Posted by muffled on January 10, 2007, at 13:40:40
I know I said I wasn't gonna post here, but this is a follow up to a question bob had awhile back and I was just able to follow up on.
So at my drop in center our 'blocking' policies are such that, if a person cuases undue disruption, they will be asked to leave for the day.
If its more violent, or intrusive(eg. yelling and they will not step down), ESP against people who work there, then they will get a week.
If they keep getting repeated 1 day exclusions, then they will be asked to leave for a week. If its ongoing, then goes to a month. Thats seems to be the cap.
Last week we had someone throw something at a staff member and they broke the plate glass window in the process. They have been banned for 1 mo. That person tried to come in this morning, but was made to leave or we would call cops. Which for obvo reasons is a last resort for us.
Now a person that has a 1 month block STILL has the opportunity to talk to the preacher that runs the place, and the preacher might choose to shorten the block in certain situations.
This mostly seems to work. The one prob is if we are too lenient, then probs do start to escalate, there is no question of that (been happening recently), and thats not good, cuz it can be truly unsafe there if its not under some control.
However that being said, the plan is to be more firm with the 1 day, 1 week bans, for OBVIOUS infractions. And to be more clear about the bans.
Often its just said 'get out of here and don't come back today'. When mebbe sometimes it could possibly be made more clear to all.
So we block for safety reasons.
We don't block cuz someones feelings have been hurt, or there has been a mild argument without major yelling. Often a staff will try and talk to them instead. We don't block someone when they walk out the door and yell 'f*ck you Joe' on the way out. They can come in later, so longs they don't go over the line of safety and extreemly obviosly try and cause trouble.
These people have many issues and problems for all different reasons. MOST of them are able to keep it safe.
The LAST possible thing we wish to do is make anyone feel more marginal and unacceptable than they already feel.
So thats my answer.
Muffled
poster:muffled
thread:715306
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20061228/msgs/721066.html