STEP BY STEP COMMUNITY LIVING AGREEMENTS



Step By Step Community Living Agreements

Before your Community Living Agreement Meeting

❑ Decide when you will have your Community Living Agreement meeting.

❑ Date:__________________ Time: ___________ Location: _________________________

❑ To prepare for the meeting: Bring some newsprint and markers to your floor meeting.

❑ Pull your upperclass residents into the agreement process. Ask them what conflicts and issues they have experienced in the past when living in a community. How would they like this year to be different? Consider having them help lead the discussion.

❑ Use the Community Living Agreement Meeting Agenda to guide the flow of your meeting.

Some Key Facitialtion Skills

❑ General Facilitation Skills

❑ Wait until everyone is quiet and ready to go. If there is talking in the room, you will have to talk louder to be heard and this often results in those talking to being talking loud… it turns into a volume cycle…

❑ Dominating Resident(s)(only person giving suggestions)

❑ Having the group break up into smaller groups may help with a dominating resident. This places the resident with a small number of other residents and gives greater opportunities for other residents to give their ideas.

❑ If you have one or two residents who are always answering, try calling on other residents or go around the room and give everyone an equal chance to speak up. Without singling out those residents ask for some new residents to share ideas.

❑ Policy Violation Suggestions

❑ Remind the residents of the ground rules. Let everyone know that we are a community who respects one another and not everyone wants to violate policies. Remind residents that policies are there for their safety and the safety of others and by violating them the chances of someone getting hurt increases.

❑ Timid and Shy Residents

❑ Similar to the dominating residents, having the group break up into smaller groups to begin allows for a greater opportunity for the timid resident to share.

❑ Angry, Negative and Rude Comments

❑ Again remind them of the ground rules and the purpose of the community.

❑ Try to turn their comment into a positive suggestion (i.e. if a resident says, “I’m going to punch anyone who wakes me up at night with loud music.” You might say… ”So one measure of music being too loud is that it wakes others up. If that happens while punching someone is not an appropriate response, going to that person and letting him/her know their music woke you up and asking politely for them to turn it down would be a great response.”)

Community Living Agreement Meeting Agenda

❑ Introduction:

❑ Start with sharing the ground rules for the agreement process. Have your residents share what ground rules they would like. Below are some examples:

❑ Ground Rules:

❑ One person talks at a time

❑ Take turns talking and listen when others are talking

❑ Be open to new ideas

❑ It is OK to disagree

❑ Confidentiality

❑ Everyone’s ideas are important

❑ Ideas that violate policy are not acceptable

❑ Brainstorming:

❑ Share with the group each of the possible areas (see the Community Living Agreement Worksheet) that can be included in their agreement. If the group is large (25 or more residents) break down into smaller groups (10-15 each) and have each smaller group come up with a sample agreement to share with the larger group.

❑ After each group shares (or the larger group brainstorms what they would want on the agreement) it is time to negotiate what specifically goes on the agreement.

❑ Writing the Agreement:

❑ Go from area to area. Try to fully examine the topic before moving on. If people have ideas that come up after a topic has been discussed, it is okay to go back and add to it at the end.

❑ As you write the agreement make sure everyone is given the opportunity to speak if they choose. Also, when an issue arises, find a solution that is win-win for all sides.

❑ Periodically check in with residents to see if they are comfortable with the agreement up to that point.

❑ Closure:

❑ When the agreement is finished have each member of the floor sign the agreement.

After the Community Living Agreement Meeting

❑ Type up the agreement and give each member of your floor a copy to have

❑ Post the actual agreement outside your door, in the restroom, in the lounge or another public area.

❑ When a conflict arises on your floor, talk to those involved and remind them of the guidelines your floor established. Ask them to resolve the conflict by following those guidelines. If they are not able t resole it than ask them to return to you and do mediation.

❑ If the majority of the floor is not following the agreement, hold a floor meeting and talk to the floor about what is happening on the floor. Ask the floor if they are or are not able to follow the agreement they established and decide if they should change the agreement.

❑ When a new resident comes to the floor, give him/her a copy of the Community Living Agreement. Go over the agreement with them and ask if they are willing to agree to it and are comfortable with everything on the agreement.

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