July Newsletter: Action Required
Community Care at Soft Landing
Welcome Campers,
Camp Soft Landing has been a home for harm reduction at Burning Man since our earliest days. Every year we welcome new campers and returning friends into this community. Lifelong friendships are forged here and our community expands to events beyond Burning Man. Our community is built on shared agreements, mutual respect, and willingness to care for one another.
We believe community itself can be an act of harm reduction. Consent is one expression of that commitment.
Consent and Our Shared Agreements
We want Camp Soft Landing to be a place where you can explore, play, connect, and be yourself.
Every camper, including camp leadership - without exception - is expected to participate in the consent and community safety discussions each year before participating in camp activities. We revisit this conversation annually to meet the evolving needs of the community. Together we’ll talk about what consent is, what consent looks like in practice, how to support someone in distress, what to do if something happens, and what accountability looks like in our camp.
If you arrive after orientation, a member of the Community Care Team will meet with you before you set up your personal camp so everyone begins with the same shared understanding.
The Community Care Team
The Community Care Team is here to help cultivate a camp where people feel respected, supported, and able to explore safely. Community Care Team members are trained in our camp agreements, harm reduction practices, consent, restorative approaches, and connecting campers with outside resources when appropriate. We will announce the team and how to reach them during the acculturation training and camp meetings.
Our Community -- On-Playa and Off-Playa
Our community extends beyond playa.
We are a year-round community. We interact with one another at other events, in shared spaces, and in daily life. What happens in those spaces matters to us.
Because we’re a year-round community, behavior outside of Burning Man can affect the experience of people within camp. For that reason, the Community Care Team may consider concerns arising from regional events, other camps, and off-playa interactions when making decisions about membership.
If you have experienced something involving a fellow Soft Landing camper, on or off playa, and you do not feel safe camping with them, please let the Community Care Team know as soon as possible, and ideally before camp begins. If you’re concerned about another camper, or even unsure about something you’ve witnessed, please reach out. It’s honorable and respectful to just ask!
If you’ve been involved in a situation that may affect another camper’s sense of safety or respect, we encourage you to come to us before camp begins. We’d rather have an honest conversation early than be surprised once we’re on playa.
Please reach out at care@campsoftlanding.co.
We will remove members from camp mid-week if that becomes necessary. We hope it never does. But we will.
Help Build This
Every year we build again. The structures and systems that support the experience and the culture itself. Thank you for joining us in creating a camp where people can:
Explore freely
Express boundaries with confidence
Participate in culture building by speaking up
Be OK with hearing “no” and thanking others for taking care of themselves.
If you you have an idea on how to improve the camp experience for all, please email us at care@campsoftlanding.co
With love and respect,
Camp Soft Landing Community Care Team