everyone and thank you very much for a
lovely intro my name is Scarlett
Montanaro and it’s a genuine pleasure to
be here today because I’m a graduate of
University of the Arts and a few years
ago I had just graduated off of the
advertising course and I just started my
career in the industry and I kind of
thought I had my whole career path
mapped out in front of me until one day
I was sat having coffee with my friends
from the course when a homeless man
approached our table and he said do you
have any spare change and with that
simple question he sparked an idea that
have since gained enough momentum that
he’s actually touched the lives of
thousands of other homeless people and
profoundly changed Martin because of him
I now want to stock up in my spare time
that means I’m never going to look at a
homeless person in the same way again
and I’ve made it my life’s mission to
make sure that everybody else feels the
same way
and I’m going to tell you that story so
I take you back to that coffee shop and
Charlotte and I was sat drinking a
coffee with maybe spent six or seven
pounds on these two coffees and this
human being walks up to our table and
reaches out of hand and asks the some
help in the form of some pennies from
our pocket and we say nine and as he
walks away we look down at our
spectacularly overpriced coffee and back
at each other and say well why did he do
that he was a human being in need and we
turned him away are we terrible people
but the fact of the matter is no we’re
not we’re much the same as most of the
population we looked around and he was
approaching all the other tables and
everyone else is turning him away when
we realized that that was an interaction
that was happening all over the world
with much the same outcome the homeless
person is left feeling isolated and
completely without help and the general
public is there feeling really guilty
about it
so nobody was winning and it was in that
moment we decided that it was the
problem that we really needed to solve
because we’ve noticed something around
the whole rhetoric of the homelessness
issue which is us versus them our
trusted institutions like the
Metropolitan Police laws like our local
councils like charities themselves are
driving a wedge between us and them this
rhetoric says that we have made good
life choices so we’ve got jobs in a home
that they have made poor choices so
they’re on our streets as addicts and
criminals and that’s evident in posters
like this your kindness could kill
begging what your money goes with fraud
give him enough and you’ll eventually
get him off the streets but apparently
into a morgue no wonder we don’t want to
hand over our cash on the street we
don’t want someone’s blood on our hands
we don’t want our money to be causing
more harm than good but that does leave
us in a terrible moral dilemma if we’re
not going to hand over cash on the
street then how are we going to help
these people so we decided to take to
the streets at that point and we decided
to ask homeless people what they really
thought was going on and one guy that we
met gave us the insight that kind of
started and our whole startup he told us
that people don’t give me cash on the
street because they think I’ll spend it
on crack insider so based on this and
everything we’ve learned so far we
realized that we needed to come up with
a solution which was a new model for
charitable giving we needed it to be
completely transparent and we needed to
provide a tangible benefit so we came up
with the idea for a shop where you can
buy essential items for the homeless and
then we take those items to those most
in need and we called it cracking cider
so we launched cracking cider with five
of the most essential items of the best
quality that we could find
study backpacks jackets loose or hot and
hats socks and glove set and an umbrella
if you go onto the site decide exactly
how you wanted to spend your money
purchase the things in a few simple
click and then it was our job to take
those items and distribute them around
the city using independent shelters and
soup kitchens people now felt safe in
the knowledge that their money was being
spent on something good and suddenly the
benefit of their donation became
completely tangible so by giving people
an adequate way to help we were able to
distribute 6000 the centralized
essential item and our first winter
alone we receive an insane amount of
global press which actually meant that
within twelve months we were able to
establish our presence in the US and
that’s our shop in San Francisco and
from that one guys question in asking us
to spare change he’s actually managed to
raise $100,000 in public donation today
and that such as working in our evening
weekend but I want his momentum to keep
going and I want it to overtake us and
become even bigger and better than any
of the work that we can do because walls
crack and cider provides a very real
physical service to the people living on
the harsh winter street we can all go
out there right now and have a huge huge
positive impact on the psychological
well-being of the people in our streets
and that is the idea on its redstone it
might not be new it might not be
innovative but the best thing about it
is every single one of us can created
the second we walk out this door it’s
called human connection so I don’t know
if any of you are aware but one of the
biggest threats to people living on our
streets is actually us the general
public so in my work I’ve been
privileged enough to meet some of the
most amazing people and one man who will
for Bob for effectiveness and he used to
be homeless and his managed to work his
way out of poverty and when he was
homeless he told me at a time when he
was looking for a place to bed down for
the night and he found himself a
shop-door away and if his life wasn’t
