The Bench Sessions
Brief: Rethink homelessness.
Insight: Homeless people sleep outside on the bench of what we see as ‘true members of society’ with zero contribution to our evolution. Integration is what Crisis and the world truly desire.
Concept: A Social Conversationalist – We have created a position for the homeless (if they choose) to be part of society again. By concentrating on their need to talk, listen and share, we feel that they are the modern shrinks where social contact is their fee.
Time poor, cash rich professionals under all that paper work, miss real human contact. A trait that the homeless have in abundance. What if? instead of of power lunches and overpriced sushi, we could see a park at lunchtime with benches full of strangers. Sharing conversations with the homeless and if they swap business cards at the end….wow!
Bench Sessions: The Social Conversationalist is active in a project aptly named the Bench Sessions. A bench becomes a makeshift office for the conversation to flow. Besides his ‘office’ a Social Conversationalist has personalized business cards to enhance the feeling of professionalism and equality. These cards can also be found at offices in the benches vicinity. For the companies a unique way to exhibit their social responsibility.
Online: Besides the information on the Bench Sessions. You can find which Social Conversationalist has their sessions in your area by typing in your zip code. Do they still scare you? Click on one of them to know them a bit better by their profile.
When you have had a Bench session you can leaf a review online for the next to read.
Read about the first Bench Sension here.
Creation: Kasper Dado, Marco van Heerde, Paul Weatherall