Community Agreements for Dark Before the Dawn Events

Dark Before the Dawn is a gathering space for Black community members seeking deeper connection to themselves, to one another, and to the living world.

We live in a time shaped by exhaustion, disconnection, ecological crisis, inequality, and uncertainty. Many of us carry grief, anxiety, rage, numbness, and longing. We do not see these responses as personal failures. We understand them as meaningful responses to the conditions we are living through. Dark Before the Dawn exists for people who feel the tension between who they are and the systems they must survive within.

This is not a space focused on perfection, performance, or individual enlightenment. It is a space for practice. A space to slow down, reconnect, learn, feel, reflect, create, rest, and remember what becomes possible when people gather with honesty, care, and curiosity.

We believe healing and liberation are deeply relational. They emerge through connection, accountability, embodiment, imagination, and collective care. A Living Document

Dark Before the Dawn is an evolving community practice. This page is a living experiment in healing, embodiment, community, and collective liberation.

As we learn, grow, and deepen our understanding, this framework may continue to shift and change. We do not view this as a finished ideology, but as an ongoing process of listening, reflection, relationship, and collective learning.

We are grateful to everyone who contributes their presence, wisdom, care, and imagination to this unfolding work.

Our Living Values:

Community & Connection

We believe meaningful relationships are essential to collective well-being. We aim to cultivate spaces rooted in dignity, care, belonging, and mutual support.

Inclusiveness

We are committed to creating spaces that are welcoming, accessible, and grounded in respect across differences in identity, experience, and ability.

Discrimination, harassment, and violence are not tolerated.

Intergenerational Healing

We value opportunities for youth, elders, and everyone in between to gather through storytelling, play, dialogue, learning, and community care.

Self-Determination

We support practices that strengthen agency, consent, self-awareness, and connection to ancestral, cultural, embodied, and creative ways of knowing.

Community Agreements

For all events:

• Assume the people around you have good intentions, and arrive with good intentions yourself. People are learning and unlearning simultaneously. People may be neurodivergent. Be compassionate, offer grace, and be accountable for the impact of your words and actions.

• Treat others as THEY want to be treated. Respect people’s identities, names, and pronouns.
  

• Help cultivate an environment rooted in dignity, mutual respect, and compassion. No shaming or belittling the bodies, thoughts, or experiences of others. Use non-violent language if conflicts arise. Seek meaningful and inclusive mediation to resolve conflicts where necessary.
  

• Practice consent in all interactions. Anything less than a yes is a no. Check in with others before assuming they want your advice, hugs, physical touch, or photos taken etc.
  

• Use "I" statements. Speak from your own experience rather than making generalized statements.
  

• Honour confidentiality and privacy. Share the lessons learned; names and identifiers remain at the gatherings.
  

• Self-care is a priority: Take breaks when needed. Say yes and no when you mean it. Assert healthy boundaries.

  
  

• Alcohol, drugs (including cannabis), tobacco, and vape products are not permitted on site at any time. This helps maintain a shared space where everyone’s comfort, consent, and accessibility needs can be respected, and ensures we are not placed in a position where we must manage intoxication-related risks or emergencies.
  

• DO NOT attend this event if you are feeling unwell or showing any symptoms of COVID-19. Sick attendees or facilitators will be asked to leave the event.
  

• Respect the land. This is someone's home. You are a guest. This is the unceded territory of the Coast Salish Peoples.

  For Retreats:

• Respect boundaries, accessibility needs, and shared spaces. Clean up after yourself. Dormitories at retreats are shared, respect the space of others.
  

• If it doesn't belong to you, don't touch or remove it. Leave valuable items at home. Guests are encouraged to store personal belongings securely in their locked vehicles during the retreat. Dark Before The Dawn cannot be held responsible for lost or stolen items.
  

• Participate in collective care and community responsibility: Every attendee will be responsible for maintaining this space and will be required to sign up for a community responsibility list. These tasks include sweeping, tidying up after meals, child supervision, disinfecting frequently touched surfaces, and maintaining the cleanliness of the washrooms and communal areas.