A Small Text About Awareness Concept Templates
To be honest, I don't know exactly how the Google algorithm works. So, that there is "Leipzig" not quite by chance I have already understood, but to what extent the other results are adapted to me* or actually represent what is googled most often, I can not judge. What surprised me: "Awareness concept template" already appears as the third result. The pages found then vary in quality, but overall are rather lukewarm. Especially with 207,000 search hits very few. Especially compared to the top dogs of the templates: "CV", "Application" and "Termination" which are all in the upper million range, but that's no wonder. Most people probably need a resume, but perhaps not an awareness concept.
"Didn't you even..."
At the same time, it happens more often: people want to do an event and ask me, because I've done something like this before, if I don't have a concept that they could maybe adopt. And of course I have a concept. Maybe I have a few more, but I don't have a good feeling about sharing them.
And I'm not at all concerned with any rights to the text. These are clearly also important, but in my opinion an awareness concept should be communicated publicly anyway, so that everyone knows where they stand on this evening: Whether there is a team, how you can recognize them, where they are and why they act as they do. Perhaps also in a long version for reading and in a short, easily understandable version with key facts for the evening.
One shoe fits all...
It's not enough to have 2-20 pages on which something is written that somehow looks like a manual. Unlike at IKEA, in case of doubt, no one can be called in to put it together at the end if you are overwhelmed with the complexity of the task***. What I would like to say: Although the work of awareness teams is similar at many events and certainly does not always have to reinvent the wheel, it is important to consider beforehand what the requirements for good awareness are at the particular event.
You have to think about many things, such as the room, the team, the communication in the evening, the audience and the structural conditions. And it makes a huge difference, for example, whether the security team is part of the team and has perhaps already received training or whether it is external service providers who don't even have time for a short briefing in advance.
...but Cinderella
And even if everything looks exactly the same: Is it really? Are our working concepts of violence and discrimination the same? The concept said "power of definition" but what does that mean for us this evening? How does that actually work with domiciliary rights?
For awareness you need not only a concept but also a confrontation with content. Phrases like "No Sexism, No Racism, No Homophobia" are repeated over and over again, especially in left-wing and alternative places, and this clear positioning is really cool at first, but if I have the feeling that this is only written because it is written, it contributes rather less to my subjective feeling of security. At this point, it is also important to talk about what is meant by these terms. Also, what these forms of discrimination look like in nightlife and how to deal with them in a meaningful way. Often there is a lot of focus on the people attending that night, but perhaps the first target group should be the team. Who is involved in the event? Who is helping to plan it? Who is on stage/at the DJ booth and who is behind the bar? Who is visible and how, and what social positioning is reflected in the awareness team?
Last but not least, this is also about the distribution of power. And if the goal is to empower those affected, this should not ultimately fail because the powers are poorly distributed on the evening.
This requires a common understanding, and establishing that understanding is often quite a task, unfortunately, but a necessary one.
Once this discussion has taken place and all the relevant actors are on board, writing a few pages is no longer a problem. And then I'm happy to take a look at what the others have written - after all, you can still learn a lot from copying.
* Or is it not about me at all, but the initiative Awareness, which is called "Awareness Leipzig" in a contribution of Brisant last?
** And the police, as far as possible, should never be the solution.
