‘Happy to Chat’ benches: The woman getting strangers to talk
This is such a simple and powerful idea I thought it important to quote it in And Finally…
For 40 minutes an elderly man sat on a bench in a busy city centre park – alone.
He was ignored by the passing dog walkers, joggers, parents with pushchairs and teenagers with headphones, all too busy to even say “hello”.
Did he want company? Did he want to be alone? Did anyone actually care?
It was enough to move one woman to try and get strangers to chat, helping inspire a movement that has spread across the world.
“There was some of that British reserve that made me think he may think me weird if I sat next to him,” said Allison Owen-Jones, 53, from Cardiff.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a simple way to let people know you’re open to a chat, I thought.
“So I came up with the idea of tying a sign that would open the avenues for people. I didn’t want it to sound too vulnerable so I wrote, ‘Happy to chat bench. Sit here if you don’t mind someone stopping to say hello’.
“All of a sudden, you’re not invisible anymore.”
The idea in May this year led Allison to laminate cards and begin tying them to benches in parks around her home city.
It was a blissfully simple idea to tackle loneliness that swiftly created a buzz.
The Senior Citizen Liaison Team charity took the idea a step further.
It has already set up partnerships with both Avon and Somerset Police and Gwent Police to have permanent benches across their areas and arrange volunteers to “chat-bench”.