Welfare Progress
The process of setting up Welfare in 2021
What is Welfare?
Welfare has a crucial role at Kiezburn. It is a place open to visit for the entire Kiezburn community. Festivals in general and use of substances can result in overwhelming and uncomfortable experiences. Welfare at Kiezburn is a space for people to retreat to if they want to quiet & calm down, return to feeling safe psychologically & physically, and reinstate a feeling of belonging. We think that we can make Kiezburn a safer place by creating a culture of compassion and support. If we can get people to take care of each other, a lot of harm can be prevented, and we rise together as a community.
Volunteers are there to provide care and kindness to the visitors, where anyone can find support in whatever they are going through.
One can stop there to get a cup of tea, a chat, ears to listen, a sitter, nurse, plaster, band-aid, a hug or support to find more professional help.
There are two kinds of Welfare Volunteers:
-
Care Bears are Welfare volunteers that went through A Care Bear School or have Welfare relevant experience and provide compassionate care and support for people who are having challenging experiences: psychological or emotional. There are 3 kinds of Care Bears:
-
Domestic Care Bears
These Care Bears live in the Republic of Care aka Welfare and help out in the Hall of Hearts ( the Main Tent) and Care-a-Lot (Specialized Care Tents). Their focus is on caring and helping and bringing love. If someone comes to Welfare needing more attention, they can be assigned to Care-a-Lot, which is a separate tent where we take care of people going through psychological difficulties. A Care Bear will support them there.
-
Wild Walking Care Bears
Because this year is special for all of us, we will have teams of Care Bears and Teddies walking around Kiezburn to elevate the collective emotional level. They are there to bring care, harm reduction supplies and to make your time as enjoyable and lovely as possible. So if you need a little love, a hug, or any other magic, they are here to make this burn even greater and more loving. These wandering Care Bears can be recognized by their super comfy fur, the Kiezburn Welfare sign on their bellies, their special Welfare badge and a pole with a care bear attached to the top.
-
Harmony Supervising Bear
This care bear is on duty for the Republic of Caring aka Welfare for 12 hours to ensure continuity. The harmony bear stays reasonably close to Welfare and carries a radio so that they can be reachable at all times. These are highly trained professionals who are either doctors or have other high qualifications and know how to handle any emergency situation.
-
Teddies Teddies are apprentices and companions of the Care Bears and are there to assist in whatever is needed: serving tea, making people feel welcome or any other support in the Hall of Hearts. No experience with psychological care is needed to be a Teddy but they need to feel comfortable with taking care of people in distress and are good listeners.
What do you have to do here?
recruiting and managing Welfare team
finding and communicating with volunteers
setting up and coordinating harm reduction and harm - support trainings and to make it really great authentic relating and other relating modality trainings
managing inventory, purchasing and delivering needed items
setting up or managing setting up a Welfare space on site
cleaning of previous year: blanket, sheets and other washable materials
leading and moulding the team into a coherent whole, facilitating state of trust, reliance and loyalty between team members
establishing a working schedule at Kiezburn with back up plans and people
cooperation with First Aid and other complementary services
Code of Conduct and Safety protocol training
Budget
in 2021 we are having 1500 Euro budget and are we are not renting a yurt as we did in previous year. We are going to be working with a 5x5 tent and getting extra tents to make it nicely set up
I put up a dream in order to be allowed for Built and we are going to have some additional funding from that
Welfare Love-A-Lot Team
@River Aleks - Welfare Lead
@Valentin_Seehausen - Budget, Safety, Inventory, Build
@Rachel - Volunteer Coordination
@Lindsey E Shit Plan Magician
@Joice Biazoto - Costumes & Culture
@Ale - Orga Wizard
@Alex - Welfare Dream & Build
@Marina - Graphic Design, Deco & Orga Wizard
@Nicki Trainings & Harm Reduction Team
@Inna - Training Coordination, Community & Inventory
@Juliane Mueller Culture and Bear Graduation Ceremony
@Sarah Montgomery Project Manager and Deadline Dominatrix
Help?
last year' Welfare leads ( Kai and Steffen)
org questions? board
finance? @Professor Kaos
other peeps: see realities + Add your name here too!
