Dear friends and family,

How do you build a community in the 21st Century?

It was this question that drew me to be part of the Oasis game in London last year.  Instigated by the soap company Lush, 30 of us led by 5 Brazilians poured onto a council estate to stir up some community spirit on the streets of Newham.

The aim of the game is to transform a disused space into a space that brings people together, and in the process, build a community from the bottom up.  And because it's a game, it's fun, collaborative and a great way to inspire people to action.
 
Wait a minute, I hear you ask, why would you want to build community in the first place?

For many reasons.  Being part of a community is sometimes a means of survival, and for everyone, it makes life more colourful and interesting.  Yet in our modern society, even talking to your neighbour is becoming more and more scarce.  For me, building community has become a passion and an ambition.

Having been blown away by the experience in Newham, I'm now off to Brazil to learn how to facilitate the game myself so I can take it to new places.

After a long application process, I've been selected along with 59 others from around the world, to be trained in this innovative form of community-building.

The next stage of the selection process is to find 5,500R$ (around £1,500) to contribute towards the cost of the training, and through raising the money, spread the word about the Oasis game and its potential. Support me here: 

A game to change the world

The Final Task

1.   I believe it is possible to change the world in a concrete way.

*** I totally have this quality, because … 

I believe the key to changing the world is through building human connections. This is the outcome I have seen from every task - the magic that happens when people connect and really 'see' each other. When I asked the lady sitting next to me on the train what she would do with my rubbish, her eyes lit up, and her creativity unleashed, and we started a conversation.

2.   I am able to balance dreams, emotion, will and action.

** I have part of this quality, because…

I am able to balance the above to get things done, but I am not totally independent and able to do this alone. Working with the other participants at the Initiative Forum I really enjoyed because we evolved our ideas together, picked each other up if our energy was low and worked together. I believe, working co-dependently is the most effective way to find a balance.

3.   I am able to articulate social networks and mobilize people for a cause.

*** I totally have this quality, because … 

I worked with the people and relationships around me. When I read the Fire Task I imagined doing an Oasis game where I live. However, I was on my way to the Initiative Forum in Sweden, and realised this wouldn't be possible. When we arrived, and saw ourselves surrounded by 250 people ready for action, we realised our role lay in connecting people together (through the badges) and inviting people to take the spirit and energy of the conference, and channel it into action in their own communities. In this way, we were able to make use of a good opportunity mobilise a huge community to take action around the world.

4.   I have the ability to turn dreams into reality.

** I have part of this quality, because…

Yes. But not alone. With the right combination of people, anything is possible. "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead. What I am trying to be is a conjuror, a facilitator of peoples dreams, that we can co-create and materialise together. When I was part of the Oasis Newham, I witnessed that this is possible, and that is why I am applying to do this now.

5.   I am a creative person.

*** I totally have this quality, because …

Juggling work and study commitments, my creativity lay in bringing the tasks set into my everyday life. So, for example, using a train journey to inspire ideas about up cycling and get people talking. I realised I am able to access my creativity when bouncing ideas with other people. So, feeling stuck on the train journey, I opened out my task to others, and the creativity flowed - it's definitely about teamwork.

6.   I try to innovate in my attitudes.

** I have part of this quality, because…

For me the biggest shift in my attitude is in trying to act from the 'heart' rather than the 'head' space. This allows me to innovate my attitude towards everything, and be much more open, rather than critical. The tasks helped me work on this, but I am still searching for the right balance.

7.   I have my values​​ and beliefs, and yet I am still open to the unknown.

*** I totally have this quality, because … 

There was a time when I felt very principled about a lot of things, but realised that I had began to alienate people by being so black and white in my opinions, and it came across as a negative 'thou shalt not…' . Whilst I still have my principles, I am open to the possibility that this isn't necessarily the best way to engage or inspire others to action, and that is why I am drawn to Warriors Without Weapons, because it sparks a fire and imagination in people, and this is an infectious way of creating change. 

8.   I try to communicate even when I don’t speak other languages.

*** I totally have this quality, because …

I practiced this on my journey to Sweden - I sat next to some children on the plane who didn't speak english, and who looked very bored. I whipped out the origami and taught them through simply showing them. Soon, all the kids wanted to join in! There is so much we can communicate through our bodies, expressions, eye contact and through games! It's about finding the points of entry into a communication beyond words, this is something I got from the tasks and that I love.

