Awareness Team at 33C3
tl;dr: The Awareness team (DECT 113) will provide a point of contact for people to process experiences, resolve conflicts and to create a safe and enjoyable atmosphere especially for minorities.
There will be thousands of people at 33C3, all of whom have different needs and all of whom are different and unique in the way they feel, think and act.
Respectful behaviour amongst each other, including respect of personal boundaries, ought to be the standard, but even at the Congress there may be situations where people are discriminated against in word or deed. Sexism, racism, homo- and transphobia, ableism and all other forms of discrimination are never okay, even if they happen unintentionally.
That’s why – as in the past – there will be an Awareness team (DECT 113), providing a complement to and working closely with CCC Security (DECT 110) and the CERT (medical and fire-fighting Emergency team, DECT 112).
For all those who don’t know what “Awareness” means in this context or who only have a vague idea, we would like to give a short introduction to our work:
Awareness work is to get people to be mindful of themselves and others – particularly those who, by their appearance or deeds, deviate from the prevailing norms of a social group. Through this effort, the danger of violating personal boundaries (up to and including violence) shall be minimized.
An important part of Awareness is to acknowledge that only the affected person can determine whether their personal boundaries were violated.
For us this means that we support the affected in processing the situations they experienced. Also, if asked to, we communicate with the people from whom the discriminating or transgressing behaviour originated. Our goal in doing this is the aforementioned Awareness: to create understanding and recognition of how and why some behaviour transgressed someone else’s boundaries, even if it happened entirely by accident. This is not done in a moralising way – we act against the behaviour, not the person. It is explicitly not about guilt or judging someone as a “perpetrator” but about responsibility for future behaviour.
The Awareness team will be by your side particularly whenever:
– you feel harassed or discriminated
– your personal boundaries were violated
– you witness (acute or systemic) discrimination by other participants
– you don’t feel well and need someone to talk to
We want to be there for you, so please turn to us with your problems. Generally we will first ask you what happened and whether you already have a concrete idea of what we can do for you. Depending on your wishes, we can for example:
– come to you and mediate in case of a conflict at the CCH
– provide you with a quiet space to retreat to, where you can process your experience
– contact your friends and acquaintances
– try to resolve a situation (as far as possible), for example by trying to explain to those who transgressed why their actions were transgressive
– figure out together with you how best to help you
It is alright if you can’t or don’t want to talk about something. Every reaction, whether grief, anger, desperation, speechlessness, … is okay. Whether we should go talk to someone who violated your boundaries is always your decision – we will never force that on you.
Disclaimer: The Awareness team is made up of people who are mindful of Awareness and who want to support you to the best of their ability. Please forgive us if we might not be able to support you as much as you would wish us to do. We explicitly want to point out that we do __not__ have any sort of therapeutic training.
The Awareness team will be reachable around the clock during 33C3 (starting at latest on 27 Dec, 10 am) via DECT (113). Before and during Congress you can also reach us via e-mail at 33c3-awareness@lists.ccc.de or on Twitter (including DMs) @c3awareness. Please remember: at the CCH, calls via DECT will be the fastest method to reach us.
To a wonderful Congress!
Take care of yourselves and each other, so that it will work for everyone!
Your 33C3 Awareness team