Lessons & Ambitions, Kollapscamp 2025

Liebe Leser:innen, die großartigen Menschen aus Schweden, die wir mit den “Stop the Bleed” - workshops beim Kollapscamp zu Gast haben durften, haben einen Rückblick auf ihre Erfahrungen beim Camp geschrieben. Der nachfolgende Text ist ein Genoss:innenbeitrag von Gatans Förband (Abre numa nova janela) & Preppa tillsammans (Abre numa nova janela) und ich freue mich, den hier mit euch teilen zu können. Danke, dass ihr da wart und DANKE für ganz viel Input, Inspiration und Motivation, denn ohne euch und das, was mit “Stop the Bleed” auch für uns angestoßen wurde, hätte es vielleicht 2025 noch kein Kollapscamp gegeben!

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Collapse and Solidarity-Based Prepping

During the last weekend of August we took part in the Kollapscamp in Kuhlmühle, just outside Berlin. The collapse that the camp focused on is something we can observe happening all around the world. It's a steady crumbling away of the systems we rely upon. Ecological, economic, and social systems are breaking down, safety nets are thinning out, and infrastructure is failing.

This doesn’t mean that the apocalypse, as seen in movies, is upon us - that everything is lost and we should lock ourselves away in bunkers. On the contrary. It means identifying the needs that arise as a result of these crises and building a solidarity-based community that responds to those needs, so that we can step in and be society for each other when needed. To us, that’s what solidarity-based prepping is all about.

The Needs Behind Our Workshops

The gang related shootings of recent years in our residential areas in the Stockholm region, motivated us both to learn and to teach how to Stop the Bleed. We view these shootings as a symptom of a broader societal collapse - increasing segregation and deepening inequalities, constant cutbacks and growing gang crime, more and younger people lacking school qualifications, jobs, and hopes for the future - and as a result, more, and younger children and youth left without alternatives to the gangs. Meanwhile, the government focuses solely on repression: increased surveillance and the construction of child prisons, while the social sector and the healthcare system are continuously being underfunded.

That reality revealed a need shared by us and our neighbours, and a gap that no one else was currently filling. That’s the reason why we do what we do - our goal is to spread knowledge and build a sense of community and action competency, where isolation and helplessness might otherwise take over. We can’t stop the shootings, but we can choose how to act and how to meet each other when they happen. If the situation changes and we see other needs arise, we will work to meet those instead.

Kollapscamp 2025

At Kuhlmühle, we hosted three Stop the Bleed workshops as a way to build concrete crisis preparedness in our local communities. From the start, the interest and engagement were huge. We had set a maximum of 20 participants per workshop — and more than 50 showed up every time! It was almost overwhelming! We welcomed everyone to stay during the theoretical part, during which we demonstrated how to act as an immediate responder in an emergency and got to answer many great questions. When it was time to break into smaller groups for practical training, the last 25–30 people to arrive, had to leave so that we could create a space where participants felt safe to practice, reflect, try things out, and connect.

We’re incredibly grateful for the love and positive feedback we received from all our engaged participants. Each workshop ended with a round where everyone could share whether the session met their expectations, what they were taking away from it, and if they had any feedback for us. It made us truly happy to hear how much our facilitation and shared leadership was appreciated - that it helped create a safe atmosphere that encouraged questions and vulnerability. Several people highlighted the sense of trust and care that developed during the group exercises.

Beyond sharing concrete knowledge, we see these exercises as a practical step in community-building - a way to create a sense of us. The goal is to build networks based on mutual trust and collective support that can be used in crises. The conversations often continued long after the workshops ended. Several participants expressed a desire to become Stop the Bleed-instructors themselves, to pass the knowledge on in their local areas. That’s amazing! Perhaps we’ll even do a tour training new instructors next spring - we’ll see.

The days were intense. Besides our own workshops, we had many valuable conversations and meetings with camp participants and organizers about collapse, crisis preparedness, and how to prepare together in solidarity.

A Heartfelt Thank You!

We’ve returned from the camp with new energy and inspiration that we want to channel and pass on. In addition to running more user as well as instructor trainings in Stop the Bleed, our aim is to continue to build neighbourhood-based preparedness, facilitate the starting of more Preppa Tillsammans (Abre numa nova janela) groups, contribute to more camps like this one as well as to a solidarity network that connects the local to the regional - and, if possible, eventually the international level.

We want to extend a huge and heartfelt thank you to the organizers of Kollapscamp, who did an incredible job - building a logistical infrastructure capable of hosting hundreds of participants, providing us all with good food and all the essential infrastructure, workshop spaces, and a packed schedule of over a hundred sessions. Most importantly, they took the initiative to open up a space for exchange, collaboration, mutual learning, and networking - a space that wasn’t there before. Thank you for that! And a special thank you to Tadzio, who helped spread the word about Gatans Förband and Preppa Tillsammans (Abre numa nova janela) and thereby contributing significantly to the great turnout at our workshops! As well as to Scully, for letting us share our experiences and thoughts in this newsletter!

A Room for Improvement

Were there shortcomings at the camp? As in, is there room to develop and improve the concept? Of course - it would be strange if there weren’t. We see Kollapscamp 2025 as a pilot project, which we hope will be followed by many more, both regionally and internationally.

One area we want to help improve is accessibility and representation. Crises and collapse do not impact everyone equally - we know this. That’s why it’s crucial that those most directly affected by a crumbling system are represented in our networks and present at our camps - sharing their experiences, knowledge, needs, and capabilities. This includes people living in politically neglected areas, those with a migration background, people with disabilities or for whom the end of the month is a crisis in itself.

On to the Next!

So - how can we open our spaces to more of our neighbours? Perhaps by simply asking people what they need in order to participate. A few things that came to mind after this year’s Kollapscamp: offering tiered ticket prices (one for employed people, one for students/unemployed/others, and a solidarity ticket for those more financially secure); providing accessible facilities and toilets; and offering interpreters and sign language support.

If you’re reading this and are interested in organizing one (or several) camps in the Nordic region - get in touch! Maybe we can coordinate and support each other.

The same goes if you want us to organize Preppa Tillsammans workshops or Stop the Bleed sessions in your local area.

/Gatans Förband (Abre numa nova janela) & Preppa tillsammans (Abre numa nova janela)