9.   I am ready for action.

*** I totally have this quality, because … 

Now I am on a constant hunt for actions I can do as I go along in my everyday life. There's no need to wait.  I also saw Edgar speak today at the Youth Initiative Forum and realised how ready I am to work in the way that the Warriors teaches. For me this means working from the heart, not just the head, and 'playing' - constantly stirring the pot of life. Even though I had limited time - juggling other commitments, I still managed to act, so I am always ready. 

10. I want to share what I have learned with others.

*** I totally have this quality, because …

I am already doing it. Learning a skill or a way of seeing the world, and passing it on through conversations, especially with strangers on public transport or in queue, when people are looking for entertainment. Through doing the Warriors training I would like to take these challenges to places that really need it - from the apartment blocks of the wealthy to the office blocks of corporations. Wherever human connection is missing. 

The Fire Challenge

Four of us (Lina, Ivo, Carola and Biz) have been at the Youth Initiative Forum conference over the last few days, and what better place to do the Fire Task?

We decided to work together on the task, we thought about transforming a space here, but it seemed that the most appropriate thing was to inspire attendees to take action at home, so we concentrated on inspiring that through the activities described below.

Here's a video explaining more...

Here's the results...

We hosted a session on: How can we bring the Spirit of the conference back home? 

During the session we had a 2 hour brainstorm and everyone was enthusiastic about all the things we could do. We then created a Facebook group where we can post all the actions people are doing afterwards so keep up date and encourage each other.

We came up with a whole list of things that people can do back home which we will distribute at the end of the week and we have a big harvest hanging in the main hall to inspire others to do the same. Some of the main ideas that came out were:

1. Leave nice messages on hidden places in the train, plane or car. Some of us are hitchhiking back, so we will think of some questions we can ask the nice people that take us.

2. A flashmob on the metro, to spread the message: Are you living your dream, or are you the sidekick in someone else’s dream?

3. A wandering book – where you note precious moments for you and you pass it on to another person until it is full. At the end is our address so that we can get it back in the end. 

How do we spark a fire in people?

You get them to dance! We initiated a samba roda, which then evolved into a full blown dancing frenzy with live music, generating a great energy and warming everybody up.

We invited people to draw their hands, and write inside what they will take away with them from the Youth Initiative Forum.

The Initiative Forum is great for inspiring ideas but we wanted to spark action from the simmering pot of ideas that a conference generates. We challenged people to share how they would get their hands stuck in once they got back home. We asked people to draw their hands and write down their commitment to action. We then hung up the results to inspire others to action.

We gave people badges to spark conversations

There are 250 people here, and it's a great opportunity to collaborate and share ideas, but sometimes difficult to start the right conversations.  To get people connecting, we created medalions for people to wear. On one side people wrote the talents they have and on the other the talents that they need in their projects, lives etc. This way you will faster find the people that are right for you, and more initiatives might evolve after the conference thanks to this. 

We started an origami domino-effect…

We taught people origami, asking them to pass on the skill to others, thus sparking a skills-forward, encouraging people to share their talents with others. 

The Air Challenge

We're communicating through cyber space: We're talking in the air, with stories to share.

At first I found this task quite difficult, because it felt like I was going out to ask people to 'vote' for me. I didn't feel like asking people to do that.

However, things happened that made me reconsider: Natalia created a facebook group from which conversations emerged. Skype chats were initiated, and through the process of looking in detail at all the blogs the characters of the warriors-to-be have began to emerge, thus making the whole process seem more tangible and real.

Through reading the blogs, I suddenly felt like I had things to say and share and people I could relate to. I wonder whats coming next!

The Earth Challenge

The Earth Challenge

I set a challenge to people on the train 'what can you create with these 5 yoghurt pots?'

When I heard the Earth Challenge, I felt little whoop of excitement as this is what I do best: make things from rubbish. I was a plastacarian for a while - meaning I didn't throw away any plastic, as an experiment to see what it was like. It made me completely change my diet - avoiding goods covered in plastic, and appreciate how much plastic our disposable culture creates. I become quite obsessed with plastic, occasionally picking it up off the street. Eventually I was swamped with it and had to stop.

I was travelling home from London on the train, and stuck thinking of ways to creatively tackle this challenge. Then I thought, I am surrounded by the greatest creative source there is: people. So I decided to open out the challenge to others, pulled out 5 recycled yoghurt pots, and asked the old lady sitting next to me: 'What can you make out of these 5 yoghurt pots?'

She was delighted to have been asked, and quickly set to work making an artistic scultpture. I carried on through the rest of the train carriage setting the same challenge to kids, women, old men. The kids were the most imaginative players - Freddie, aged 5 made a Telescope out of them and Maddie, aged 7, built a bridge.

