handbook/handbook-main/guides/equality-diversity-and-inclusion/about-open-and-closed-community.txt

# Open and closed communities

Open and closed community groups are collectives of individuals who come together to discuss particular challenges, ideas and experiences with regards to a particular community. These groups are self-organised, and will have their own ways of communicating and scheduling events.

**An open community group** has open membership meaning anyone can join the group’s Slack channel, events and meetings.

**A closed community group** is open only to those who are members of those communities. For example, to join the “women in tech” closed community group you would need to identify as a woman in order to have your request for an invite to be accepted. To join you will need to reach out to an organising member to request an invite. 

You can find a list of open and closed communities in the description of the [diversity and inclusion Slack channel](https://madetechteam.slack.com/archives/CRAJF24CR). We share this list during onboarding weeks too.

## Starting a group

Anyone can start an open or closed community group as long as they comply with our [Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Policy](policy.md). To start one you should:

- Create an open or closed or both Slack channel for your group
- Notify the [diversity and inclusion service team](about-service-team.md) so they can add your group to the lists we share in Slack and during onboarding
- Document either in Slack or a shareable file the purpose of your group and details on how and when you meet
- If a closed group, provide details to the diversity and inclusion team on how someone can ask for an invite and what criteria they need to meet

## Managing a group

Open and closed community groups are self-organising and therefore need active management by its members to keep going. Civil servants have published a [“community development handbook”](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/community-development-handbook/community-development-handbook) that provides lots of guidance on how to sustain a community.

**Please note:** maintaining community groups is mentally and physically tiring – to keep the community sustainable this burden should not just fall on one or two individuals.

## Support and budgets available

There are a variety of ways we support open and closed communities to self-organise:

- The culture and happiness team have budgets available for socials for your group and can provide support in organising events you may want to hold
- We have diversity and inclusion and culture and happiness budget available for paying speakers to talk at open or closed events
- We are organising a social and awareness calendar for key events that are relevant for our various community groups – this calendar enables our marketing team, employer branding and culture and happiness teams to organise and promote awareness
- Our offices can be used for meetings and our existing communication platforms (Slack, Google Meet) can be used to virtual meet

Ask on Slack if you want to take advantage of this support. If something is not listed here, please speak to the [diversity and inclusion service team](about-service-team.md) who will be happy to find an answer as to whether we can support your request.

## Issue escalation

Community groups form around particular identities, needs and/or experiences. If issues are discussed by these groups, they can be raised with the diversity and inclusion service team to be reviewed and supported. 

If an individual has reported an issue to a group, it may be too much of a burden on that individual to escalate the issue themselves. In this case, a nominated individual from the group should be nominated to raise the issue on the affected individuals behalf.

Details on who to raise issues to are documented in the [#supply-diversity-and-inclusion Slack channel](https://madetechteam.slack.com/archives/CRAJF24CR).

We have documented general guidance on [raising an issue](https://github.com/madetech/handbook/blob/main/guides/welfare/raising_an_issue.md) elsewhere in the Handbook, or you can get in touch with the People team if you’re not sure who the best person is to speak to.