More About Us
We seek to address the long-neglected gaps in mental health typically unattended to by the humanitarian aid industry by connecting grassroots initiatives with local and foreign professionals (or interns). These individuals will then volunteer part-time or full-time with this initiative in collaboration with our collective.
We aim as much as possible to also address stigma (around mental health, race, queerness, dissent to authority, etc) with not only the work itself done as practitioners, artists, and educators, but with meaningful presence and engagement in community spaces. In this partnership, whose boundaries, involvement and work are adapted to the needs of a people in correlation with the expectations of a volunteer’s profession and well-being, we aim to help realize individual self-discovery and development on the participant’s own terms through a less distant approach. We view this as a gateway to collective care which we strive to give the tools for groups to build, and also as a means of avoiding vacuums of dependency often left behind by organizations operating within a colonial framework. We work in this manner while conscious of our limited resources and realistic limitations of knowledge and abilities in various situations.
Solidarity Minded also emphasizes psychoeducational training to support continuity post-departure, or in the gaps of our collectivist’s absence. In this approach, we see discovery, liberation, solidarity and autonomy as leading to the most effective model for our work’s sustainability communally.
Although we may be neutral to a degree in some elements or techniques of our work, we fundamentally do not believe that passivity or neutrality in the face of historical and continued oppression can lead to any meaningful solidarity, therapeutic alliance, fruitful teacher-student-class relationship, or community without the result being a power imbalance, a present lack of empathy, and a continued disregard to beginning or continuing to address systemic problems in one’s political and social institutions.
We believe that psychological support is not more important than the supplying of basic necessities, but rather equally important.
We believe that individual support and change is not more important than collective support or care, but rather that the two are symbiotic and should be pursued simultaneously.
We seek to address the long-neglected gaps in mental health typically unattended to by the humanitarian aid industry by connecting grassroots initiatives with local and foreign professionals (or interns). These individuals will then volunteer part-time or full-time with this initiative in collaboration with our collective.
We aim as much as possible to also address stigma (around mental health, race, queerness, dissent to authority, etc) with not only the work itself done as practitioners, artists, and educators, but with meaningful presence and engagement in community spaces. In this partnership, whose boundaries, involvement and work are adapted to the needs of a people in correlation with the expectations of a volunteer’s profession and well-being, we aim to help realize individual self-discovery and development on the participant’s own terms through a less distant approach. We view this as a gateway to collective care which we strive to give the tools for groups to build, and also as a means of avoiding vacuums of dependency often left behind by organizations operating within a colonial framework. We work in this manner while conscious of our limited resources and realistic limitations of knowledge and abilities in various situations.
Solidarity Minded also emphasizes psychoeducational training to support continuity post-departure, or in the gaps of our collectivist’s absence. In this approach, we see discovery, liberation, solidarity and autonomy as leading to the most effective model for our work’s sustainability communally.
Although we may be neutral to a degree in some elements or techniques of our work, we fundamentally do not believe that passivity or neutrality in the face of historical and continued oppression can lead to any meaningful solidarity, therapeutic alliance, fruitful teacher-student-class relationship, or community without the result being a power imbalance, a present lack of empathy, and a continued disregard to beginning or continuing to address systemic problems in one’s political and social institutions.
We believe that psychological support is not more important than the supplying of basic necessities, but rather equally important.
We believe that individual support and change is not more important than collective support or care, but rather that the two are symbiotic and should be pursued simultaneously.
Project History
Solidarity Minded is the continuation of the project “Copenhagen Underground”.
In the Spring 2017, Copenhagen Underground was created as the Copenhagen Underground Film Festival – an anticapitalist film festival free to submit to and attend which curated the best DIY and low-budget indie films on the planet, and then brought them into as public of spaces as humanly possible. The original intention of the festival was also to raise awareness and funds for Rohingya refugees who were escaping ethnic cleansing being perpetrated by the Burmese state.
However, a film festival only happens once a year and the collective members wanted to organize cultural events year round which could continue to provide practical solidarity to humanitarian initiatives, political prisoners and comrades in need. The project then turned into a mutual aid collective while organizing an annual film festival. Copenhagen Underground constantly utilized any materials, space and opportunity it could to bring people together for the purpose of community, culture and solidarity. Eventually, the project began organizing tours across the continent bringing unique independent and DIY film programmes to cinemas, galleries, squats, music venues, cafes, hostels, and more.
The project began to grow and find a greater success in raising funds and gathering resources with this format. But due to a combination of visa issues from Danish immigration and effects from the pandemic, the project was placed on hiatus. The founder, whose background in the last years had involved working with refugees decided to pursue an MSc in the United Kingdom to obtain a more tangible skillset to bring into their work. With leftover funds from the last edition of the annual festival which weren’t spent because of another project which didn’t materialize during the pandemic, and money saved on rent while living in a friend’s van in Glasgow, the funds for “Operation 1” were able to be gathered and utilized.
The rest is history… Albeit, a rather short one.
Solidarity Minded is the continuation of the project “Copenhagen Underground”.
In the Spring 2017, Copenhagen Underground was created as the Copenhagen Underground Film Festival – an anticapitalist film festival free to submit to and attend which curated the best DIY and low-budget indie films on the planet, and then brought them into as public of spaces as humanly possible. The original intention of the festival was also to raise awareness and funds for Rohingya refugees who were escaping ethnic cleansing being perpetrated by the Burmese state.
However, a film festival only happens once a year and the collective members wanted to organize cultural events year round which could continue to provide practical solidarity to humanitarian initiatives, political prisoners and comrades in need. The project then turned into a mutual aid collective while organizing an annual film festival. Copenhagen Underground constantly utilized any materials, space and opportunity it could to bring people together for the purpose of community, culture and solidarity. Eventually, the project began organizing tours across the continent bringing unique independent and DIY film programmes to cinemas, galleries, squats, music venues, cafes, hostels, and more.
The project began to grow and find a greater success in raising funds and gathering resources with this format. But due to a combination of visa issues from Danish immigration and effects from the pandemic, the project was placed on hiatus. The founder, whose background in the last years had involved working with refugees decided to pursue an MSc in the United Kingdom to obtain a more tangible skillset to bring into their work. With leftover funds from the last edition of the annual festival which weren’t spent because of another project which didn’t materialize during the pandemic, and money saved on rent while living in a friend’s van in Glasgow, the funds for “Operation 1” were able to be gathered and utilized.
The rest is history… Albeit, a rather short one.