Safeguarding

Safeguarding Statement – Peace Pilgrimage (Oxford to London)

Peace Pilgrimage is an unincorporated community group, with the aim to allow responsible adults to participate in a peace pilgrimage from Oxford to London. Part of the nature of pilgrimage is making ourselves open to “moving out of our comfort zones… to make strides towards the unknown,” and we expect participants to be responsible for themselves in this journey (or be in the care of a responsible adult). However, we recognise the responsibility to protect children and vulnerable adults, and want people feel safe at our events and activities. This statement is intended to provide overarching principles to raise awareness of safeguarding issues and guide our approach in doing so.

Safeguarding Principles

These safeguarding principles apply to anyone involved with Peace Pilgrimage, we ask anyone organising, volunteering or participating in our events to follow them. We believe that:

· Nobody who is involved in our activities and events should ever experience abuse, harm, neglect, or exploitation.

· We all have a responsibility to promote the welfare of all of our participants and volunteers, to keep each other safe and to organise in a way that protects each other.

· We all have a collective responsibility for creating a culture in which our people not only feel safe, but also able to speak up if they have any concerns.

Safeguarding Guidelines

Abuse can take many forms, such as physical, psychological or emotional, financial, sexual or institutional abuse, including neglect and exploitation.

While we are encouraged to look after each other, [name] will take particular responsibility for supporting the safety and well-being of people at Peace Pilgrimage events and activities. They can be contacted confidentially with concerns at [contact details].

Our specific safeguarding guidelines are:

· People attending Peace Pilgrimage events and activities should make the above person aware of any safety and well-being concerns.

· We will act early and with good faith to resolve any concerns. An open and transparent approach will be adopted; listening and engaging with those involved in Peace Pilgrimage events and involving them as appropriate.

· We reserve the right to ask someone to stop participating if their behaviour is putting others at risk. Any serious incidents will be reported to the relevant local authorities.

· Children and vulnerable adults should only participate with the support of a responsible adult, and should not attend overnight stays.