Islington-based group The Kindness Offensive is ready to start a nationwide teddy giveaway with the police, but wants Boris Johnson to appear at the launch.
All 42 police forces in the UK have signed up for the “Teddy Kindness Campaign,” which aims to ease the trauma suffered by children when police conduct house visits and arrests, through the giving of a teddy bear.
Thousands of the special teddy bears are ready in a warehouse in Brent Cross, but the group is waiting for the London Mayor to agree to officially present the project. Plans are for Boris Johnson to lead the launch at City Hall, along with Metropolitan police chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, who has also been invited.
Robert Williams, one of four core members of The Kindness Offensive, which operates from a free book shop they have set up in St George’s ward, explains the aim of the unique campaign: “If you have a child, maybe two, three or four years old, the police look kind of scary as they are dressed up in their outfits and they have weapons on them. It makes it difficult to put a nice image across to the child.
“So the idea is for them to have a teddy. It will work in a lot of cases, we hope, and it will make a big difference. It will create a nice atmosphere for what is otherwise a really rough situation.”
The group presented the project to Boris Johnson last year, and he seemed keen to be involved, but he is yet to confirm whether his schedule will allow him to launch the campaign.
As with many of the random acts of kindness The Kindness Offensive performs, it was a member of the public who gave them the original idea.
“It was given to us by a lady in the States, and they have something set up there called Trauma Teddy,” said Williams.
“They realised that when young children were being exposed to a policeman coming into the house, some of them were being really freaked out by it. Some of them had long-term effects, bad effects on them throughout their lives, as they were traumatised by it.
“They discovered that by giving the police something to give to the child, and communicate something that the child could relate to, it actually stopped them from suffering from all of that.”
Williams explains that The Kindness Offensive is used to setting themselves ambitious targets, having successfully done a large-scale, albeit slightly different, campaign previously.
“We distributed 39 tonnes of food in a day, to all the soup kitchens which exist within the M25.
“It was the biggest distribution of food of its kind, and the biggest distribution of food in a day.”
Williams said of the Teddy Kindness Campaign: “This is going to be a long-lasting thing, and will carry on replenishing itself over the years. It’s going to be our first nation-wide thing, it’s going to be quite something.”
