Our core values

As awareness teams, we are responsible for ensuring that everyone feels comfortable at our events. Of course, our approach always depends on the event and the specific situation, but a few basic rules of behaviour always apply:

• Confidentiality: If you discuss something with us, we will treat all information confidentially. We will always ask you before we pass on information to other people (such as the event organisation) and we will respect your wishes.
• Openness: We recognise that people have different backgrounds and deal with issues in different ways. We take your concerns and problems seriously and will try our best to resolve them.
• Accessibility: We try our best to always be accessible to everyone. This includes our awareness teams not drinking alcohol at events and proactively ensuring a good atmosphere at the event, even in the planning phase.
• Retreat: At most of our events, we organise a quiet retreat for you if there are issues of a more sensitive nature.
• Documentation: If it's okay with you, we will document incidents and of course keep this documentation strictly confidential. This is especially relevant when it comes to assaults and allows you to follow up on these issues at a later date.
• Conflict resolution: We try our best to resolve problems as quickly as possible and to find appropriate consequences. Of course, this solution should not disadvantage you and should be appropriate to the situation.
• Contacts: If necessary, we will refer you to professional counselling and complaints offices.

Contacts

Some incidents cannot be resolved directly at the event. We can help you find the right office for your problem.
The student representatives at the JKU offer the following contact points, among others:

• ÖH Department for Women, Gender and Equal Treatment Issues: The ÖH JKU Frauenreferat can be contacted in the event of discrimination incidents and can help you forward them to the right authorities. It is also a good point of contact if problems arise with members of the ÖH itself.
• Confidential contacts: Some of the ÖH Student Unions make use of so-called confidential contacts. You can contact them if you have more sensitive issues or complaints about individual members of the student union. See, for example, the Confidential Contacts page of the Computer Science Student Union.

If you would like to pursue an incident legally, the following complaints offices are there for you:

• Working Group for Equal Treatment Issues: The AKG deals with discrimination and assaults committed by JKU university members and bodies. It can record and document complaints and, if desired, take further steps. It can also advise on procedures for criminal offences and, of course, works confidentially. You can find more information about the AKG here.
• Equal Treatment Ombudsperson's Office: The Equal Treatment Ombudsperson's Office is an independent state body and offers free counselling and support to people affected by discrimination. Among other things, it provides legal counselling and support in court proceedings. You can find an online reporting form and more information about their work here.

If you need someone to talk to after an incident, there are the following counselling centres, among others:

• Autonomous Women's Centre: The Women's Centre helps women anonymously and free of charge in difficult life situations of all kinds, but also in all forms of violence. They provide counselling but can also help with legal steps. You can find more information here.
• Helplines for women: There are numerous emergency numbers for women in Upper Austria that are available around the clock for counselling and discussions. You can find a list here.
• Men's helpline: For men in crisis and violent situations, the men's helpline offers a first point of contact by telephone around the clock. You can find more information here.
• ÖH Helpline: The ÖH Federal Representation offers free telephone counselling for mental health problems by trained staff from the Association for Psychotherapy. You can find more information here.
• Psychological Student Counselling: The JKU's Psychological Student Counselling can help with study-related problems, but is also a general point of contact for personal problems. You can find more information here.

By the way: The ÖH JKU supports therapy costs with the help of a Mental Health Fund. You can find more information here.