RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS

Random Acts of Kindness – Briefing

We all know that the world feels like a less friendly place these days. People live in streets or communities where they often don’t know their neighbours. We travel around sealed in metal boxes on wheel and go from self-service shop to shop – just one shopper in a sea of shoppers.

Thankfully, Cornwall fares better than most places when it comes to ‘community spirit’ or ‘good neighbourliness’ but even here there is room for improvement.

That’s why we want to bring Random Acts of Kindness to the streets and communities of Cornwall this October.

Together with partners from Cornwall Council, local Churches and Age UK (Cornwall & IoS), Volunteer Cornwall staff will be taking to the streets to carry out Random Acts of Kindness during Make A Difference Day 2012 (27^th October) and the following week.

So what are Random Acts of Kindness? Based on the publication by the Mental Health Foundation called ‘Doing Good Does You Good’ they are simply things that might be described as polite manners, old fashioned neighbourliness or simply being a good citizen.

For example, Calling a friend or relative you haven’t spoken to for a while, sending flowers to a friend out of the blue, offering to pick up groceries for an elderly neighbour, having a conversation with a homeless person, picking up some rubbish in the street, smiling and saying hello to people you may pass every day but never speak to or praising a collegue for something they have done well.

These are all things that anyone and everyone can do whether at home, at work or out in the community. And the theory is that such acts are contagious. Not only do you feel good when you have been kind to someone else but that person is more likely to be kind to others – thus creating a movement.

Best of all, this doesn’t cost anyone anything. People are welcome to join us over that time in the key towns we hope to target – Truro, Redruth, St Austell & Liskeard but we also hope to encourage our Time Bank members in Hayle, Pool, Newquay & Bodmin to get involved too.

But actually, anyone, anywhere can do it and the more people join in, the more it will spread. We want to work with the press to build up a sense of momentum and create a buzz on social media sites.

But what would really help is if County, Parish & Town Councillors are able to join in and help commit random acts of kindness of their own.

This is the first year we have attempted it and we can already see how it could be done differently next time around but for now, we are in the process of creating a pack for people to ‘organize’ larger-scale events and a Facebook page & Twitter Hashtag for people to talk about what they have done or experienced.

In the meantime, please contact Andy Brelsford at Volunteer Cornwall on 01872 265308 if you require more information.