What I learned in the process:

1. Adults love being asked questions that allow them to stretch their imaginations.

2. If in need of inspiration, start a conversation.

3. There are limitless things to be done with 5 recycled yoghurt pots. 

4. Train journeys are a brilliant source of creative brainstorming as they are filled with people with time to kill.

The Videos:

These are the people I met explaining their ideas:

Sandra the knitter had many creative ideas

 

Freddie made a telescope to see the stars

Lucy wanted to make things that looked beautiful

 

A bit about me...

I'm Biz. People often ask why. I say that when I was born my dad said I was 'just the Bizness' and it stuck.

This is me above, with my friend Mike, who I met whilst doing the Oasis project in London. Bringing the Oasis game from Brazil to England was quite a brave move. Certainly, the locals found the dancing, singing and utter optimism of the Oasis process a bit different!

I kept finding myself spending time in the pub with cynical old men in the community, who were slightly bemused by the cackle of 'do gooders' that had showed up in their community, with the intent of transforming a derelict piece of land into a beautiful community haven.

'You'll never do that around here' Mike said, and was quite angry at first that anyone would turn up, promising local kids a miracle that they couldn't deliver. I had reservations myself, and kept finding myself questioning the whole process, asking myself what am I doing in this neighbourhood that I don't live in, thinking I can make a difference, when I don't even understand the context?

I was right to be questioning it, but happily, my doubts were proved wrong. Within 3 days an army of 200 people had been mobilised, with an abundance of resources gathered from the local community, and 2 days after that, we had a stunning garden, neighbours who were connecting for the first time, and a huge amount of happy, satisfied and re-humanised people.

Having been involved in community development I have never come across a process I have been more transformed by, nor seen such miracles before my eyes. It is for this reason that I would like to come and participate in WWW 2014 and learn the skills I need to take this to new places, and re-inspire myself, in the process.

Why I would like to go back to Brazil...

I lived in Brazil 5 years ago in Vila dos Pescadores, near Santos, and I am now ready to return. I lived in the favela for 6 months and worked with the children there doing an art project and teaching them outside of school. I learnt more in my time there than at any other time in my life. 

I was inspired by the amount of joy people had despite what I perceived as a lack of material resources and opportunities, and the abundance there is in scarcity. I felt overwhelmed by my acceptance in the community at large, despite being an outsider, and the warmth of the people I met. 

My friends from the Vila recently came to visit me in London and complained of the cold! They meant the weather, but to a certain extent, I think they also meant the people. In London, there is a feeling that everyone is on their own mission, and don't have time for each other.

I would like to bring the warmth and innovative attitudes I found in Brazil, and the technique of the Warriors game back to the UK in contexts where there is a need for greater human connection. 

I am returning to Brazil on a mission to re-connect with the people I used to live with, with people from all over the world, and re-connect with myself, and what I have to offer to humanity. I am ready for action! Let's go!

The Water Challenge

Challenge 1: I want to share with others what I have learned



I realise that I don't always make a conscious effort to teach others what I have learned. So I taught a group of friends how to make origami cranes over supper. What I loved is that as more people came to join, the people I taught first started passing the skill onto the others. Thus the skill to carve a simple piece of paper into a beautiful bird soon spread rapidly.

With origami, wherever you are - be it waiting for a bus or sitting on a train, you can teach a stranger sitting next to you how to do it. It's a great way to start talking to somebody, especially if you don't speak the same language. When making origami birds as part of a group it becomes a meditation, with everyone concentrating on making something, but all together. There are limitless things you can do with a piece of paper and a group of people!

Challenge 2: I try to communicate even when I don’t speak other languages

Language is a way of speaking. Language is also what is not spoken, and multiple ways of expressing ones self. I wanted to explore the ways of communicating beyond merely speaking. Something I have found is that some things transcend language barriers: for example music, touch and food. But another recent discovery that is a universal way of communicating is bubbles.
Bubbles are magic. I went to the park over the weekend and made giant bubbles. All who passed stopped and either watched them, played with them, or asked to have a go, leaving happier than they had been before. There is something about it that brings you back to being a kid again.


Challenge 3: I am ready for action



This weekend I made the commitment to travel to Brazil this autumn via sail boat - I booked my place on the boat. I have wanted to do this for years, to return to Brazil via 'slow travel', saving carbon emissions which is better for the environment, and today, having found the boat and crew, I put my name down to join the voyage. This feels like a big step in making my dream become a reality and taking action to achieve this.