“Sometimes when a person keeps coming too close to me on a dance floor it can actually be really scary.”
Remember, everyone's experience is different. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
Boundaries can be different for every person and in every moment.
Consent can be complex. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
“My answer is yes but I want to take a bit of time to think about it just to make sure.”
Consent is enthusiastic, ongoing, and expressed both verbally and non-verbally. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
If it was hard to hear a ‘No’, try to have your conversation about that with a different person.
Remember, everyone's experience is different. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
“Sometimes I don’t want to say no but I still need some time to think about it before I can say yes.”
Consent is enthusiastic, ongoing, and expressed both verbally and non-verbally. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
“You sound like you’re not sure, would you like some time to think about it?”
Consent is enthusiastic, ongoing, and expressed both verbally and non-verbally. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
Boundaries look different for everyone, we’re always learning.
Consent can be complex. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
If someone wants to talk to you about your behaviour, it’s OK to feel defensive and still listen.
Remember, everyone's experience is different. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
“Are you feeling like a conversation at the moment?”
Consent is enthusiastic, ongoing, and expressed both verbally and non-verbally. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
Saying no can be harder than it looks. Ask kindly.
Remember, everyone's experience is different. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
Body language by itself can’t say “Yes”, but it can say “No”.
Consent is enthusiastic, ongoing, and expressed both verbally and non-verbally. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
“I'm feeling a bit of uncertainty, can we pause?”
Consent is enthusiastic, ongoing, and expressed both verbally and non-verbally. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
You don’t have to have all the answers. We’re all learning together.
Consent can be complex. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
It’s not that you’re shy or incapable, it’s that you haven’t practiced with these tools yet.
Consent can be complex. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
“I'd like to talk to you about a boundary I have.”
Consent is enthusiastic, ongoing, and expressed both verbally and non-verbally. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
It’s OK if you haven’t figured out where your boundaries are yet.
Consent can be complex. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
Just because it’s ok now doesn't mean it’s ok later.
Consent can be complex. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
If someone says “No”, they might not be feeling like explaining themselves either. That’s OK.
Consent can be complex. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
“That’s totally fine, thank you for telling me what your boundary is.”
Consent is enthusiastic, ongoing, and expressed both verbally and non-verbally. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
If substances are involved, you could be breaching someone’s boundary even if they verbally consent.
Consent is enthusiastic, ongoing, and expressed both verbally and non-verbally. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
You don't need to change your boundaries for someone.
Consent is enthusiastic, ongoing, and expressed both verbally and non-verbally. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
“Was there anything about this that you would have liked to go differently?”
Consent is enthusiastic, ongoing, and expressed both verbally and non-verbally. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
You may dislike being checked in with a lot, but your partner might really need it to feel safe.
Consent is complex. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
If someone wants to talk to you about your behaviour, try to listen.
Consent is enthusiastic, ongoing, and expressed both verbally and non-verbally. Let’s work together to create a healthy and safe consent culture.
What is this site?
In spaces where people come together, especially at parties or festivals where people are figuring out and evolving their relationships with their friends and with new people, having strong consent skills in the group is great: everybody gets to have more positive interactions, negative interactions happen less frequently, and people know how to negotiate them if they do happen.
This site exists to support event organisers to promote consent culture at their events, to provide resources and training, and to host discussions: not only to grow capacity among people who are leading this work, but also to have an open dialogue with the communities that this work is for, and make sure that we’re all on the same journey to the same place.
What can organisers do to promote consent?
- We provide a free PDF of consent posters to print out. Bathrooms, bars, and lounge areas are good locations to place a poster and start a conversation or a moment of reflection.
- Many events open with a few housekeeping notes. This is a great opportunity to make it clear that consent is important to you — it primes people to think about the way they’re treating people and being treated, and it signals that organisers would be open to conversations about this topic.
- Setting aside scheduled time for a consent workshop can bring a community together, set the tone for an event, and develop everyone’s understanding of social dynamics.
- For some events, especially where there’s a dance floor or party space, it can be really good to provide a designated, visible consent guardian to speak to about consent questions or breaches. It gives event attendees a sense of safety and accountability, makes it more likely that people will speak up when things happen that weren’t OK, can be a source of support for people whose boundaries have been crossed, and provides organisers with an overview of how the safety of their event could be improved.