Camerados

THE ANSWER TO OUR PROBLEMS IS ...

...EACH OTHER! WHY LEAVE IT TO ‘THE MAN’ TO SORT OUT BIG HAIRY SOCIAL PROBLEMS? WE HAVE THE ANSWER OURSELVES! Join the movement #camerados

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CAMERADOS is a movement that creates time and space for people to be alongside as equals and look out for each other.

Not fixing each other, just being there. It’s nothing new but strangely rare.

When we do this it creates the two things that get us through tough times…Friends and Purpose.

What a load of fluffy nonsense? Well, we think it’s serious business.

Read on…

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camerados.org

In times of a crisis 42% of people with major issues turn to friends and less than I4% rely on professional support.

- LankellyChase, Hard Edges report

Those of us with strong relationships are 50% more likely to survive lifethreatening illness than people with weaker ones.

- ”The Best medicine” report by Relate/NPC.

2 out of 3 of the biggest reasons homeless people give for being on the street are to do with relationships - Shelter

“If you can create connection with someone, not judge them, show them you’re here to listen...you are improving their brain chemistry” - Natasha Devon on the work of neurobiologist Dr Andrew Curran, BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour, May 2018

Join the movement #camerados

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HERE’S HOW IT WORKS! TWO THINGS WE ALL NEED FOR TOUGH TIMES ARE FRIENDS AND PURPOSE CONN WIT PEOPLEECT AND H LOOK O EACH OTUT FOR HER

POSE DS AND PUR WITH FRIEN NOW MAKE IT PEOPLE CAN OUGH TIMES THROUGH T 5.

camerados.org

T OF HE B PU IG C RP AN OS E*

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SO HOW DOES THE CAMERADOS MOVEMENT HELP PEOPLE FIND FRIENDS AND PURPOSE? CURRENTLY WE DO 3 THINGS:

1. WEAR THE BADGE, BE A CAMERADO If you wear our badge it shows you believe we should all look out for each other. And do it like a camerado... ...turn the notion of “help” on its head and ask people who are having tough times to help you instead. This might feel counter intuitive but in that one act you provide them with a friend and a purpose. Treat them like equals not lesser folk in need of a handout. .

We encourage people to bring the mission to life from chalk on the pavement to words on social media to art on the walls.

Rather than donations we prefer the mutual benefit of trade. So buy a T-shirt or other stuff and that way you can look cool, help the movement keep going and spread the word all at the same time.

Join the movement #camerados

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2. PUBLIC LIVING ROOM IN A BOX Where do you go when you hit tough times? What

place?

Most people hide away until their problems become unmanageable and then they head to an emergency service.

Others go to a pub or café and seek solace.

What if we had a third space that wasn’t trying to fix you or sell you a blueberry muffin. Just somewhere you could go on good days and bad take your mind off your own problems, look out for someone else, give purpose to your day, be listened to and acknowledged, have a laugh, just be with people no questions asked.

We don’t know of anywhere like this. So we made one up and called it a Public Living Room.

Join the movement #camerados

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If you want to make one in your own community get in touch at our website. We have magical boxes travelling around the globe that are full of goodies and ideas to get your public living room off the ground.

We’ve put them in a prison, hospital, library, football stadium, on a street, in a park and even on the Brooklyn Bridge! So we’ve learnt a lot and that’s in the box.

After 90 days the box is collected full of your experiences and sent to the next bunch of camerados.

Everyone who gets a box is connected and eventually we create a global network of Camerados.

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3. HUMAN HOSPITALS We put a teepee in as hospital and strange things started to happen.

Staff struggling to cope asked for support from patients; patients started sharing stories; and the general wellbeing of a very stressed-out building improved.

Sometimes medical solutions are only part of the solution and having a space to be a CAMERADO brought feedback from staff and patients the like of which nobody had ever seen.

So the movement is hoping to grow in the NHS with lots of new ideas alongside teepees(!) to celebrate and bring out the humanity of the wonderful people in hospitals.

If you know anyone who works in a hospital please put them in touch with the movement at www.camerados.org.

Join the movement #camerados

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camerados.org

THIS IS THE TINY WRITING BIT FOR FOLK WHO FANCY A READ. PUT YOUR SPECS ON. This all started because of something that didn’t

work.

A few of us spent twenty years working with people who had rubbish lives. These were just everyday people for whom life hadn’t worked out well and it led to a life at the sharp end.

All the ‘solutions’ we had - medical interventions, housing, benefits, courses, programmes - they didn’t work. What did make a difference? In struggling communities it was the meals we ate together; in homeless hostels or prisons it was the football tournaments or running small businesses together; for those with addiction it was the group work.

Everywhere it was human contact, companionship and doing something that mattered to people. Friends and Purpose.

Wherever we went, time and again, these were the two things people wanted. What we realised of course is that these are the two things we ALL need. That’s why Camerados is for EVERYONE wherever you are on the ’tough times’ spectrum. It can all lead to dark places no matter who you are.

Some people told us they wanted to die.

Join the movement #camerados

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This is surely the most extreme moment of crisis. The ultimate ‘tough time’. What do you say? We did something surprising. We asked them to help us.

It was like a kind of magic. The light returned to their eyes.

Within half an hour they were calming us down instead: they were gonna help us out. Why? Ask someone in crisis to help you and in one act you provide a Friend and a Purpose.

So you’re thinking at this point: this is not rocket science.

People in tough times need other people and to feel they have value. Big deal!

Yet this stuff is so rare in institutions and services that are there to help us. There are good people in all of them but the system doesn’t make it easy to make Friends and find Purpose. When you go somewhere for help they are often scary places with wipe-clean surfaces and forms to fill in.

That’s why people go to the pub or Costa. And spend money and get no help. Maybe there’s time for a third place: that’s why we came up with public living rooms. We also discovered hospitals were a hotbed of stress and trouble so that’s why we’re doing the ‘human hospitals’ work.

But you don’t have to run a hospital or open a public living room to be a part of this movement. You can just wear the badge and look out for people. Yep - it’s as simple as that.

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THINGS THAT HELP CREATE A CAMERADOS SPACE

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Don’t fix people. It gets messy, just be alongside, equals, not judging.

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Share your failures and weaknesses... it makes us all feel less alone.

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Invite a mad mix of different kinds of people, don’t segregate.

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People in tough times are invited to look out for others not just focused on themselves. Feels great for everyone.

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Have fun. It normally contains both friends and purpose.

Join the movement #camerados

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THE SEGREGATION CEMETERY...

We don’t segragate in death, so why do we in life?

Why isn’t there more fun in the system?

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camerados.org

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