Other Welfare Team Duties
Volunteer coordination
Get stuff back into storage and make an inventory
Clear out with finance all invoices etc
More details can be found in google drive over here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/my-drive
WELFARE IN DETAILS
-
Preparing a shift plan and passing it on to the Volunteer Lead
we used a shift plan both for Care Bears and Teddies from previous years, we have expanded the plan for some additional mobile shift at the most demanding times of Kiezburn
it was extremely easy this year to find volunteers this year, the intake form was posted once on Kiezburn Channel and once on Facebook Kiezburn group and generated 80 sign ups.
it was tricky to communicate the training dates as it was still unclear who, how and what will be the trainings, it would have been way easier if we knew it well in advance.
the shift plan is closed until we are through with first harm reduction training because we want to make sure that there is at least one trained person per shift.
-
Finding a training partner
as I do not have enough experience in harm reduction I was not feeling so confident in this area but it could have been easily sourced from the community, there was a lot of people with great experience who filled out our intake form
we opted out to find help with Chillout-Potsdam or Eclipse. Eclipse is way to busy and probably should have been contacted 2 - 3 months ago. Chillout-Potsdam were slow to reply, I called them 3 times and they were extremely nice on the phone and eager to help but it took them over 2 weeks to get their act together and to proposed a date, which was tricky in this year as we are doing everything so late. But I have announced the date already and have asked people to fill out this questionnaire to find out how many people can make it.
the Chillout contact person is Manuela Schulz (m.schulz@chillout-pdm.de ) who worked with us in 2017 and had a great experience and wants to do it again with us but she asked for a honorary, which we will pay, it is unclear yet how much.
I asked for a help of a friend Nathan who had been bringing Authentic Relating and other relating modalities to Berlin to give us a training on that and offered him a small honorary ( 35 Euros)
-
Setting up a team
the process so far has been very organic. I found at least 2 members who are very passionate for the project and it has been easy and joyful to work together
-
I would be a tiny bit more confident to have some person with medical/harm reduction experience with us but it is and would have been easy to source it externally.
-
Creating a Care Bear and Teddy concept
it is the first year that we have called the Welfare Volunteers Care Bears and Teddies
it seems to have contributed greatly to the the upsurge in volunteers
@Boaz Balachsan has offered to create a logo for us, it is looking great but we are still working on a final version
we would like to create a teddy and care bear look, this is still in progress and we will look for suggestions
we will offer badges and pins for the volunteers with the logo
we also are working on creating and spreading of a culture of compassion and support
-
Making sure that Welfare is Visible
we had reports from last years that Welfare was hard to find and that people did not know it existed
I talked to the gate lead to make sure that greeting incorporates some sort of indication of welfare and first aid
-
we will make sure to make many signs and a glowing sign for the night time
-
Making sure that Welfare is in a quiet zone
in the 2 previous Kiezburn editions Welfare was next to Underworld
this year it was a priority to move it to a more quiet location
Notes from Welfare Meetings
River Aleks Tue 6 Jul 2021 7:51PM
HI Natasha, these questions can be clarified with @Alex who is our Dream Lead. @Alex could you coordinate this with Natacha? And thank you for your help @Natacha Kromatik !
Ale Tue 6 Jul 2021 8:00PM
@Alex feel free to give updates over there: https://talk.kiezburn.org/d/7rOEJAfY/welfare-area
So it’s not lost here in this thread :)
Valentin_Seehausen Mon 12 Jul 2021 10:28AM
I assume it is this document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o8a_mYR8bbcYE_FZyNWEcnucloiApR6qlF8RtKatrnw/edit @Veroca R. Sala you did some good edits. Is this appropriate for the Kiezburn programm?
