On such a beautiful day – and a traditional holiday and celebration of the working classes – it’s easy to feel optimistic about the task ahead – which is pretty momentous. This was helped by taking delivery of these leaflets, fresh from the printers. I’ve got 1500 of them to spread round residents of Bow. Next Wednesday morning I’m getting up dead early to bake a load of cookies (not quite 1500…) which I’ll take out with Dinar, an outreach worker from our Street Cred project who’s very well known and liked in the area, and a load of these leaflets to do a giveaway and peak a little interest in what’s happening.
My intention is twofold. When I first started working at QSA, I passed through Victoria station everyday as I was coming in from Surrey. The truly miserable experience of commuting was always slightly relieved by the fact that on a virtually daily basis someone was giving something away free: pizza, biscuits, toiletries, money-off vouchers and the like. Cynical marketing? Yes, but that only works with people like me who had jobs and disposable income – and enough of it to afford the train twice a day.
It upset me at the time, an invidious little way in which the rich remain rich and the poor become a little less visible. Our personal value is so often determined by our economic status. No-one flogging anything goes on a giveaway round Bow, another little statement that this is a community without worth. Knees Up is about making a different statement and I want people to feel valued enough that Dinar and I will give away a free cookie. It’s simple but that’s the spirit of generosity and neighbourliness I’m hoping to promote more widely. It’s just a start, just a gimmick in some ways, but I hope it also says something about the values of the project.
Here is the leaflet: Residents Leaflet
What do you think?