already bad enough it is bedding down in
the shop door way someone from inside
the shop comes outside and without
warning hoses him down in a bid to shoo
him away he tells me of another time
completely separate to this when he was
asleep on the streets and some drunk
people walk past him and set fire to his
shoelaces this is the reality of the
people living on our streets so it’s
called white us
so this us-versus-them rhetoric is as
dangerous as it is dehumanizing and I’m
sure that none of you here in this room
were contributing to the sort of
behavior but it’s something that each
and every one of us can be and should be
actively fighting against and so many
people I know and people opposed to me
are making these connections already and
just a small acts of kindness so a
friend of mine deliberately cooks too
much dinner when he’s cooking at home
and he packs it up and he walks it round
his streets and gives it out to local
people and one guy said sit down with me
mate I haven’t had a meal with someone
in months and I sat down together and
they shared stories another person I
know walked around with blankets and
gloves and hat and she knows all the
stories of all the people around her
local area and many people tell me a few
stories the best thing about it is they
light up with this joy and it’s a film
they are getting as much out of that
interaction as the homeless people are
because if you think about it we are
rushing through life struggling to kind
of making real lasting or meaningful
connections and reliving our lives in
these digital digital replicas of human
interaction but they have got time
reflects often of bring a whole new
perspective on the life that we know
they’ve had these lives and they have
stories and they have names but we’re
walking past everyday as if they’re not
even there
and let’s this share a human connection
that will eventually bridge the gap
between us and them because imagine if
we just stopped for a moment and offered
a hand or a moment of our time imagine
the impact that could have on both of
our days and overtime both of our lives
and I really truly believe that bridging
this gap if it will make the biggest
difference in our society so I’ll leave
you with this we did a short survey
about what home meant to people and we
asked you for both with and without a
home and the overwhelming response is
that home is just a feeling
so our favourite answer I don’t truly
feel at home anywhere if I guess right
now is in the doorway of some Paul’s
Cathedral where I usually sleep I can
feel at home in unfamiliar places if in
the right company people that make me
feel loved peace and acceptance to make
anywhere feel like home so I clearly
believe that although we may not be open
to offer the seven thousand six hundred
people living on our streets our home we
can make them feel at home all it takes
is a bit of love peace and acceptance
thank you
you
you
lovely intro my name is Scarlett
Montanaro and it’s a genuine pleasure to
be here today because I’m a graduate of
University of the Arts and a few years
ago I had just graduated off of the
advertising course and I just started my
career in the industry and I kind of
thought I had my whole career path
mapped out in front of me until one day
I was sat having coffee with my friends
from the course when a homeless man
approached our table and he said do you
have any spare change and with that
simple question he sparked an idea that
have since gained enough momentum that
he’s actually touched the lives of
thousands of other homeless people and
profoundly changed Martin because of him
I now want to stock up in my spare time
that means I’m never going to look at a
homeless person in the same way again
and I’ve made it my life’s mission to
make sure that everybody else feels the
same way
and I’m going to tell you that story so
I take you back to that coffee shop and
Charlotte and I was sat drinking a
coffee with maybe spent six or seven
pounds on these two coffees and this
human being walks up to our table and
reaches out of hand and asks the some
help in the form of some pennies from
our pocket and we say nine and as he
walks away we look down at our
spectacularly overpriced coffee and back
at each other and say well why did he do
that he was a human being in need and we
turned him away are we terrible people
but the fact of the matter is no we’re
not we’re much the same as most of the
population we looked around and he was
approaching all the other tables and
everyone else is turning him away when
we realized that that was an interaction
that was happening all over the world
with much the same outcome the homeless
person is left feeling isolated and
completely without help and the general
public is there feeling really guilty
about it
so nobody was winning and it was in that
moment we decided that it was the
problem that we really needed to solve
because we’ve noticed something around
the whole rhetoric of the homelessness
issue which is us versus them our
trusted institutions like the
Metropolitan Police laws like our local
councils like charities themselves are
driving a wedge between us and them this
rhetoric says that we have made good
life choices so we’ve got jobs in a home
that they have made poor choices so
they’re on our streets as addicts and
criminals and that’s evident in posters
like this your kindness could kill
begging what your money goes with fraud
give him enough and you’ll eventually
get him off the streets but apparently
into a morgue no wonder we don’t want to
hand over our cash on the street we
don’t want someone’s blood on our hands
we don’t want our money to be causing
more harm than good but that does leave
us in a terrible moral dilemma if we’re
not going to hand over cash on the
street then how are we going to help
these people so we decided to take to
