Spit it Out began in 2019 with BBC documentary "Spit it Out" about Bee Asha and how she used writing and performance as a tool to find healing and connection after her experience of sexual trauma. The unmet need for spaces in the community for people to openly share, discuss and explore their experiences of trauma, mental health and creative practice was made clear to us as we hosted screenings of the documentary.

This realisation led us to bring together a collective of people united by the  desire to facilitate non-judgemental spaces in which folk with diverse identities/ experiences could come together and cultivate solidarity, learning and healing through creatively engaging with their experiences of marginalisation, trauma and mental ill health.

In 2021, we worked hard to become a SCIO (Scottish Charitable incorporated organisation). The community response to our work motivated us to do what we could to make our projects as accessible and sustainable as possible for everyone involved- attendees, partners and collective members. Accessible and sustainable work is expensive, and so we decided to structure ourselves as a charity in order to access the funding opportunities that could facilitate us to expand and improve our projects. Charity law regarding organisational structure meant we had to transition quickly from a grassroots, informally-structured collective of friends with shared values to a professional team with codified roles and responsibilities. This was and continues to be a difficult transition, especially as we remain committed to bringing our values around community Transformative Justice to this work- values that aren’t easy bedfellows with the structural hierarchies, HR processes and workplace customs of formal charitable organisations. 

Over the past 3 years of navigating this process, we have remained constant in our commitment to centering the needs of the community we serve. As an organisation led by people with lived experience of the issues at the heart of our work - trauma, mental illnesses, structural marginalisation- we are intimately aware of the need for those holding power to remain humble and open to hearing and learning from the experiences of those with less power in the spaces they operate in. In spite of the ways we have personally experienced disempowerment and oppression, we acknowledge the relative power we hold simultaneously as leaders of a team of employees and volunteers, as well as facilitators of community spaces in which we invite vulnerability and radical care. It is from this position of embodying contradiction (both disempowered and powerful) that we have been invested in gathering feedback and learning from everyone we work with to ensure Spit it Out remains a space where we might all access safety, care, healing, accountability and transformative justice. 

Through the years, we have made mistakes. At various points we have been tempted to give up, overwhelmed by the weight of the serious responsibilities of doing this work as we are not experts in trauma recovery or safeguarding or management. The impact of the work that Spit it Out continues to do, alongside the sincere belief that we can all learn, grow, do better, make more mistakes and once again remain humble to the feedback and continue to learn, grow, develop and improve sustains our commitment to leading Spit it Out. We hold ourselves accountable to the values we advocate for and are dedicated to transparency, accountability and care.

At the beginning 2023 we began exploring ways to weave transformative justice (TJ) values into our organisational foundation as a SCIO. We’ve welcomed new board and team members, started partnerships and spent months editing, strengthening and creating new Frameworks, Policies, and Procedures that better reflect and support who we are as a TJ organisation. We are still working on new projects (WIP) to further this ambition. We are a very small team and are constantly struggling to maintain the operation and funding of our various projects, as well as developing these internal processes and policies. It is from our commitment to and in the spirit of transparency and accountability that we are sharing the details of the recent developments we’ve been working on. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you’d like any clarification or more details.  

1. The Resolution Framework 

• Since July 2023 we have been working closely with TCM (An alternative HR support group) to create a framework for positive resolution. It focuses on how our team can work towards positive resolution beginning with, “Local Resolution” and moving to “Supported Resolution” if needed. 

• We believe in community support but this allows us to offer the option to outsource mediations and team support from unbiased experts if preferred or necessary. 

• We have been working on the creation of a Resolution Hub (WIP) for our team. It includes techniques for opening difficult conversations, information on nonviolent communication and links to resources and signposting from partners. 

2. Ethical Data collection

• Since July 2023 we have been working with ethical data collection organisation - People of data. This incredible organisation has been supporting us to find new ways to collect and store data that are less invasive and more inclusive than traditional methods. Finding more effective and efficient ways to gather feedback is important to us so we don't want to have to keep asking our community members for their personal information and storing it unnecessarily. We want data to be fun and used as a tool for storytelling who we are, what we do & who we help! 

3. Community Guidelines

• At the beginning of 2023 we began to work on the creation of Community Guidelines to be piloted at the Spit it Out festival 2024. We want these guidelines to support our community in understanding the “do’s and don’ts” to ensure SiO Spaces are as informed and accessible as possible. 

4. Aftercare Resources and Signposting (WIP)

• Throughout 2023 we have been working on creating resources that can be available to community members pre and post SiO events. These resources will have tips & techniques to help you provide care to yourself when it comes to engaging in our spaces.

• Early 2023, we released a signposting page on our website.  Spit it Out  was created to offer pre/post crisis support to fight the lack of community healing spaces. (Our events are not crisis intervention or therapeutic support as our team are not mental health support professionals. At SiO we don’t believe in ‘Safe Spaces’, nobody can ensure that you would not be triggered in any space, but we want to make sure there are resources in case you are! This poem, Brave Spaces, by Mickey Scottbey Jones, we find really inspiring. 

• We are currently working on our “Know your Rights” booklets (illustrated by Maria Stoian), created to empower our community through easily accessible resources on people’s rights and transformative justice in times of crisis. They will be released in September 2024 in partnership with Crew 2000, LGBT health and ZYA.

5. Strengthening the Board 

• At the moment we have 6 voluntary Board members but we are aiming to have 13 by 2025. We believe a strong board has many voices and diverse expertise. We want our team to have a strong, experienced body to turn to and we have also implemented supervisions for everybody on our team.  We are still welcoming applications to join the  board. Please, contact us if you are interested!

6. Safeguarding training

• Over the last year the spit it out team, many of our volunteers and community have been offered and undertaken training opportunities dedicated to making our spaces as inclusive and informed as possible. These include ; 

• Mental Health First Aid

• First Aid

• Supporting Adult Connections 

• Neurodiversity Training

• Anti-racism 

• Active Bystander Training
   

7. EDI Framework 

• Equality, equity, diversity and inclusion is the main drive of our work. SIO was founded to centre vulnerable groups and create opportunities for under-resourced communities and marginalised voices. 

• We have put together a Framework to ensure that the work we do continues to create a platform for people who experience marginalisation and find ways for us to grow and shape our spaces to benefit everyone within them. 

• We have built this to reflect the Spit it Out Values;

• Community Care, Self-Compassion, Cathartic Creativity and Transformative Justice. 

• Open discussions towards Resolution and Transformation rather than conflict.  

• Breaking the taboo around difficult conversations and issues affecting marginalised communities. 

• Transparency and support when it comes to mental ill health.

• Inclusivity for all our projects through free/pay-as-you-can events, childcare, BSL and Open Access

8. The Coalition (WIP)

• Our commitment to EDI is rooted in the recognition of the systemic barriers and injustices faced by marginalised communities. We stand in solidarity with people who experience marginalisation due to any protected characteristic. We acknowledge the intersecting forms of oppression that individuals may face and we are committed to amplifying their voices, advocating for their rights, and creating spaces where they feel valued, seen, and heard. We want to create a coalition of partners and individuals that share our values and goals and release the first version by August 2026.