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:
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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)
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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we will make sure to make many signs and a glowing sign for the night time
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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 Mon 5 Jul 2021 1:34PM
You are welcome @Veroca R. Sala <3 , here are my answers
Who are these wonderful humans in the welfare team? - we are still unsure if all of them have tickets, which is a major drain on me and a blockage to pull the welfare off. It was a lot to work on the entire welfare by myself, without having extra tickets to get help in such a short period of time. At the end of last week, I was promised more tickets for people who can support Welfare and I have found an amazing team, but they are still waiting to find out if they have tickets. I would need even more tickets since we started everything so late. As soon as this gets clarified, I will mention all of them.
How is the volunteer plan going? we had over 70 people interested in the carebear role that have signed up through the form. We considered we actually needed 30 people since each one should sign for 2 shifts over the duration of the event. Is this still the idea? - these are rumors, i never considered that, it was the way it was done in 2019, it was different in 2018 and 2017. I want to have as many volunteers as possible. We have increased the number of shifts to also have Care bears who wonder around to offer support.
How many care-bears have dropped out? so far 3 that I know of ( 2 sold their tickets, 1 resigned)
How is the welfare placement going? @Cairn (Clément) - we are in conversation and have locked in a location
Finance tag @Professor Kaos ( not Alexx hehe) - oops I copied this from Franzi's post
Storage: it would be better to know what is there but we will work with what we have
welfare tent: @Professor Kaos has a big tent for us, not sure what it was used for before, but it is much smaller than the Yurt we used before, so it is not a great place for emergency site lead meetings @CJ Yetman - I would like to discuss this with you.
Event program: great to know, we need put our trainings in and a care bear graduation ceremony
BUDGET: to use as reference, I suggest making a breakdown of the expenses. How much will be spent in: - as soon as our budget lead has a ticket, he will get on it and will be tagged. @Valentin_Seehausen
COVID: how the tent aligns with covid requirements? I wanted to have a tipi as resting space at least, do we have any we could use for Welfare? @Natacha Kromatik
Item removed
Natacha Kromatik Tue 6 Jul 2021 7:25PM
Dear Welfare leads @Ale @River Aleks, I'm the build coordinator and here is what our team can/'t provide to you:
CAN - 5x5 tent from storage as mentioned already
- a couple (of couple) of arms to build it
- mattresses from storage (how many? let's see what their real state is though)
- potentially lend you tools
CAN'T - support the realisation of further infrastructures such as tipis
- organise the darkening(?) of the big tent
When do you plan to start building it? Of course, we'll bring everything out of storage anyways, but I'd like to include it in the build plan, according to the help we can offer, hoping it will run smoothly between both build/welfare teams. Don't hesitate to tag me here / get in touch personally if anything occurs!
Valentin_Seehausen Wed 7 Jul 2021 6:09PM
Hey there, my intro: I am Valentin, have been on the pre-corona Kiezburn 2019, absolutely loved it, and happy to bear here! Sorry for the picture. Logged in with google, couldn't change it.
I felt totally drawn by the vision of having welfare as this lovely care bear thingy 🧸that spreads a lot of love. 💗Super grateful for @River Aleks for that and happy to be here! So I guess I would count as co-lead #2, budget, building, and transport.
I also understand welfare is a critical part of the security concept. So happy to help with making sure all needs are met here!
Also happy to make sure building team and welfare will be a super lovely and strong teddy-match. I will most probably have my holidays around Kiezburn and will be able to put a lot of effort and help into it starting Monday before Kiezburn. Before I lean towards orga. ;-)
As we said: The plan is to have a bunch (20-40) of bears on site that know how to handle difficult situations (care bears). Also, we will have even more people that love to help but didn't get a "proper" education (proper means attending at least one workshop) but are eager to help spread love and calmness in crazy situations (teddies). There will be educated people (care bears) in the tent and elsewhere at all critical times, the helpers (teddies) will help. Of course psychologists/therapists and people with education will become care bears. There will be qualified people at all critical times. And they will be called care bears. 🧸The trainings will take place July 13th (authentic relating) and 17th (the relevant harm prevention training, all volunteers are invited.
Super happy for the 5x5 tent, will make sure I know our other possibilities soon.
Corona: I will check the legal requirements of Brandenburg (or is it even MeckPomm?) and make sure all is good. Pretty sure the "one site open" policy will not make it legal, though. Have been checking the Corona rules quite constantly for other events.
Wuhu, I totally love this vibo where we are all planning a festival, put a lot of effort into it, and in the end have this wonderful experience at Kiezburn that we all dreamed of. Supernormal to get stressed out sometimes, that is why we do cocreation. Love for work, work for love :-)
Any other things that are important? (sorry I am a newbee 🐝)
Valentin_Seehausen Mon 12 Jul 2021 11:34AM
Hey lovelies, here is our master doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KLSxtDZ5TmxELr0xKiMFDS3cDwRl_xhvSOt9GpH7wZU/edit just to let you know.
Sarah Montgomery Tue 13 Jul 2021 10:58AM
Hello all, happy to be a part of this team and support to monitor deadlines cc @River Aleks 🙂
Purzel Mon 19 Jul 2021 7:30PM
To whom do I need to talk, concerning the collaboration with First Aid. Our company is excited to work with you 😊
Cris Tue 27 Jul 2021 3:49PM
Dear Welfairies, little question here: how will people identify the mobile Care Bears?
