Request KDHS membership

# Kingston Dignified Housing Strategy Membership Pledge Kingston Dignified Housing Strategy — Membership Pledge By requesting access to KDHS resources, I affirm that: 1. I am providing my real legal name. 2. I reside within the City of Kingston. 3. I have a sponsor who has given explicit consent, or I agree to meet an administrator in person if I lack a sponsor. 4. I will participate in good faith and refrain from disruptive, harmful, or anti-dialogic behaviour. 5. I understand that trolls, bad-faith actors, and those who repeatedly violate the norms of respectful communication will be removed. 6. I understand and accept that participation in KDHS requires a commitment to team learning and civic co-design. This includes: ◦ Suspending assumptions and being willing to examine my own beliefs. ◦ Speaking truthfully while listening actively and respectfully. ◦ Avoiding personal attacks, certainty language, and positional bargaining. ◦ Engaging in dialogue rather than debate: asking questions to understand. ◦ Upholding the integrity of the shared process over personal agendas. ◦ Treating all participants as colleagues, regardless of their role or background. 7. I acknowledge that while all participants are equal in worth, we bring different forms and levels of insight—and I commit to bridging those differences through active learning. Effective systems change requires that we recognize both the dignity of all voices and the reality that knowledge and skill are unevenly distributed. This is not a hierarchy of value, but an invitation to humility, curiosity, and collective growth. ▪ I will respect that some participants carry deep technical knowledge, system experience, or lived expertise—and that these may illuminate dimensions of a problem I have not yet considered. ▪ I will not confuse equal access with equal insight; I will approach complex topics with curiosity, not presumption. ▪ I will remain self-aware of my knowledge limits, and open to correction, clarification, or deeper framing from others. ▪ I understand that disagreement is not always personal—it may arise from differences in experience, language, or system vantage points. ▪ I commit to team learning as the way we overcome individual limitations and build shared understanding that none of us could reach alone. 8. I will uphold and promote the values of the KDHS platform: ◦ Goodwill: I will extend others the benefit of the doubt and assume sincerity unless proven otherwise. ◦ Community-Mindedness: I will prioritize shared benefit and long-term collective outcomes over individual or partisan advantage. ◦ Democracy and Co-Design: I accept that inclusive, iterative, participatory processes may be slower than directive ones, but that this slowness builds legitimacy and shared ownership. ◦ Entrepreneurial Learning: I will treat each pilot, prototype, and dialogue as a learning opportunity—not a battlefield—and will help refine ideas rather than tear them down. ◦ Respectful Communication: I will not use sarcasm, rhetorical attacks, or zero-sum framing. I will aim to contribute to generative, not combative, conversations. ◦ Team Learning: I recognize that insight emerges through collective thinking, not individual assertion. I commit to learning with others by listening deeply, building on shared understanding, and treating disagreement as a source of insight, not conflict. ◦ Systems Thinking: I will strive to see the whole, not just isolated parts. I commit to considering how policies, actions, and experiences connect across time, institutions, and people—and to understanding problems in context, not just in fragments. ◦ Shared Vision: I commit to working toward a future that reflects our collective aspirations, not just individual preferences. I will help articulate, support, and protect a unifying purpose that guides our efforts beyond short-term wins or personal gain. ◦ Flexibility in Mental Models: I will examine my own assumptions and remain open to changing them. I recognize that how we think shapes what we see—and I commit to making my thinking visible, questioning ingrained beliefs, and inviting others to do the same. 9. I understand that participation in KDHS is a privilege, not a right. Continued access depends on upholding this pledge. If I violate it, I expect to be asked to reflect and adjust—or to leave.