As a result, our policies undergo trial-by-fire tests & revisions very quickly. Since this is our first year of being formally established, we're still working out how the shop can be a productive space for the kids _without_ it being overrun/taken advantage of/creating unsafe conditions.

Some things we've faced:

Issue: Kids working on bikes that aren't remotely safe (i.e., they've come in to patch a flat on a majorly dented aluminum frame mountain bike with its brakes _removed_)

Resolution: No bikes are allowed to leave the shop until they are safe, even if it means taking a hit on the shop's end to equip them with brakes.

Issue: Kids arriving @ the shop who are much too young (10 and under) to care about (or able to torque!) the mechanics of their bike. (i.e., they just want to ride something)

Resolution: This is tough -- we don't want to demand that they have a parent/guardian present to come to the shop because, if actually enforced in this neighbourhood, we would never see _any_ of these kids. Most of the time our mechanics are busy helping members & not able to drop everything to supervise, step-by-step, a kid working on overhauling a BB or something.

We've suggested that they come with an older sibling or something, but this is still an unsatisfactory situation.

The best thing we've been able to come up with is getting the kid (everyone under 16) to have their parent sign the waiver that we get all members to sign. This at least lets the parent know that the kid is out there, and then we (hypothetically) have their phone number for when/if the kid steals tools...

Issue: Kids offering to "volunteer"; but really just cause havoc. This was a difficult situation with one kid in particular. He has a good heart & a not-good home life, so he wanted to hang out at the shop and "work" for us. Problem was that he was relentlessly attention seeking (see home life), and wouldn't pay attention or follow through on any tasks we tried to give him. He was really disruptive when new members came down. We had numerous chats with him, but ultimately nothing changed. Eventually I had to come down hard and ask him to leave.

Resolution: We've resolved to only allow kids with these kinds of interests to show up _one_ day out of the three that we're open; where they are then allowed to spend time doing some organizational etc tasks we've set up for the day. They are _not_ allowed to work on bikes until they've shown an ongoing commitment to the shop & a legitimate commitment to learning.

We also have a "you're only here if you're gonna volunteer" rule; where, if there's nothing to do, they can't just hang out (because this inevitably leads to grabbing random bikes and crashing them into walls/bikes/members etc. ...The big workshop is a blessing & a curse).

Issue: Kids stealing & wrecking tools

Resolution: Any expensive tools or delicate repairs (i.e., chainbreaks) are ALWAYS used under supervision. We are generally aware of who was using tool X the day it went missing; so we can use the waiver form phone numbers to get them back.

Our wednesday nights are a sort of free-for-all, where non-members & kids can come down for free to work on their bikes. This gives us some leverage when we're talking to surly/klepto youth -- I say something like "why bother stealing the tool when you know you can always come down for free on wednesdays? It'll always be here!"

Not a comprehensive list, and I really look forward to seeing what others have come up with!

Cheers,

Clifford McCarten

Director, B!ke: The Peterborough Community Bike Shop

400 Wolfe St

Peterborough, Ontario

(705) 745-2103

http://www.communitybikeshop.org

On 16-Jan-09, at 4:09 PM, thethinktank-request@bikecollectives.org wrote:

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Today's Topics:

1. your org's policy on working with kids? (veganboyjosh@gmail.com)

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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:22:30 -0700
From: veganboyjosh@gmail.com
Subject: [TheThinkTank] your org's policy on working with kids?
To: The Think Tank <thethinktank@bikecollectives.org>
Message-ID:
<53e5a1720901152122w1c040b10xcb8e9c8ccc958960@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

we're hard at work on Community Cycles' shop manual, and we're wondering if
any of you have any formal policies for shop volunteers and/or staff that
you'd feel like sharing. i'm imagining something to the effect of "at least
two staff must be present when kids are around..." or something like that.

on a somewhat related note, have any of you had any experience with
someone--staff, volunteer, customer, etc--being inappropriate around kids,
(aside from normal bad language..) that you had to deal with a parent for?
i'd be interested in hearing about that experience...

thanks!

josh.
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