Hi Andy,
Thank you for joining us on
“Inspirational English”. Can
you tell me how you came up
with the idea of creating The
Focallocal Community?
I needed to find a good cause
to commit to, perhaps that
would bring back the passion
in life! ..but there are so many
great causes in the World,
how can I choose one over
the others? This is an issue I
think many people struggle
with in life. I’ve been asked
many times since I began Focallocal, how I was able to
choose one and settle on it as
my passion to chase after?
I was completely lost and had
no idea where I was going
when I launched Focallocal! I
used it, and our events to explore different causes, paths
and opportunities in life;
searching for the one that
would reignite that fire in my
belly.
Slowly I came to realise that,
for me, choosing one over the
others just didn't feel right ..I
wanted to help them all! After
a lot of thought I realised that
by inspiring others to make
change on the things they felt
were important, bringing communities together around local
issues, and showing others
how easy it is to take positive
action to create change ..then
I could make a difference to
every good cause - and by
connecting people and communities and inspiring everyone to take action
themselves, I'd be protecting
our World from divisive forces
like Xenophobia and Sensationalism, as those who use
these age-old tricks to gain
and manipulate power have
no effect in connected, friend-
ly communities full of pro-active
people.
Yes! We're an open community for
anyone, anywhere in the World to
create positive action gatherings, or
suggest new ideas which use
The lesson I learnt was that it
friendly and fun actions to connect
doesn't matter if you don't know
where you are going in life; to find a and brighten our communities. we
good direction that'll bring meaning have a list of suggested activities
on our website: focallocal.org, and
into your life you just need to pick
also
our new Action Centre where
something, anything; set a goal and
begin working towards it. Once you anyone can come and join a team
working on one of our monthly big
are moving it’s easy to steer that
forward momentum towards poten- Positive Action flash-mobs, like the
Eye Contact Experiment; or one of
tial areas of interest, until you find
our projects to tackle deeper rooted
one that makes your work enjoyasocial issues; like homelessness, a
ble and rewarding.
new news website to offer an alternative to sensationalism in the meI first heard about it a couple of
dia, and support for any group likely
to be lonely, including the elderly,
weeks ago when I was taking a
troubled young people, etc.
stroll in the beautiful Soho Gar-
dens. A lovely lady invited me to
take part in the World Biggest
Eye Contact Experiment. I was
surprised to see so many young
people there eager to spread Positivity in busy London. Do you
plan similar projects in other UK
cities and towns?
The motto of the community is in
the words of Ghandi: “Be the
Change you want to see in the
World”. What change do you
want to see in the world?
This is the motto of our Action Centre. I'm not sure we have one official motto just yet, perhaps we
Image Credit:Focallocal
(cont. on page 8)
7