Veroca R. Sala Mon 12 Jul 2021 7:27PM
Hi I didn't edit anything! Maybe someone else.
River Aleks Tue 27 Jul 2021 4:04PM
they will have bear ears, furry vests, t shirts with our own welfare logo placed on their tummy , like the real care bears do. They will also carry a stick with a care bear teddy attached to it. They will also have welfare pins.
River Aleks Mon 5 Jul 2021 2:39PM
To be honest, I feel patronised. I am overworked and do not have any more capacity to be answering the nitty gritty points raised here for the second time at this moment, or in the next days. Even from the points you just mentioned you can see that this is not a task for just me. I was doing this on my own without support of any people or tickets at first for a month, this would have been fine if it was a normal year maybe, but this is a year where we had to work double the time because of everything being done at the last moment. I was supposed to have a co lead, she dropped out. I underestimated the scope of this myself at fist. This is became my full time job. I wish I would have been granted tickets at least , and then as second the trust to know how many and what type of people I need. Right now I found more people because I was told there could be more tickets for Welfare only last Friday. It would relieve me and them to know where we stand in terms of tickets. I was not given a definite answer if I have the tickets for sure, which made things even more stresfull. We all can wait for the tickets, but I need to know if they are in or not, which we do not know. There are no co leads on my team, whatever that term entails.
River Aleks Mon 5 Jul 2021 1:39PM
Let"s talk about it @CJ Yetman, I need to understand this better, so far this information makes me uneasy.
Veroca R. Sala Mon 5 Jul 2021 2:08PM
Thanks!
About the volunteers plan do it as you like,❤️ just let me know what is the goal ( number of people), we cant just recruit people indefinitely. I would like to know if I should boost the sign up with announcements and need to figure when could i fit in those announcements.
site leads: Please do coordinate with CJ and share here the outcome of the conversation so we all know how the site leads can make usage of the welfare tent if an affected participant need to be retired from the crowd and be provided with a safe space to rest.
The event program: is a booklet where to share time and place of workshops, in addition we add descriptions of the services for those firs timers. Are you suggesting adding the time of the training with the purpose of doing training during the event? will the training take place at the event or prior? unclear to me., Maybe I have misread something.
Care bears are wondering around: can we have a clear role description of care bears and teddy bears? like a on-duty responsibility list or so. If you have a drive doc work in progress feel free to link it so we get the updates as you move forward. Thanks!
-
Welfare team: i understood that those 2 co-leads that are collaborating with you will get the ticket (@Professor Kaos said) as long as they fill in the form, meanwhile, its is important that they put in some work and help you out. This is not a trade, This is us facilitating a way because they want to participate and we want them to take part too, do they want to participate at the Welfare or they just want the ticket?
If they filled the form and they commit to us we also commit to giving out the ticket, we just have 1000 things going on, it might take a while until the ticket is in their pocket, but it will be there. I don't think its a good approach to wait until they have their ticket in their hands to contribute, i don't wish things to work like that because that puts a lot of time-pressure on a team that is handling a million things at the time.
We don't process the directed ticket request on-demand, we do it biweekly or so ( may be more) So please be patient, fill the form and trust. 🤗
welfare placement nice to hear there is placement, rememeber we are decentralized and leads are all over the place doing their things, make sure the map makers know this, drop the pin location on this thread https://talk.kiezburn.org/d/Gp6kXgAI/kiez-burn-map
Welfare tent: 5x5 meters tent is not enough to have a soft area to hang out and have some tea? besides that, there will be a #2 tent to rest? how many people you wanna fit in the tent #2? if its for one person could be a tipi tent, for more than one then we still need to consider the walls issue. I can be a complete closed space. @Hanna-Maija (Animal) tagging the covid lead.
