What did gaining consent look like in your process?
Note: Our weekly garden club meeting was designed collectively to allow villagers to participate at a level that is valuable to them. The garden club board was the first iteration of a structure and shared community agreements to help facilitate supportive and productive connections.
Gaining consent is a vital component of respectful and equitable relationships, whether they are personal or professional. Simply put, consent is the act of giving permission or agreement for something to occur. In order for consent to be genuine, it must be given freely, with a clear understanding of what is being consented to and the right to revoke consent at any time. Such consent is not only essential but also empowering, as it honors individuals' autonomy and agency over their bodies, choices, and actions. As a society, we must prioritize educating ourselves and others about consent and its importance in fostering healthy connections and striving toward a safer and more equitable world.
The ways that I incorporated consent into my trauma-informed process:
Collective decision-making and resident involvement in the planning and design
Regular reflection/consistent feedback from residents
Flexible attendance. Villagers were welcome to attend when it worked for them, and for how long it worked for them. Participation is voluntary and villagers were always welcome to adjust the group to their needs.
Be creative about the opportunities available to us. It’s okay to do something new, in a different way, or to modify it for our specific needs. Ultimately, given the consistent changes and evolutions on the site, we recognized as a collective that change was an important and constant variable impacting our process. Support through the changes, and time to process the changes—both individually and collectively—were important parts of the process. This was especially important when our community garden plot was suspended due to the wetland delineation process. Luckily, after some time reflecting, grieving, and regrouping, we discovered that our focus was best served on making the asphalt lot a more comfortable and enjoyable living space.