Awareness concept

1. Why is the Awareness Team here and what are we doing at all?

Awareness means being mindful of power structures, creating an awareness of our surroundings and and how they affect our actions. Awareness can support us by discovering and clearly naming sexism, anti-black & POC racism, anti-Semitism, racism, ableism, transphobia, classism, xenophobia, and any other form of discrimination and oppressive mechanism. It can inspire us to empower or reflect. We need a power-critical and sensitive attitude to be able to counter racism and discrimination!

We understand our awareness work not as a way to treat symptoms, but as a method that offers a way to reflect, to stimulates discussion and argument. To do this until we know how we could and want to live together. We have to go further. Awareness concerns us all and WE need a collective learning process. Therefore it is the responsibility of every single person at the Camp to be aware with our fellow human beings (see transformative justice).

If you observe or even experience transgressive or assaultive situations as well as unpleasant or (re)traumatizing contacts with the police, you can always get support from us!

Talk to us or call us – we are the awareness team, you can recognize us by the pink vests. If we cannot communicate in a common language, we will get help from an interpreting person.

How can you reach us and what is the structure of the awareness work?

The awareness team consists of two components:

The awareness-orga is the contact person for each awareness-shift. There is a daily awareness introduction where our awareness concept is discussed so that more people can feel safe enough to join an awareness shift. They organize the awareness work on the camp and coordinate decision making processes. If an awareness shift is understaffed or overloaded, they can also step in as a back-up for awareness work. The awareness orga consists of at least 2 people and holds this position for 24 hours. Ideally, an experienced orga person along with a less experienced person form for the awareness orga work together in order to pass on knowledge and not overwhelm.
the awareness-shift. These are people who have participated in at least one awareness introduction. The people on the awareness shift are contacts for people on the camp who have a need for awareness work. An awareness shift lasts 4 hours and should be led by at least 4 people. There is a daily awareness onboarding to enable more people to become part of an awareness-shift.

There is an awareness-tent.
General Awareness Phone: +4915210128593
BIPoC Awareness Phone: +4915215125995
E-mail:campawareness@riseup.net

2.1 Our own positioning

The Awareness Team is made up of Black people, People of Color, White people, FLINTA* people (women, lesbian, intersex, non-binary, trans, agender people) and cis-male people (cis people are those who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth).

If you experience violence, assault, and/or discrimination at camp and do not want to talk about it with a cis-male person or a White person, we understand. We will address your needs at all times!

3. What are our working principles?

The working principles of the awareness crew of SDP-CAMP consist of several building blocks:

The first building block consists of the awareness workshops, skillsharings, discussion rounds and critical whiteness workshops in which people who are interested in becoming part of the awareness-crew can develop themselves further and expand the concept together. They take place primarily at the beginning of the camp and/or in advance. If you can´t find a workshop on the program, just talk to us at the awareness tent.

The second building block is formed by the different retreat spaces and the possibilities to get into conversation and to empower each other. There is a FLINTAonly tent for (women, lesbians, inter, non-binary, trans, agender people), a BIPoC only tent for (Black people, Indigenous people and People of Color) and a TINA* tent for genderqueer people (trans, inter, non-binary, agender +). There is also an open Quiet&Silence tent.

The third component is the active awareness work at the camp. There is a team in the awareness tent and a mobile team. They can be recognized by their purple/pink vests and are available for you (radio, cell phone, email). Awareness on the camp and beyond is our collective responsibility.
We encurage everyone to work on their own awareness.
The awareness-team offers support.
We all share this responsibility. Aswell as for care work, reproductive work and emotional work.

4. Power to define and taking sides

Two guiding principles are fundamental to our support work.

First, that persons themselves define how they have experienced situations.

Second, in our work we take sides. This means that we support the affected person and stand by him/her\Them in the process. By offering support work, we want to open up spaces where people are listened to without questioning the “realness” of their experiences. Being able to define for oneself what has been experienced is an important moment of empowerment and reflection and should become the norm anyway!

We do not work with absolute sanctioning power.
A person thus defines what has happened, but not what will happen.
Being able to recognize and communicate needs and wishes is an important step and also part of our process, our hope is that all wishes and expectations can be implemented. However, it may happen that wishes and possible demands cannot automatically be fulfilled and implemented.

Our political stance includes the attempt of an intersectional and multi-layered perspective. For us, intersectionality means that we recognize discrimination is always complex and different forms of discrimination can overlap. We therefore want to address the needs of all affected persons in the best possible way and look for common solutions. For us, this means that we try to critically question our own positioning and that of all those involved and to include them in the analysis of the situation. In cases of rape and sexualized violence, an exclusive power of definition is non-negotiable.

5. What we demand from OURSELFS!

“We are not hypersensitive, but critical of power! We want to dismantle hierarchies and have no desire for:

racist, sexist, homophobic or anti-trans*, classist, ableist, remarks and swear words
Non-consensual touching
Naked torsos of cis men (For more info (German only): www.klimacamp-im-rheinland.de/campinfo-2/vereinbarungen/oben-ohne)
National symbols
Uniforms and camouflage clothing (glorifying war in general)
Unsolicited photos → we would like to see a respectful approach to the privacy and safety of others!
Any appropriation and instrumentalization of cultural and religious symbolism by white people! –> For us, this means wearing kimonos, bindis, warbonnets, “afro” wigs, so-called white curls, or certain tattoos.”

Source: Invision

6. Accessibility

We try to make the camp as accessible as possible. We would also like to ask you to use language that is as barrier-free and inclusive as possible, and to use language consciously (for example, avoiding or explaining technical terms during the camp). To avoid addressing people with the wrong pronouns, you can state your pronouns in addition to your name and thus prevent “misgendering”.

7. What about smoking, alcohol and other drugs?

There will be marked non-smoking areas. We would like to see no consumption in these places. Alcohol will not be served on site. If you want to drink alcohol, consume responsibly and generally pay attention to the people around you and what consumption they are comfortable with. We would like people to be sensitive with their drug use and aware that public consumption can be retraumatizing to others and lead to social exclusion. So no matter what you smoke, drink or consume (no matter if its alcohol or other drugs) PLEASE ask the people around you if it’s okay for them <3

Be aware, have fun, look out for each other & let’s be there for each other!

Sources: Parts of this awareness concept were taken from other awareness concepts and online open sources.

In addition, people of the awareness shift get phone numbers of the awareness-orga.
Awareness shifts on our camp go from 9-24 o’clock with change every two hours, between 0 o’clock and 9 o’clock there are at least 2 people who are on night duty and can be reached via radio. (During this time one person from the Awareness-Orga can be reached via the Awareness-Phone).
There is daily awareness onboarding to enable more people to become part of an awareness shift.
There is a dinner and an awareness-orga plenary every day.
Everyone doing orga and the people who did awareness shifts on the day should be there- All other awareness people are also invited to come if they would like to participate.