-
Welfare dream I understand you put up a dream to make the space nicer and bigger, this means the structure has to be built by you and your welfare dream team, the general build team will be making the general structure ( 5x5 tent) and transporting all things from storage ( not a small task btw)
Welfare dream transporting materials: theoretically you should be transporting all dream related materials from Berlin to site, as all dreamers do. Since this is an special dream because its related to a core part of the event, i guess we can do an exception to put in stuff in the production van, but you have to make sure this is coordinated here in this thread >>> https://talk.kiezburn.org/d/HWajQVi2/build-transport-production-van make sure people know where the stuff will be, its volume, and all that, dont expect anyone to come and ask you. Decentralized model requires a lot of follow up or you are let behind.
You and your 2 dream makers will be allowed onsite during build ( as far as i understand, please talk to your dream guide about this @Ariel and get them to fill in the early arrival form tagging @Franzi about early arrivals). These two angels can make the tipy together with you and also make all decorations as you envision it, Not the general build crew.
Note: during build these angels will have to be self-reliant in regards to food and drinks.
Ale Mon 5 Jul 2021 4:11PM
Hi @CJ Yetman , I've read over the safety protocol and we're definitely conscious about welfare's role at the kiezburn and want to offer people the support and space they need.
We just want to make sure, that space is available for this kind of situations and people feel comfortable to approach. I'm sure @River Aleks agrees that we should collaborate and talk this through beforehand, so that welfare space is not blocked for 'whatever reason' the side leads sees fit. :)
Ale · Mon 5 Jul 2021 4:34PM
Hi @Veroca R. Sala , I'm also part of the welfare team and I hope i can bring more clarity here as well. :)
We're organized in a group of people that are all collaborating real close and try to tackle what needs to happen. As we all know - it's not a lot of time and the work is big for everyone. So glad to see so many amazing and active souls involved at kiezburn!
We have our next meeting soon (next week at the latest) and will talk about volunteers, strict description of teddy/care bears and other topics there.
Site leads: We'll get in contact and we know and want to more than fulfill our role as welfare and safe haven for the kiezburn community.
Training/event program: The training/workshops will happen beforehand or at the beginning of kiezburn and are just for the care bears, so there shouldn't be a need to get it into the communication or workshop programm leaflet beforehand :) We're organizing that at the moment with someone from chillout/eclipse and someone experienced with "authentic relating". I'm in contact with the embassy and 'werkstatt' in the Haus der Statistik concerning rooms, but nothing's clear yet.
Care bears/Teddy Role description: We're working on it right now. At the moment this is what's clear: Care bears need to get a training in harm reduction and/or authentic relating. For wandering around: we'd like to have more visibility and easy access for people who might need our support. The wandering teddy/care bears can either support directly or lead to the welfare area. More details soon.
welfare team/tickets: I can totally relate and understand, that you have to take care of your time, many tasks and energy as well. Please don't see this as an attack. I think there was a lot of uncertainty for all of us and we're glad to be able to have experienced people with us on the team now. They also involved themselves and contributed even before they had a ticket. So probs and thanks to them! ❤️ (Please no worries and please have trust in us as well, that we don't just want to have tickets, but people who contribute greatly :) )
welfare placement: I think welfare can already be found on the map. More details and further updates on the discussion or uncertain terms will follow asap.
welfare tent: To be honest this also feels kind of judging to me and I hope I can make you excited for our vision! As it's not just drinking tea and chilling 😉❤️
We want to have a space where people can rest, recover, come down if they are having a bad experience. Get back to earth more or less. Where people can take a break from overstimulation etc.
Next to that, we want to create 2-3 spots where people can get emotional support. Talk about their worries, their needs, what's hindering them from enjoying themselves. Might also be the place for people regarding situations mentioned in the safety protocols.
dream and build: Thank you for the hints and tips and giving us an idea on what to expect. We'll do our best to keep this in mind for our planning and more details will follow here soon as well. :)
I hope this gave a bit more clarity, otherwise let me know.🌸 I know I'm incredibly glad to have @River Aleks as our Lead and she's running in circles to make everything possible in such a short time. Please all - be conscious about each other and remember: everyone is trying their best! ❤️