WELLBEING
ROOM TO LIVE
Camerados provides public living rooms for people to find company and connection , with no agenda , no judgement – and no attempts to ‘ fix ’ them . It ’ s a model that could have some valuable lessons for other sectors , including the drugs field
O
ne of the most popular parts of this year ’ s DDN conference was the ‘ public living room ’, a space for delegates to relax , chat and connect with each other . It was provided by Camerados , a social movement founded in 2015 by Maff Potts and which now has 250 of these spaces across five countries .
‘ There was a real solidarity and camaraderie at that conference ,’ says Potts . ‘ One of the things that the drug and alcohol space does very well is involve people with lived experience , and if you have a room full of people who ’ ve been through a lot there ’ s inevitably a warmer atmosphere .’
The idea for Camerados came after two decades working in the homelessness sector , including as a project manager for Crisis and the Salvation Army ’ s national director of homelessness services . ‘ It was 20 years in traditional institutional organisations , and it doesn ’ t get more traditional than the Salvation Army – massive warehouses of 150-bed hostels for men on the Clyde or in the East End ’, he says .
ISOLATION KILLS It was here that he became accustomed to his Blackberry regularly buzzing to inform him of another death . ‘ Some of the projects were fantastic , but with others I couldn ’ t find out what was going on , so I ’ d check myself in as homeless to stay overnight . And of course when you chat to the lads in there you find out everything .’ This led him to investigate all of the deaths that had occurred over the previous year , and he found there was one common denominator – isolation . These were people who ’ d ‘ cut themselves off from everyone ’, he says , and he began to grow increasingly disillusioned with the officially sanctioned ways of responding .
‘ The single biggest reason for homelessness has always been relationship breakdown , and yet all we ever talked about was housing and benefits . We never focused on what actually mattered . From my very early days when I used to volunteer in shelters , it was obvious that the biggest thing people wanted was companionship .’
One of the key tenets of Camerados is that it ’ s about a human connection – being there and listening – rather than setting out to ‘ fix ’ people , he stresses . ‘ Institutional models are often predicated on a structure where the board requires a certain amount of data to make decisions . So everyone builds services based on that , and by the time it gets to the beneficiary you ’ re basically saying , “ Can you please have your mental health breakdown between 9.30 and 4.30 ?” We end up dancing to the tune of the system , and I just got hugely disillusioned with that .’
He decided the answer was to ‘ cut out organisations out altogether , and go direct to people
in their neighbourhoods ’. It was also vital not to make it about homelessness , he says . ‘ Because the labels were bullshit . These were people exactly like me , it was just that they were having a tough life . That ’ s why Camerados living rooms are popular in places like hospitals and university campuses . There might be homeless people in them , there might not . It ’ s just anyone having a rough day who needs a bit of company .’
NO AGENDAS His time in the homelessness sector also taught him precisely how not to interact with people , he believes . ‘ My staff would get in people ’ s faces , ask them deeply personal and invasive questions , and often this was their very first contact – they ’ d proceed to tell them what they needed to do to turn their life around . We need spaces where that ’ s not happening , because people feel invaded . Wherever they go they ’ re defined by their problem , given a label , and told what they need
6 • DRINK AND DRUGS NEWS • OCTOBER 2024 WWW . DRINKANDDRUGSNEWS . COM