Start Intervention > People who have been harmed > Let's Begin > How can you encourage accountability?

The tools and how to use them

If you haven’t already, check for Signs of immediate danger.  This might affect what you do next.

This topic has long tools to help take accountability, some of them may be useful to you.  Staircase of change talks more about accountability as a process.  You can look at your own situation and adapt the steps to your goals.

Two tools are for people who were harmed. Level of participation for people who were harmed chart helps think about how you want to be involved in a process of taking accountability.  It can help you think about how you might stay involved and in the loop. Self-reflection and guiding questions for people who were harmed and allies has tools to think through your involvement in the accountability process.

There are also tools for allies and the person who hurt you, which you might want to look at. Self-reflection and practice for allies Practice Questions has questions and statements to guide through what can be a hard process.  Breaking through defensiveness Guiding Questions for the person doing harm and Preparing for direct communication, Affirmations and Guided Questions for the person doing harm give support to get beyond defensiveness.

Bay Area Transformative Justice have a tool for thinking about who can support people to take accountability.  Their Pods and pod mapping worksheet describes a simple way to think about and build support for even the hardest times. 

 

Tools and examples

Real story: A cultural organisation deals with sexual assault

Real story: Women come together to confront our community leaders

Real story:  Stopping violence as a first step

Real story: Surviving and doing sexual harm, a story of accountability and healing

 

Other sections that can help

A process of taking accountability often happens at the same time as supporting the person harmed.  See what support do you need for information and tools.

How do you stay safe has tools to think about risks and plan for safety.  These may be especially important when working with the person doing harm.

In order to think through who can help to work with and support the person doing harm, see Who can help.