the streets at that point and we decided
to ask homeless people what they really
thought was going on and one guy that we
met gave us the insight that kind of
started and our whole startup he told us
that people don’t give me cash on the
street because they think I’ll spend it
on crack insider so based on this and
everything we’ve learned so far we
realized that we needed to come up with
a solution which was a new model for
charitable giving we needed it to be
completely transparent and we needed to
provide a tangible benefit so we came up
with the idea for a shop where you can
buy essential items for the homeless and
then we take those items to those most
in need and we called it cracking cider
so we launched cracking cider with five
of the most essential items of the best
quality that we could find
study backpacks jackets loose or hot and
hats socks and glove set and an umbrella
if you go onto the site decide exactly
how you wanted to spend your money
purchase the things in a few simple
click and then it was our job to take
those items and distribute them around
the city using independent shelters and
soup kitchens people now felt safe in
the knowledge that their money was being
spent on something good and suddenly the
benefit of their donation became
completely tangible so by giving people
an adequate way to help we were able to
distribute 6000 the centralized
essential item and our first winter
alone we receive an insane amount of
global press which actually meant that
within twelve months we were able to
establish our presence in the US and
that’s our shop in San Francisco and
from that one guys question in asking us
to spare change he’s actually managed to
raise $100,000 in public donation today
and that such as working in our evening
weekend but I want his momentum to keep
going and I want it to overtake us and
become even bigger and better than any
of the work that we can do because walls
crack and cider provides a very real
physical service to the people living on
the harsh winter street we can all go
out there right now and have a huge huge
positive impact on the psychological
well-being of the people in our streets
and that is the idea on its redstone it
might not be new it might not be
innovative but the best thing about it
is every single one of us can created
the second we walk out this door it’s
called human connection so I don’t know
if any of you are aware but one of the
biggest threats to people living on our
streets is actually us the general
public so in my work I’ve been
privileged enough to meet some of the
most amazing people and one man who will
for Bob for effectiveness and he used to
be homeless and his managed to work his
way out of poverty and when he was
homeless he told me at a time when he
was looking for a place to bed down for
the night and he found himself a
shop-door away and if his life wasn’t
already bad enough it is bedding down in
the shop door way someone from inside
the shop comes outside and without
warning hoses him down in a bid to shoo
him away he tells me of another time
completely separate to this when he was
asleep on the streets and some drunk
people walk past him and set fire to his
shoelaces this is the reality of the
people living on our streets so it’s
called white us
so this us-versus-them rhetoric is as
dangerous as it is dehumanizing and I’m
sure that none of you here in this room
were contributing to the sort of
behavior but it’s something that each
and every one of us can be and should be
actively fighting against and so many
people I know and people opposed to me
are making these connections already and
just a small acts of kindness so a
friend of mine deliberately cooks too
much dinner when he’s cooking at home
and he packs it up and he walks it round
his streets and gives it out to local
people and one guy said sit down with me
mate I haven’t had a meal with someone
in months and I sat down together and
they shared stories another person I
know walked around with blankets and
gloves and hat and she knows all the
stories of all the people around her
local area and many people tell me a few
stories the best thing about it is they
light up with this joy and it’s a film
they are getting as much out of that
interaction as the homeless people are
because if you think about it we are
rushing through life struggling to kind
of making real lasting or meaningful
connections and reliving our lives in
these digital digital replicas of human
interaction but they have got time
reflects often of bring a whole new
perspective on the life that we know
they’ve had these lives and they have
stories and they have names but we’re
walking past everyday as if they’re not
even there
and let’s this share a human connection
that will eventually bridge the gap
between us and them because imagine if
we just stopped for a moment and offered
a hand or a moment of our time imagine
the impact that could have on both of
our days and overtime both of our lives
and I really truly believe that bridging
this gap if it will make the biggest
difference in our society so I’ll leave
you with this we did a short survey
about what home meant to people and we
asked you for both with and without a
home and the overwhelming response is
that home is just a feeling
so our favourite answer I don’t truly
feel at home anywhere if I guess right
now is in the doorway of some Paul’s
Cathedral where I usually sleep I can
feel at home in unfamiliar places if in
the right company people that make me
feel loved peace and acceptance to make
anywhere feel like home so I clearly
believe that although we may not be open
to offer the seven thousand six hundred
people living on our streets our home we
can make them feel at home all it takes
is a bit of love peace and acceptance
thank you
you
you
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