Homeless agencies get virtual with Second Life

Published by Ross Macmillan for Homeless Link in Housing

Earlier this year Homeless Link, the national network of English charities, launched a virtual Garden for Change, with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.  The real life Places of Change Garden was created by around 500 volunteers from more than 40 homeless agencies from across England. It won silver medal at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Prestigious Chelsea Flower Show in May.

Now, on Monday 22 November, one of the people who had the biggest overview of the Places of Change Garden, as its official real life photographer, will be taking part in a 2 hour event at the virtual garden. Robert Davidson, the official photographer for the Places of Change Garden and former photographer for the Moody Blues and The Move, became homeless at the age of 65.  He found his local council most unhelpful, but was subsequently supported by a variety of homelessness services in London who helped him to rediscover his love of photography.  Robert’s photographs are exhibited at the Garden for Change

Robert’s avatar, RobertJH Birdsong, will be interviewed by Jenny Valerian, the avatar of Jenny Edwards, Chief Executive of Homeless Link, in front of an international audience. 

The interview will start at 10.15am SLT (18.15 GMT). It will be conducted in voice so please make sure you have headphones or speakers and enable voice in preferences.

Following the interview and questions there will be a tour of the Garden led by Jenny Valerian. Siri Vita, the creator of the inworld garden for Homeless Link will also be present to talk about the process of creation and inspiration she found from the real world garden’s design and the stories behind it. Junivers Stockholm will be streaming music, including some he has composed for the garden and some tracks from Streetwise Opera’s CD “There’s a Place for Us”.

Jenny Edwards, Chief Executive of Homeless Link, said, “The idea behind the Garden for Change was to build on the positive impact of the real garden.  We want to break down the stereotypes of homeless people by demonstrating to the general public and business internationally that homeless people have talents and potential and should not be written off by society.  We want to promote the project to homelessness organisations internationally in order to share the learning and good practice.  Second Life offers an alternative way to host debates and discussions with people from across the world.  The event on November 22 is the first in a series of talks, events, performances and workshops that will be held at the Garden for Change where people from different countries can meet and share solutions to homelessness. Each event will involve homeless people who were involved in the creation of the original garden or other digital media projects.”

Visiting the Garden for Change

To visit the Garden for Change in Second Life, you need an account (available for free at www.secondlife.com. Once you have an account and an avatar, you can search for the Garden for Change on the map and then teleport to the site or use this link directly once you are logged in http://bit.ly/gardenforchange. To keep in touch with events sign up to the Garden for Change subscribomatic list.