Case Study #3
The Warm Rooms project is currently providing shelter for those struggling with heating costs and offers company to the lonely through a winter of hardship. A similar outdoor project called The Friendly Bench is already in existence but only in limited parts of the UK and appears to be established on a more events-focussed basis and requires especially designed seating areas and organised commitment. Age UK and other organisations run befriending services where volunteers are matched for scheduled telephone calls, and there are countless clubs available. Clubs are great for the extroverted amongst us and those with time to commit but are not so good for spur of the moment activity, shy introverts, or those with less free time due to caring roles or other commitments.
Offers of support for charitable causes are often finite and dependant on volunteers and fixed time slots. People are beginning to move on from the restrictions of the pandemic and have less time to spare, and the Warm Rooms project is scheduled to finish in March 2023. There is a general shortage of volunteers within community as people have many more options available to them these days and are less keen to have commitments which tie and restrict their movements. I have seen other successful projects fold once the initial organisers move on to other projects and offers of help dry up when people realise the commitment involved.
Despite these other projects, patients tell me that there is something missing for them on a day-to-day basis. On the flip side, I also have people telling me that they would like to contribute or get involved with a worthy cause but they don’t really know what to do as they don’t feel able to take on any arduous tasks or heavy, regular or scheduled commitments. It is not necessarily that they don’t wish to help but more often that they don’t think to or cannot find the time to do so.
The beauty of the Sociable Seating™ is that there is no regular commitment or obligation required. We can all spare five minutes in passing. Sociable Seating is all about simplifying the ideology behind the existing projects in order to reach more people with less formal commitment and to expand on the ideas of these worthy causes.