I guess maybe @Joice Biazoto, @Rachel or @Marina may know the answer?
Veroca R. Sala Mon 5 Jul 2021 4:23PM
Im not sure if this is clear, i said : tickets will be provided to the 2 welfare co-leads you said you had, (who we dont have the name yet) @River Aleks as long as they fill in the form which is 4 questions to be answered. I dont see what is the problem with that (?). Otherwise i could help them to fill in the form.
As volunteer coordinator I have directed 2 people via email to you, to help you co lead the area. I haven't heard back from you to get these humans a ticket, I assumed they didnt need one. Only heard these were awesome humans and I was happy to heard that. Now i understand they do need a ticket. Which is not a problem.
Co leads will be those that help you coordinate the efforts, for example the team would look like these (only as an example):
Lead: overseeing it all ( i pinned down important things to have in mind) and making sure the welfare tent has all it needs ( materials etc, deco etc)
Co-lead#1: managing the volunteering shifts, and all related to it, communicating with volunteers, and aligning with the training facilitator.
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Co-lead#2 / Training lead: the person that will be preparing the training and seeking for a place where to facilitate etc.
All the points I have made to call attention to all other realizers, they need to be tagged; I tag those that need to read an specific piece of info and I let you know where to go if you want this or that. Appearing in the map for instance, if you dont want contact the map realizers, that its fine, but dont expect people picking up on it, maybe they do, maybe they dont, and maybe welfare will not be in the map after all, and that is not the end of the world. All in all I think the thread looks amazing and by making this info public you are enabling the co-creation process.
I do want to say this, I personally find against our values to highlight in this and other conversations we have had, the number of hours of work you are putting into this, I m sorry about that, we are meant to have fun here and I see you are not, that makes me sad. Our participation here is not bout counting each others hours of work.
How would be working with each other if all of us would be saying this every time we address our to-do's? It will be a very unpleasant experience i guess. Volunteering is a decision only you - ourselves- made. Nobody needs to feel guilty about it, only to thank you for the efforts,I am grateful for putting in all the work, I wish not to feel guilty about it and I will not hold myself back from commenting and highlighting things we should keep in mind.
From my Korg member perspective, welfare is not a critical need, I point out the important things to keep in mind, if you choose not to follow up any of these points, then they just might fail... your welfare tent also belongs to all of us. Failing not essentially means that it will not happen, but that it could fall onto other realizers shoulders, my goal is to avoid that, to not let things fail or worst, letting things fall onto other's people shoulders unexpectedly.
I do my work in this comment (as a volunteer coordinator, Korg member, board member, and talk moderator/admin that is why my previous comment is so extensive) I am directing you, and/or your co-leads in the direction you should go to get things done and for other realizers to align with you. If its too much, you need co-leads.
What happened with these two people? do we need to do an onboarding? please let me know i can organize that.
Thanks
Veroca R. Sala · Mon 5 Jul 2021 11:46AM
Thanks for putting this together ❤️ im dropping here some questions that come to mind so we can all work on it together.
Who are these wonderful humans in the welfare team? Could you tag them and tell us their responsibilities? Thanks.
How is the volunteer plan going? we had over 70 people interested in the carebear role that have signed up through the form. We considered we actually needed 30 people since each one should sign for 2 shifts over the duration of the event. Is this still the idea?
How many carebears have dropped out?
How is the welfare placement going? @Cairn (Clément) can we already think of a fixed area for it? where that would be, or when would we have that information? The planning thread doesnt offer a timeline, maybe with a timeline you would avoid having us asking the same thing all the time, sorry for that🤗!
Finance tag @Professor Kaos ( not Alexx hehe)
Storage: As mentioned in other conversations I would guess all listed elements in the inventory are in the storage, not so easy to access. Especially all small things like tee etc. are nicely put in plastic boxes, however, Im not sure about the state of these edibles and would consider buying all new to be safe! see this comment
There will be enough mattresses, dont worry about that!
welfare tent: Are we using the old first aid tent and something else? As for your information, the site leads will have their own slipping tent where 4 people can fit standing to have a talk and can be used as a station, so we dont need to use welfare space for this as it has happened in the pat @CJ Yetman is this correct? Does this mean that only one tent will suffice for the welfeareans?
Event program: feel free to give some copy to the event program realizers @Jarrod Wright @Fabi 🦥 to add it into the printed version before the 11th of July This is their thread.
this is short info about welfare that would be nice to adapt and integrate to the printed program
BUDGET: to use as reference, I suggest making a breakdown of the expenses. How much will be spent in:
deco, pins, fabric to cover the mattress and "walls" etc.
workshop training expenses
tee, cookies
COVID: how the tent aligns with covid requirements? do we need to think of not building up a closed space but leaving "walls" open. Making the walls with hanging fabrics that let the air come through? think of this and inform @Natacha Kromatik, please. These are the regulations work in progress https://talk.kiezburn.org/d/zlSR6hAY/covid-corona-discussion-and-input-thread/70