Community Health | Effektiver Altruismus

In line with our values, we are committed to creating and maintaining a welcoming and nurturing culture of people with diverse backgrounds and viewpoints. We enforce a Code of Conduct and general Event Standards to support this.

Community Health Contact

Our Community Health Contacts are Patricia, Martin (Milli) and Emily. They are responsible for the association Effektiver Altruismus Deutschlan e.V. and for the German EA community. You can contact them in the following cases:

personal problems
tensions within your local group
(suspected) breaches of our Code of Conduct
feedback on developments, norms and practices within the community that concern you
to pass on feedback to other EA organisations or their staff

Please use our anonymous contact forms (German or English) for this. New entries are screened by Patricia (Community Health Contact and the association’s Equal Opportunities Officer). She delegates cases to the team of Community Health Contacts. If you don’t want your case to be handled by a specific person, please note that in the form, or contact someone else (see next paragraph).

Who else can you turn to with problems?

The Community Health Team at the Centre for Effective Altruism is the international contact. Jonathan Mannhardt (left photo) from their team is a German EA, in case you’d like to speak this language.
Our Equal Opportunities Officers
Our Board: Email us or use this anonymous form.
Contact the director of our association, Niels Doehring (right photo), via email. He has experience with youth work.

Any conversation with these organisations and individuals is confidential unless otherwise agreed. Exceptions apply to reports of criminal offences that must be reported to the police (limited to serious crimes such as homicide).

How do we react to reports of misconduct?

Upon receiving a report, Patricia checks:
a) if the situation falls within our responsibility (e.g. personal problems of an EA community member, interpersonal problems between community members, misconduct of community members),
b) if the accused is someone working or volunteering for EA Germany, in which case EAD’s board will get informed, and
c) if there could be a real or perceived conflict of interest. In this case, Patricia informs the reporting person about this and will try to give the case to someone without a conflict of interest.
If allowed by the violated person, the Community Health Contact who took over the case contacts the accused person for a logged interview. Goals may be: gather information, explain misbehaviour, communicate wishes of the violated person.
If the accused is not open for contact, action might be taken against them regardless. The type of action depends on the severity and certainty of the misconduct.
If desired by both parties, a mediated conversation or an educative agreement might be facilitated by the Community Health Contact.
The Community Health Contact is responsible for reviewing and evaluating the actions and future behaviour of the accused person. If a conflict of interest arises, another team member, the Equal Opportunity Officer, or a board member takes over this task.

Please note that we might make changes to the process as we learn from dealing with cases. If you have feedback about the process, please get in touch.

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Who else can you contact in Germany?

Emergency services: call 112 in potentially life-threatening situations
Medical on-call service: call 116117 in urgent, but not life threatening situations
Police: In urgent cases, please dial the emergency number 110. Police jurisdiction in Germany is structured federally. This portal offers central access to the websites of the police forces and police institutions of the Länder and the Federation. (German and English)
Telefonseelsorge: 0800 1110111 / 0800 1110222 This is a 24/7 staffed helpline that you can use to connect with trained counselors for support and local resources. (German; here are links to international helplines)
Nightline: Run by students for students in cities throughout Germany, this helpline is available 24/7. (German, here are links to international night lines).
Hilfetelefon Sexuelle Belästigung: 08000 116 016 This is a 24/7 staffed helpline for people struggling with sexual assault to speak with trained counsellors. (German, English + 14 other languages)
LGBTIQ Telefon Österreich: 0800 133 133 (also for Germany and Switzerland) Peer-to-peer help via phone, chat or email, Mo-Fri 19:00 – 21:00. (German)
Psychologists 4 Future: Trained professionals, offer counseling to people engaged in protecting and working for a better future (German & English)

Photo by Shane Rounce

Awareness Training for events and local groups

What is our Awareness Training?

The aim of the training is to lay out the tasks and limits of an awareness team, draw attention to important resources and discuss typical scenarios together. In addition, appropriate responses to critical situations are discussed, solutions for particular problems are found and open questions are clarified. At the end of the training, awareness teams should be able to judge when they can cope without help, and who they should contact if necessary (emergency services, fire brigade, police, therapist).

Who is our Awareness Training for?

We offer our awareness training for teams that organise an event and for local groups that want to train Community Health contacts. For all events, we recommend reminding people that they can get in touch with our Community Health Contact. For larger, multi-day events (e.g. retreat, hackathon or conference), there should be at least one female and one male presenting contact.

Need help finding suitable volunteers for this task,
are unsure whether the team you have chosen is a good fit, or
want to know if the size of the team is sufficient for your event.

How does the training work?

Local groups are welcome to arrange training for a contact person with us.
When we hear about events, we contact the organisers one month before the start of the event and ask about their awareness plan. At least two weeks before an event, the Community Health Contact arranges a meeting with the awareness team or the team lead of the event. In this meeting, the EAD Guide for Awareness Teams is discussed, details of their event and any uncertainties or questions are addressed.