Channel 4’s “Battlefront” is delighted to support Kindival - a one day event celebrating kindness - which is to be filmed as part of the award-winning multimedia project. The event, from 11am to 4pm on Saturday 25th April 2009, is the brainchild of 20 year-old student campaigner, Tom Robbins, and will take place at the prestigious Chelsea College of Art & Design.
Kindival is the first annual kindness festival that the UK has seen. Featuring debates and engaging talks on the subject of kindness and what being kind means to society today, the event line-up includes comedian, Andy Hamilton (Have I Got News for You etc), pro-social group The Kindness Offensive, social entrepreneur Malcolm Scovil (Leap), artist and curator Professor Neil Cummings (Critical Practice) and Louise Burfitt-Dons (World Kindness Movement) plus many more. The festival will also include free workshops on massage, yoga and art, performances from magicians, jugglers, puppeteers and performance artists, plus an exhibition of contemporary art on the theme of kindness.
Tom Robbins is organizing Kindival ‘09 in response to the “current economic turmoil, and government pressures to counter our ‘Broken Britain’”. Tom began his Random Acts of Kindness campaign for Battlefront in early 2008, and has since carried out a wide array of public stunts in and around London to encourage citizens to be more open to kindness and, importantly, kinder to each other. He’s donated free umbrellas to strangers caught in the rain, held up placards asking people to smile at their neighbours, set up a ‘good-deed desk’ in Spitalfields where he took requests for good deeds and has persuaded over 1200 football fans to hug each other at the Milton Keynes MK Dons stadium.
Kindival sees Tom’s campaign step up a gear and is a fantastic chance for everyone to contribute their ideas and feelings about kindness. Although the campaign has a serious edge, the festival will be full of fun and families are very welcome. Entertainment for children of all ages will be provided.
For Tom, the reason why this festival is needed is clear. In the UK, 48% of the people surveyed by the National Statistics Office said they would rather “go their own way” than help a neighbour who may be in need of helpi, and in the 16-24 age group the UK reported the lowest levels of trust and belonging anywhere in Europe. Promoting kindness within communities can help to foster individual self esteem but also engender a community spirit that will help to repair society and make people feel better about themselves. Professor of altruistic behaviour David G. Meyers asserts: “Doing good makes us feel good. Altruism enhances our self-esteem. It gets our eyes off ourselves, makes us less self-preoccupied.” As Tom says: “Life is about those little things that we do for one another – like opening the door for a stranger - it’s these things that can make someone’s day.”
If you’d like to attend or participate in Kindival ‘09, or find more about Tom’s campaign visit www.battlefront.co.uk/campaign/random-acts-of-kindness/ To
register for a free ticket to Tom’s event, go here: http://kindival.eventbrite.com/
For more information contact: Tom Robbins: T:07891 436 477 E:thedogooderarmy@googlemail.com Battlefront: Caroline Coombs T:
07534976148 or Jo Woolf T: 07976 880 323
NOTES:
The Do-Gooder Army is a group created by Tom Robbins that seeks to encourage people to do fun stuff that helps or benefits someone else. A Random Act of Kindness is anything that benefits someone else that is seemingly ‘random’. This may be giving up your seat on the tube, offering up flowers to a stranger or mowing your neighbour’s lawn! Battlefront is a multimedia project (website & television) run by RAW TV and Channel 4 that encourages young campaigners to campaign about something they care about. The website can be found at: www.battlefront.co.uk The second television series of Battlefront is due to be aired on Channel 4 on 11-15 May. Battlefront has just won a Digital Emmy Award.
i Source: British Crime Survey, Home Office
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