Our Values

 

1. We want to listen to, advocate for and amplify the voices of freelancers.

2. We work to reflect the diverse world we live in through a sustained commitment to inclusion, accessibility and representation.

3. We grow trust by working with honesty and transparency.

4. We recognise and respect that everyone arrives at this work from a different starting point and with a different set of experiences.

5. We aim to work in a collaborative, non-hierarchical way and share responsibility for our actions.

6. We respect devolution and support freelancers working across all four nations of the United Kingdom, recognising the political, legal and cultural differences that arise from the individual contexts of each nation.

7. We endeavour to be solutions-focussed, addressing systemic issues both current and historic through action.

8. We foster empathetic and generous environments where everyone is safe to learn, ask for help, change their mind and make mistakes.

9. We endeavour to free spaces of bullying, coercion and passive aggressive behaviour.

10. We are proudly independent, volunteer and activist-led and we support each other as capacities change.

11. We believe that things can be better and give our time on behalf of the freelance community in this belief.

 

FMTW anti-racism commitment

 

Collective Working Agreement – Meetings

 

FMTW want to be inclusive, accessible and encourage participation from everyone who attends any of our meetings. It is important to work in ways that actively uphold our values.

Below are fundamental expectations for all meeting attendees. One of these values will be read aloud as a reminder at the beginning of meetings, and agreement sought from all participants so that we continually reflect on how we want to work, and the ways we undertake our activism with care. 

1. We care for ourselves and each other by respecting each other’s boundaries and listening to our own physical, mental, and emotional needs and limits.

2. We avoid making assumptions. If we feel in conflict with an idea proposed, we will seek to clarify first and then engage in active listening, before offering constructive criticism.

3. We are mindful of how people participate in different ways and actively facilitate opportunities for everyone to participate in ways they find most accessible, embracing that this may require the pace of meetings to change.

4. We are each responsible for our own actions and we work to respect people’s opinions, beliefs, characteristics, approaches, and points of view.

5. We consistently work to recognise our own bias and privilege, including less obvious or invisible hierarchies. We work to be aware of the power we have in the space, how much space we take up, and how that impacts others.

6. We think about how our words, opinions and feelings are influenced and who they might exclude or harm. If we cause harm, we will listen and reflect on the impact of our actions, recognising that our intention does not absolve us of causing unintentional harm.

7. We recognise that participants may discuss sensitive or confidential information. We agree to hold all information confidential unless consent to share is clearly expressed. If in doubt, we ask them if we have permission to share.

8. We are all responsible for upholding our values and agree to speak up when/if we see members experiencing microaggressions, unfair and/or biased treatment, passive aggression, and inequitable exclusion.

9. We celebrate that people join our meetings from different roles, sectors, cultural perspectives, and backgrounds. We recognise the additional emotional energy it can take people to engage in work towards systemic change relative to their lived experience, and take responsibility for our own learning instead of asking them to teach us.

10. If we don’t understand something, we can just ask - we are all learning. When someone does not understand, we will take the time required to share our knowledge patiently and without judgement.

11. We celebrate that there is no one correct way of doing things, and that people may wish to approach the same issue differently.