The Public Living Room

The Association of Camerados in collaboration with People's Voice Media, a social change media charity, was funded by the Emerging Futures Fund to create equitable spaces that build on the former’s existing virtual ‘public living room’ concept - places where people can look out for each other. 

Working with the existing Camerados involved in the #SpoonRoom (a virtual public living room where strangers support each other), People’s Voice Media gathered stories about diverse people’s everyday experiences during the pandemic – exploring what matters in people’s worlds and what life looks like from their perspective, making the most of the Camerados movement’s unique network of people all across the UK to gain insights into what living through Covid has been like, and thereby to initiate change in communities. 

These stories have been shared as a series of online broadcasts in a ‘chat show’ format, opening up the conversation to the general public, with lessons from these stories to be used to produce written findings.

This project’s focus on the lived experiences of ordinary people - particularly people who may be struggling with their mental health - as the basis for exploring what the future could or should like radically shifts the locus of power of imagination, bringing voices into the conversation that might not otherwise be heard.

You can read more about the project here and here, or watch some of the amazing stories here.