Establishing a High Trust Organization

Why We’re Here

Do no harm. First things first, we must do no harm. This imperative spans our work with communities, volunteers, staff and partners alike.

Sexual Misconduct is Unacceptable. Sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse must have no home in All Hands and Hearts.

What happened? We are aware of four allegations of sexual misconduct against: one staff member, one community member, and three volunteers from 2018 to present (Dec 10).  During this period we worked with >16,000 volunteers, hundreds of staff and thousands of community members,  but any one incident is one too many.

Our response to these incidents at the time included a support package for survivors (medical, travel, etc), full investigations and disciplinary action; however, our response and our care for survivors then was not to our standards today. Under our new CEO, we have publicly apologized and are pursuing restorative conversations with survivors, if welcomed by them.

Communications. When these issues were raised online in early 2021, our previous executive chose not to respond publicly, nor to update our staff or our leadership team. This led some survivors to feel unheard and to a loss of trust. Our new CEO changed this approach from day one in the role, communicating openly and transparently, while leading significant change organizationally.

Negative Social Media Conversations. 
A small group has taken their concerns to our social media channels, flagging the issues on our posts and sharing their concerns with others in a way that is monopolizing the conversation of improvement we are trying to put forth. We recognize that some of the points they are making are true which is why we have posted a statement and are working internally to make progress on restructuring our safety protocols.

However, even though we have tried to show and communicate our improvement, negative comments and confidential/private information continue to pop up on all of our posts which are not allowing our organization to show that we are taking the necessary steps that should come out of these incidents.

Survivors have asked us to stop these people from commenting, but the group:

1) continues to comment,

2) refuses our invitations to raise their concerns directly with our CEO, HR or Board,

3) fabricates malicious, intentional disinformation in a coordinated manner, and

4) personally attacks potential volunteers, staff, community members, donors, and even family members.

We continue to invite all into meaningful conversation and resolution, but no one from this group has taken us up on this opportunity instead, these constant negative comments divert our attention from survivors and inhibit our ability to listen, learn & respond.

A New All Hands and Hearts Era

2022 will be a year of strategic, organizational transformation. Building from strong foundations in our volunteer-powered model, can-do ethos, and track record of success, we also commit to continuous improvement and to making needed changes in light of these historic incidents.

Our biggest 2022 goal is to build All Hands and Hearts into a “High-Trust Organization” built around the principles of humanity, transparency, credibility and reliability.  Against this vision, six strategic goals will guide our work from January to September 2022.

Prevention of Sexual Misconduct is Fundamental to Our New Era
We are driving a significant change process, detailed on the following page, to upgrade our approach to sexual misconduct prevention.  We are not alone. Most responsible nonprofits have been doing the same in recent years in the wake of #MeToo, if not long before.

We will never be a High Trust Organization if our people are not protected from harm.

That starts with accountability. 

A core part of this change process is transparently communicating with our people, partners and supporters.

Recap of Steps Taken & To Come

Steps Already Taken & Complete

• Independent Review. Commissioned an independent review from a field-leading expert to review our policies, systems & training. This found a broadly positive framework already in place and provided recommendations to strengthen
• Accountable Action Plan. Shared review findings & action plan with board for accountability
• Incident Review. Conducted a historical review of our incident files, looking for trends, patterns and risk factors
• Senior Staffing. Director of Wellbeing role created and a new CEO hired with deep expertise in this space.
• Communications. From day one, our new CEO is leading into this, speaking publicly and reversing the communication silence to date. We have opened transparent communications through forums for staff and volunteers to safely raise questions, concerns and ideas.
• Accountable Commitments were published online in September 2021, along with FAQs added in the coming weeks.
• Background checks have been rolled out to all selected volunteers

Steps in Motion 

Actions from the independent review are on track:

• Ombudsman & Whistleblowing Replacing our current ombudsman (who is a board member) with an independent consultant, linked to an improved whistleblowing channel
• New Policy & Training Frameworks are being developed in partnership with an expert humanitarian HR organization
• Safeguarding Umbrella. We are tying together numerous policies to create a holistic ecosystem around safeguarding (Code of Conduct, Sexual Misconduct Policy, Whistleblower Policy,  Anti-Harassment, Bullying & Discrimination Policy, Prevention of SHEA of Program Participants and Community Members, Child Protection & Child Code of Conduct, Safe Recruitment & Selection, Safe Programming)
• Survivor Outreach.  We are reaching out to all survivors, in a manner bespoke to each individual, if welcomed by them
• Sector Engagement. Best practice learning & exchange continues

Insight Talks. Recognizing that structural factors are only part of preventing sexual misconduct, these talks with staff and volunteers will help to identify underlying cultural risk factors to address (i.e. alcohol, relationships on program).

Steps to Come in the New Year

Insight Talks. The Insight Talks will inform and shape our next steps in this change process. Findings from the insight talks will be presented to the Leadership Team and Board in February to shape the actions in our subsequent phase of continuous improvement to run through 2022.

A High Trust Organization. More broadly, our commitment to safeguarding aligns with our fiscal year 2022 goal of building a high trust organization via six areas:

• Putting People First
• Defining the Volunteer Experience
• Gaining Strategic Clarity
• Telling Our Story Fearlessly, with Pride
• Building a High Performing Organization
• Resetting Our Structure for FY23

These strategic goals are in draft and will be shared with all staff once finalized.

Continued Board Development.  With a few recent changes and a few resulting vacancies on the board, we are working with the board to ensure that they have the skills, representation, structures and systems needed to perform their critical oversight role in this area.