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Membership Agreement

Updated as of January 2024

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Developed in partnership with the Rainbow Heights Club community for your safety and wellbeing.

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Rainbow Heights Club is the only government–funded psychosocial club and advocacy program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) mental health consumers in the United States.   Our mission is to provide a supportive, non-judgmental and empowering space where members can build community that is affirming of their emotional recovery and wellness. The club is based on a peer model, and peer staff members use their lived-experience as mental health consumers and their professional training to help other consumers. LGBT mental health consumers in partnership with staff have substantive, meaningful roles and leadership in the everyday running and programming of the club.  We also strive to enhance the visibility of the plight, stigma and conditions that LGBT mental health consumers face. The Rainbow Heights Club believes in the right of self-determination and the potential of LGBT mental health consumers to be positive agents of change within their own lives,

their communities and the world around them.

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Membership Responsibilities

  • Be an active participant in your own treatment.  Communicate with your caseworker, therapist, and/or psychiatrist.  Adhere to your medications, and whatever else you need to do, so that you can stay compliant with this membership agreement.

  • We need everyone to sign a Release of Information form that allows us to speak with your mental health provider.  If you change providers, please see a staff person to update that document.

  • Abide by this Membership Agreement; if you can’t do that, you may be suspended or discharged from the club.

  • Safety is the responsibility of every community member.

  • If something happens at the club that makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, bring it to staff immediately.  That’s the only way we can help.

  • Attend the club whenever you need to; there is no attendance requirement.

  • Be courteous and respectful to club members and staff.

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Membership Activities and Services  

  • As a member of Rainbow Heights Club, you are entitled to the following:

  • Support, friendship, and social interaction

  • Respect and acceptance from both members and staff

  • Participation in a range of support groups facilitated by skilled professional staff

  • One-on-one support from club staff

  • One-on-one computer assistance and benefits and entitlements referrals

  • Limited free access to the internet and other Computer Room services

  • Hot meal daily at 5PM 

  • Daily transportation assistance of $4.00

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Code of Conduct, Rainbow Heights Club, Updated January 2024

Rainbow Heights Club is a mental health agency that provides advocacy and psychosocial support to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender adults living with mental illness.  Our goal is to help everyone here to be safe and accepted.

Code of Conduct, Rainbow Heights Club

 

Respect yourself and others:

  • Respect people’s boundaries and personal space.

  • Ask for permission each time before you offer someone a hug.  Don’t hug or touch people from behind, it can startle and upset somebody.

  • If you have a partner or special friend, congratulations, but don’t sit and cuddle with them while you are here at the club.  It can be distracting.  Some people don’t have someone to cuddle with.  Please be considerate.

  • Members live with a variety of mental health symptoms.  Please be patient and understanding.

  • Don’t swear at people.   You can swear, but don’t swear at anybody.  Don’t call people names.

  • We are here to work at our recoveries.  Dress and groom yourself and conduct yourself so we can all focus on that.

  • Respect and use the names and pronouns that are right for people, just as you would want to be respected.

  • Respect how people identify themselves, just as you would want to be respected.

  • Staff members can’t date or have relationships with club members. 

  • Staff can’t socialize with members outside the club, or participate in social networks (facebook, chat lines, or twitter), or visit members at their homes.

  • Staff can’t buy or sell anything to or from members, or lend or give money or anything of value (like cigarettes, coffee, cellphones, etc.) to members.

  • Members can’t buy or sell things to each other, or lend or borrow money, at the club. 

  • Please don’t ask anybody for money at the club.

 

Help make this a safe space, emotionally and physically:

  • Tell staff right away if you feel unsafe, physically or emotionally.

  • Protect everyone’s confidentiality, inside and outside of the club.  Don’t gossip.

  • Agree to disagree.  People see things in different ways, but we can still get along.

  • Everybody deserves their privacy.  If someone says, “I’d rather not talk about that,” let’s respect that and change the subject.

  • Remember that many people here have been through various kinds of trauma.  Something that doesn’t bother one person at all might be very upsetting to somebody else.  When somebody tells us that something bothers them, let’s believe them.

  • If you are not feeling well, stay home and take care of yourself.  Don’t come to the club. 

  • Wash your hands regularly and use hand sanitizer.

  • Don’t come to the club if you have been drinking, or using, or are drunk or high.  We don’t want to distract people from their recovery.

    • It doesn’t matter that cannabis is legal now.  Alcohol is legal too.  We can’t do either one before we come to the club, or while we are here.

    • If you are high or intoxicated while you’re here, you will be asked to leave immediately.

  • Keep a low profile as you enter and leave the building.  This helps us maintain confidentiality and safety.

  • Don’t stand in front of the building to smoke; walk down the block or over to the curb. 

  • Children are not permitted at the club.  All members and guests must be 18 or older.

 

Help make this a fun place we all can enjoy:

  • Take a shower every day, and wash your clothes every week.

  • Keep your valuables with you at all times.  If you’re charging your phone, don’t walk away from it.  Rainbow Heights Club cannot be responsible for your personal belongings

  • Always clean up after yourself promptly in all areas of the club. 

 

 

 

 

The following rules are very serious and important.  If you break one of them, you will probably have to leave the club, and you may not be able to come back. 

 

  • Don’t bring weapons, drugs or alcohol to the club

 

  • Don’t engage in any criminal activity, including stealing, or the use or sale of drugs

 

  • Don’t engage in any kind of violence or the threat of violence

 

  • Don’t engage in any kind of sexual behavior at the club

 

  • Don’t engage in any kind of racist, sexist, homophobic, heterophobic, biphobic, or transphobic behavior or speech

 

Criminal behavior will be reported to the police, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

 

 

Thank you for thinking about and upholding this code of conduct.

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