beneficiaries of OCC).
Below you can find some scenarios in which it would be good to report what you have experienced, or what you saw/observed what others experienced:
You felt unsafe or threatened, or you felt someone acted inappropriate to you
You saw others feeling unsafe or threatened
You observed dangerous or threatening behaviour from others
You noticed incorrect/inappropriate behaviour from others
You heard about concerning situations and you are not sure what to do with that information
You have reported an issue before but you feel it has not been handled correctly
IMPORTANT INFORMATION BEFORE FURTHER READING
Note 1: It is completely up to you to submit safeguarding issues by name or anonymously. Read further below how to do it in the way you feel most comfortable and safe.
Note 2: If you face an emergency situation right now, skip all the text and reach out to your local vocal point right away or reach out to local emergency services (see Main Contacts in the menu on the left).
Note 3: You may doubt to report a concern because you have doubts about confidentiality, but keep in mind that the committee respects privacy and keeps all matters discussed confidential. However, keep in mind, a safeguarding concern could mean that there is (potential) harm or danger involved to others, and we therefore have a responsibility to sometimes choose safety and acting on safeguarding concerns over breaking or not breaking confidentiality. If you doubt how to deal with this, we recommend to speak to one of the Safeguarding Leads for advice.
How to report a safeguarding concern?
There are two ways to report a safeguarding concern that you have experienced or observed. For both methods, there are ways to either do it by name or anonymously - this is completely up to you.
Option 1: to your local coordinator
If you feel comfortable to do so, you can report any issue and/or discuss them directly with your local coordinator (also called 'Focal point'). They will be able to help you and give you advice, and/or take required action.
They will always discuss the reported issue within our Safeguarding Committee to see what's the best way to handle the issue. They can either do this by mentioning you OR without doing so - it's always your choice if you want to be further involved in how we handle the issue. In other words, even if you report a safeguarding issue in-person, it can still be processed anonymously.
GENDER SAFEGUARDING: If you would prefer your issue to be handled directly by a female staff member of OCC due to the nature of the issue you face, you can reach out directly to Marta Hormaechea (marta@openculturalcenter.org or on Slack @Marta Hormaechea).
Option 2: through an online form
If you prefer to report the safeguarding issue you experienced or observed online, you can fill this form to report any issue that has occured to you or to anyone else around you within OCC. Make sure to write a clear description of the issue so the Safeguarding Committee can handle it correctly.
The form can only be seen by the OCC Safeguarding Committee. Also here, it's completely up to you to report the issue with your name or anonymously - the first question in the form is related to this.
SOME TIPS WHEN YOU DESCRIBE THE ISSUE
If possible/applicable,
include who was involved (you can mention names - the report is processed confidently)
include where the issue happened
include how you were involved
include why you think this was a (potential) harmful/dangerous situation
How are reported safeguarding issues received?
Whether an issue is reported by name or anonymously, when we receive a reported safeguarding issue, it will be discussed by the OCC Safeguarding Committee - they are also the only individuals who will see the content of the issue that is reported.
The OCC Safeguarding Committee has been compiled by four professionals who know OCC well and have safeguarding-related knowledge and experience. They meet on a monthly basis to address any safeguarding issues, or meet more regularly in case of high-urgent issues.
At the moment, the Safeguarding Committee is compiled of:
Didac Guillamet (OCC General Director)
Jalal Afhim (Previous coordinator OCC Greece)
Marta Hormaechea (Communications Manager)
Irene Viti (Project Manager)
Vincent van Grondelle (OCC Spain Coordinator)
Maria Serra (Project Manager
The committee will address the severity of the issue, discuss the best steps to handle it, take any necessary action and close the issue once everyone who is involved feels safe and heard.
If you reported a safeguarding issue with your name (so not anonymously), a committee member may reach out to you to ask more details or offer support to you. If this happens, it's still always up to you to what extent you want to be involved in the handling of the issue.
The only exception to not keeping the issue within the Safeguarding Committee is if there is a danger of direct harm to anyone involved - in that case we may take direct action to prevent any harm or abuse. In that scenario, we may also reach out to local emergency services.
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