Standards of Conduct for Community Engagement

Purpose
To foster a respectful, inclusive, and supportive environment across all Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation spaces, whether online or in-person. This Standards of Conduct Policy outlines behavioral expectations for participants in our community programs, events, online platforms, and any affiliated discussions or forums.

Scope
This policy applies to all individuals participating in Reeve Foundation spaces, including but not limited to:

Online forums, social media groups, and virtual meetings
In-person events
Email lists, collaborative platforms, and comment sections

Code of Conduct

All participants are expected to:

Engage in civil discourse and constructive dialogue, treating others respectfully and kindly.
Respect the privacy and dignity of others.
Refrain from any form of harassment, discrimination, or hate speech.
Avoid disruptive behavior, including but not limited to spamming, trolling, personal attacks, or inflammatory remarks.
Honor the mission and values of the Reeve Foundation in all interactions.
Follow any specific rules or guidelines set for particular events, platforms, or spaces.

Digital Community Guidelines & Prohibited Behavior

To ensure a safe and welcoming online environment, participants must not:

Post personal information. For your own protection and the privacy of other members, do not give out information such as phone numbers and addresses.  
Spam, make personal attacks, post content/images that are pornographic, obscene or indecent, and profanity. These include:
- Topics of illicit content. 
- Using partial masking (such as asterisks or punctuation marks) to bypass the profanity filter.
- Posting identical and/or unrelated messages repeatedly on the same or multiple topic areas. Spam also includes posting content within messages or signatures that contain promotional or advertising statements and/or links to other sites.
- “Bumping” or cross-posting posts to keep them near the top or to advance the same topic across multiple forums. Please limit your post to one forum. 
- While posting external links is allowed, do not copy and paste the entire content of those articles directly as this may violate copyright and consent laws.

Unacceptable Behavior Includes (but is not limited to):

Verbal abuse or intimidation
Disruption of discussions, events, or collaborative efforts
Sharing others’ personal information without consent
Refusal to follow requests from moderators or facilitators

Enforcement
The Reeve Foundation reserves the right to take appropriate action to maintain a safe and respectful environment, including:

Issuing verbal or written warnings
Muting, suspending, or removing participants from online platforms or events
Permanently banning individuals from our community spaces
Reporting serious incidents to the appropriate authorities when required

Reporting Concerns
If you witness or experience behavior that violates this policy, please report it to [email protected].

All reports will be handled confidentially and reviewed in a timely manner.
During live and online events, issues should be reported to the online moderator or to a staff member on site.
Social media concerns may be reported via the administrator option.

Right to Remove
We reserve the right to remove or restrict access to any individual whose behavior violates this policy, without prior warning, in order to protect the integrity of our mission and the well-being of our community. 

Additional Policies