Code of Conduct (ELM)

ELM is what separates us from all other Organizations, Corporations, Social Classes, and Structures, it’s what defines our merits, our rewards, and sustains the prosperity of our community; ultimately setting a new standard of stewardship towards our global environment, our industries and most of all each other. ELM is the fusion that takes place between the participation of our members, and the atmosphere that it creates is based off of the standards and ethics that are the centrifuge of value amongst our community. Cultural Competence and Social Diversity: The art of Economy League Multiplicity is learning to live in diversity and with that utilizing our differences and our uniqueness for the common good. Members should always keep in mind the nature of social diversity and oppression with respect to race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, political belief, religion, immigration status, and mental or physical disability.

Respect Participating Members should always treat each other and other individuals with respect and should represent accurately and fairly their qualifications, views, and obligations. Members should refrain from any form of negative criticism of colleagues in communications with other members or clients or with other professionals or the public. Negative criticism includes demeaning comments that refer to colleagues’ level of competence or to individuals’ attributes such as race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, political belief, religion, immigration status, and mental or physical disability. Preamble The primary mission of Citizen Gardens is to micromanage our stewardship towards our global environment while helping meet the basic human needs of our communities, with particular attention to the health and welfare of our members and their greater communities.

A historic and defining feature of our community is the focus on individual wellbeing in a social context and the wellbeing of society. Fundamental to social organizations is the attention to the environmental forces that create, contribute to, and solve our problems. Citizen Gardens promotes social justice and social change with and on behalf of our Members. “Member” is used inclusively to refer to individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Participating Members need to be sensitive to cultural and ethnic diversity and strive to end discrimination, oppression, poverty, and other forms of social injustice. Our activities may be in the form of direct practice, community organizing, supervision, consultation administration, advocacy, social and political action, policy development and implementation, education, and research. Participating members seek to enhance the capacity of their community to address their own needs. Citizen Gardens also seeks to promote the responsiveness of other organizations, communities, and other social institutions to individuals’ needs and social problems.

With professional ethics at the core of membership participation, members have an obligation to articulate its basic values, ethical principles, and ethical standards. The Citizen Gardens Code of Ethics sets forth these values, principles, and standards as a guide for participating members to maximize their potential. This Code is relevant to all participating members who volunteer, delegate, or designate resources, regardless of their professional functions, the settings in which they work, or the populations they serve. The Citizen Gardens Code of Participation serves seven purposes: The Code identifies core values on which the Organizations’ mission is based. The Code summarizes broad ethical principles that reflect the Organizations’ core values and establishes a set of specific ethical standards that should be used to promote the participation of all its members. The Code is designed to help members identify relevant considerations when professional obligations conflict or ethical uncertainties arise. The Code provides ethical standards to which the general public can hold Citizen Gardens accountable. The Code socializes members new to the Organization of our mission, values, ethical principles, and ethical standards.

The Code articulates standards that Citizen Gardens can use to assess whether members have engaged in unethical conduct. Citizen Gardens has formal procedures to resolve ethical complaints filed against its members.* In subscribing to this Code, members are required to cooperate in its implementation, participate in Citizen Gardens resolution proceedings, and abide by any of Citizen Gardens disciplinary rulings or sanctions based on it. The Code offers a set of values, principles, and standards to guide decision making and conduct when ethical issues arise. It does not provide a set of rules that prescribe how members should act in all situations. Specific applications of the Code must take into account the context in which it is being considered and the possibility of conflicts among the Code‘s values, principles, and standards. Ethical responsibilities flow from all human relationships, from the personal and familial to the social and professional. Further, Citizen Gardens’ Code of Participation does not specify which values, principles, and standards are most important and ought to outweigh others in instances when they conflict. Reasonable differences of opinion can and do exist among members with respect to the ways in which values, ethical principles, and ethical standards should be rank ordered when they conflict.

Ethical decision making in a given situation must apply the informed judgment of the participating member and should also consider how the issues would be judged in a peer review process where the ethical standards of the community would be applied. Ethical decision making is a process. There are many instances in membership where simple answers are not available to resolve complex ethical issues. Members should take into consideration all the values, principles, and standards in this Code that are relevant to any situation in which ethical judgment is warranted. Members’ decisions and actions should be consistent with the spirit as well as the letter of this Code. In addition to this Code, there are many other sources of information about ethical thinking that may be useful. Members should consider ethical theory and principles generally, community theory and research, laws, regulations, agency policies, and other relevant codes of ethics, recognizing that among codes of ethics Members should consider the Citizen Gardens Code of Participation as their primary source.

Members should be aware of the impact on ethical decision making and their own personal values and cultural and religious beliefs and practices. They should be aware of any conflicts between personal and professional values and deal with them responsibly. For additional guidance members should always consult an officer or agent or the Board of Directors when faced with ethical dilemmas. Instances may arise when a members’ ethical obligations conflict with agency policies or relevant laws or regulations. When such conflicts occur, Members must make a responsible effort to resolve the conflict in a manner that is consistent with the values, principles, and standards expressed in this Code. If a reasonable resolution of the conflict does not appear possible, members should seek proper consultation before making a final decision.