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where did THE SHOOPERY come from?
Pip & Catherine met in 2018 at a mental health organisation, an arts studio for people referred through mental health services
Catherine was the CEO and Pip was a newly referred member
despite widely different backgrounds they soon realised that they had common ground & shared perspectives on people, services, expectations &
in particular what it feels like to be on the outside of society looking in
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pip & catherine
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over time they realised they had something to say & something they wanted to change
for some people achieving the same goals & hoping for a better future are
harder to reach than for others;
social status, health, finance, culture
can all act as barriers for some &
gateways for others
"Pip instinctively knows what difference fun & humour
makes to life & connection, he is inimitable
he also taught me to say 'Fuck It' at a time when
I was consumed with responsibility and perceptions of others
this changed everything"
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“It eats away at you when people with power
respond with process and not as a human or
as an individual, with no title or particular life experiences,
people dismissed me and wanted to keep me in my place
Catherine heard, saw and believed in me”
they’re getting this SHOOP started together, their differences make it work &
they both believe that fun, surprise, being alongside & back up are undervalued &
essential when life sucks
as you may have read THE SHOOPERY are working with 18-25 year olds
within the wider community
Pip and Catherine are both [just a bit] older than this
so they have asked someone else to get involved to help make this happen,
someone who can not only bring this perspective
but can also cope with them &
tell them exactly what he thinks
he is not afraid at all!
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alfie
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they met Alfie at the same mental health organisation,
he is the third Director of the SHOOPERY CIC
he is often to be found lurking behind the scenes, writing, checking in &
diving in to debate on difficult topics with them
he is currently at college and
making new things happen in life
they are the benetton of boardrooms... they got browns, trans & gays, oh my!
together they are bringing a whole host of ‘professional skills’ & experiences
from employment at JABADAO, Designs in Mind, Camerados;
the world of hospitality, community dance, corporates; and training in dance,
improv, art, psychology, leadership, mental health, listening, coaching &
the school of life which has good & bad
but involves in the mix the labels….
boy, girl, trans, brown, white, homo, straight, bi, parent, poor, princess, benefits, drugs, alcohol, locked up, shut away, PTSD, anxiety, depression
FYI they are not representative of the whole worlds experiences of these!
Don’t get too excited!
"we work well together because there is total permission to be ourselves
we do that for one another & it means we have the most fun but also we cry, shout & say what we want- we can be all of us"
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we learn from all this and go out of our way to make sure they don’t get in the way
we are #EverydayPeople with something to say
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