2023 Down South Conference
Community Care Agreements


We owe it to each other to create safe and accessible spaces!

We invite you to help us build a safe community based on the principles of collective care and collaboration. The ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic has challenged our imaginations to dream up new ways to gather and celebrate collectively while reducing harm to our most vulnerable community members. The health and safety of our communities is our top priority. This language is borrowed from the Surviving the Long Wars Summit.

To be in solidarity with our elders, immunocompromised attendees, and our broader sick and disabled kin, we ask that you consent to the following community agreements :

Pre-Conference

FRJA strongly recommends we get vaccinated or boosted if we haven’t already.

  • We consent to complete our Down South RJ Conference: Community Care Agreements Form  72 hours before arriving to the conference.
  • Within your capacity, starting October 13th, we consent to limiting unmasked, indoor exposure to folks within our household or pod for (7 days) leading up to the retreat and masking up in public and avoiding high-exposure risk situations.
  • Attendees consent to take a COVID test (PCR or at-home self test) 72 hours at most before the traveling day and share the result with the Florida Restorative Justice Team by completing our Down South RJ Conference: Community Care Agreements Form. If it is positive we will notify the FRJA Team and stay home.

    Note: If you recently recovered from COVID and think this may be why you are testing positive, follow up with an at-home antigen test. If it’s negative, follow up again the next day and if it is still negative you may not have COVID right now.

During Conference

  • We consent to wearing our masks over the nose and mouth inside the indoor conference space except when eating.
  • We consent to be mindful of social distancing in crowded areas and note that masking and social distancing in outdoor spaces are highly encouraged.
  • We will collectively consent to minimizing travel outside of the "conference bubble" during the trip, except for emergency situations and if travel is necessary wearing a mask when outside of the "conference bubble.”
  • We consent to doing a daily self-check of symptoms and taking another rapid rest if an individual has symptoms.

Post Conference

  • We are encouraged to take a test once we get home from the retreat to confirm that we did not contract COVID while at the retreat or traveling.
  • We commit to sharing with the FRJA if someone receives a positive test, as a way of cultivating our own form of contact tracing.

This COVID agreement was developed in consultation with the Safer In-Person Gatherings resource provided by The People’s CDC, a coalition of public health practitioners, scientists, educators, and advocates.