Principles and Commitments
Ethics
Separated: Stories of Injustice and Solidarity is founded on the principle of adaptation so as to develop practices that emerge from and meet the needs of communities we collaborate with during the course of the project. Here are the ethical principles and commitments we developed through our interactions with narrators:
Practices of Reciprocity and Solidarity
To combat transactional engagement, we built in varying modes of reciprocity and acts of solidarity with the following social support practices:
Narrator Compensation: Each narrator receives an honorarium for their contributions to the project in acknowledgement of their time and emotional labor.
Social Support: Whenever possible, the project’s team provides social support to the majority of the families who contributed their stories including in-person visits, ongoing communication, assistance with paperwork, advocacy with NGOs, English/Spanish translation, and much more.
Basic Financial Resources: The project team set up a fundraising campaign to help offset the cost of small incidentals like a monthly cell phone statement, car service for a medical appointment, or groceries, etc.
Ethical Amplification: Intentionally labor to ensure the ethical dissemination of their story to the public through various forms of media including ways that don’t trespass their choice to remain anonymous or use a pseudonym.
Time and Space: Facilitate the required time and space narrators need to process their experiences with family separation within a broader historical and political context.