What are standards? Standards are a set of basic rules and regulations that help protect members of VAV, they say how our group should operate and make sure we work efficiently as a team. They are also criteria for good participation and we make sure others that work with us (especially adults) keep to the standards too.
We base our standards on the idea that everyone should feel safe and happy whilst being a part of VAV, so every rule helps this in some way. Even though we are a positive group, we all come from backgrounds of domestic abuse so there are always going to be issues of safety and things that are dangerous to us. Standards are important as they give structure to the group as well as making it clear that if you break these rules you could jeopardise your place in the group. Safe and happy are together as one as each contributes to the other; it’s practically impossible to be only one or the other. Most of all, we want VAV to be a fun place for everyone involved, which is why these rules exist :-).
We want to be a role model for children’s participation so please feel free to use and adapt these standards; our message to young people experiencing domestic abuse is that you CAN participate in a fun and safe way and these standards could help break down some barriers to participation.
Download the complete VAV Standards Booklet (PDF, 1.3Mb)