Always on
This project successfully funded on 4th July 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
Camerados and Public Living Rooms
Abingdon, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
£6,000
raised so far
Crowdfunder is secure
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Aim
Create Public Living Rooms in every neighbourhood, to get folk through tough times and change society so we all look out for each other more
Camerados is a social movement of people who create spaces called Public Living Rooms to enable folk to get together, and use a set of 6 principles so everyone is able to rub along, because we believe that connection with other people is the answer to just about every social problem out there.
We'd love to help more communities create Public Living Rooms at a time when they've never been more needed and tell more folk about the power of looking out for someone. So if you feel able to we'd love you to give others a chance to create these spaces and learn about our principles by contributing to our crowdfunder.
What's a Public Living Room?
Public Living Rooms are unique places that are open to anyone, they're non-judgmental social spaces with no agenda, no plan to fix anyone and no one is in charge. They're just places to go for company, to chat, may be play a game or do an activity, drink tea and dunk biscuits...... biscuits are very very important.
In Public Living Rooms you're with people who listen, who treat everyone the same and maybe from a different background to you, leading to friendship and a sense of purpose. Most importantly they use the six principles of what it means to be a Camerado to someone else, which creates the atmosphere of 'we're all in this together' and fosters a sense of community across divides.
The Camerados movement was started in 2015, since then more than 460 Public Living Rooms have been created (with almost 300 of these being open regularly for people to get together), they are open to anyone who wishes to attend and you can find one near you on this map.
The six principles
Impact of Public Living Rooms
- 25% of UK Public Living Rooms are in the top centile of the most deprived neighbourhoods and 73% are in the top five.
- A survey in 2024 found that those who attended Public Living Rooms:
- 90% felt more connected to others.
- 97% would recommend a Public Living Room to others.
- 94% would recommend the movement to others.
- 85% felt happier.
- 67% felt less anxious or stressed.
- 57% felt more confident.
- 53% felt more able to cope with everyday life.
What people say about Public Living Rooms
People have told us through 191 lived experience stories and 124 more formal interviews, that Public Living Rooms:
- Provide a space for social connection
"I'm a carer and I find that I become quite socially isolated because of that so it's nice that for a couple of hours a week I can leave that all behind and I don't need to sit at home on my own and I just come along and have company and there's no pressure around it and it's just a relaxed atmosphere, it's nice to be able to connect with people."
- Give those that come along a sense of purpose
"People with support lead and run the Public Living Rooms. The Camerados approach means they lead the way, not the organisation's way. They experience a sense of purpose and a feeling that this is their space."
- Enable people from a diversity of backgrounds to mix in an inclusive space
"We're in a highly diverse area with 100 different languages spoken in 4 sq miles - we were finding it difficult to mix people up. A Public Living Room is how you mix people up."
- Provide opportunity for peer to peer support in a non clinical way
"Camerados is such a brilliant movement because it's not the system. It's not something I've been stuck in all my life. It's not something I wanted to die in. It's not something I've felt helpless in and it's not something that I felt hopeless in. This is what I felt like in services."
- Using the principles in and outside of the public living room gives additional meaning to the live of those who attend.
"The idea of asking others to help you rather than how you can help them transforms relationships. Made a real difference in the way we work and how people connect with each other" "We try to wear the principles like shows, to ensure we are applying them in our daily lives."
Could you create one too?
Communities wishing to set up a Public Living Room get sent a box of resources to get started, as well as joining the Camerados Mighty Network and come along to in person and online events so that they can connect with other members around the world. If you'd like to set one up in your community then get in touch at [email protected]
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made