CCR VAW list guidelines for use

Introduction

The CCR Violence against Women (VAW) email list is intended for people who work with newcomer women or girls in situations of violence or abuse. It is maintained by the Canadian Council for Refugees and hosted by Googlegroups.

The list is open to front-line workers and NGO representatives with an interest in the intersections of immigration laws, policies and practices and violence against women. In order to allow free discussion on strategy, the list is closed to representatives of the government and the media.

How to join the CCR VAW list

To join the CCR VAW list, send a request to vaw@ccrweb.ca giving your name and organization (if you do not represent an organization, please explain briefly why you wish to join the CCR VAW list).

Guidelines for Posting Messages on CCR VAW list

Any member of the list can send messages by writing a message to ccrvaw@googlegroups.com

You are encouraged to participate actively in the list by sending messages relating to serving newcomer women and girls in situations of violence, and advocating for their rights, while respecting the following rules.

Examples of ways the list can be used include:

  • To ask and answer questions about supporting newcomer women in situations of violence (while maintaining confidentiality of clients)
  • To share tools and resources about serving or advocating for newcomer women in situations of violence
  • To share media articles and announcements for events, trainings, etc.

Archived messages can also be viewed by list members on the group page at: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ccrvaw

Anti-oppression

Users of the CCR VAW list must comply with the organization’s policies, including the CCR Anti-Oppression and Anti-Racism Policies.  The CCR acknowledges its responsibility to ensure that the CCR VAW list is free of discrimination and oppression and that all individuals are treated with respect and dignity.  As such, messages which are discriminatory, oppressive or offensive can result in the sender being removed from the list. 

Content of messages

Users of the CCR VAW list are asked to follow the following guidelines when posting messages. 

  1. Messages must be directly related to concerns around the intersections of violence against women and immigration laws, policies and practices
  2. Posters may not forward someone else’s email without their permission (unless it is clearly a public announcement).
  3. Avoid long discussions.  Pursuing a particular thread over many messages is not likely to interest all list members. If you wish to keep a dialogue going on a specific topic, follow up directly with the list members who have shown interest in the debate.

Thank you for respecting these rules which will help keep the CCR VAW list an effective forum for information exchange.

Respecting closed nature of CCR VAW list

DO NOT forward or publish confidential information from the CCR VAW list. The list is closed to government and media so that we can safely exchange information among NGOs. Unless the information on the CCR VAW list is clearly public (e.g. media releases, public announcements), you should respect its confidentiality and not forward or publish the information without permission from the sender.

Note: This is a publicly hosted list, so if you have concerns about privacy or confidentiality, see Google’s privacy policy. It notes that “when you share information publicly, it may be indexable by search engines, including Google”. The service provides some options for sharing and removing content.