One of our favourite people is the inimitable Papa Baiden. Papa inspired us with his systems approach to change at Nando’s. He is now crusading against homelessness in the UK. Below is an excerpt from his latest newsletter. Please do join him at KingsX tomorrow to hear more about the challenge and his creative ideas on how to resolve it – including a crypto solution! more below…
Big day Tomorrow
Housmans in King’s Cross boosted my confidence when half-way through my pitch to stock my book they said “We’ll take it.” I’m so grateful to be stocked there, as their bookshop is specifically for radical, change-making books. I’m holding a book signing there tomorrow which I’ve been promoting on LinkedIn (add me if you haven’t already) and will be joined by Tom Copley of the London Assembly, and Andy Slaughter MP for Hammersmith for a panel discussion on homelessness. You’ll hear more about my motivations behind the book, what elected officials have to say about homelessness in London/UK, their plans to make things better from civil society, and my latest efforts to lead the efforts of companies and individuals to see the need, and rewards (not always obvious), of playing their part to uplift society. We’ll be at Housmans from 7 to 8:30pm, so please do join us if you can. It’s £3 entry, but that’s redeemable against any purchases on the night.
You’ll also be thrilled to know that In Our Hands has made it onto the book shelves in Foyles, Charing Cross. If you’ve already got your copy, do send me your reviews- great to know what you think of it.
| Interviewing John Healey
As some of you know, I’m running a podcast series covering the different angles on the journey of trying to make an impact on homelessness; from talking to politicians, to activists, to homeless people. It’s currently on the Soundcloud platform but we’re awaiting approval from the iTunes store before happily announcing it’s there too. I’ve recently had the pleasure of spending some time with John Healey, Labour’s Shadow Housing Minister. Hearing his take on the issue was enlightening; the experience and knowledge can be heard behind his words, as well as the frustration for the current state of things. I’m glad that he too supports the reforms I’m calling for in my petition-please sign it if you haven’t, and thanks to the other 26k people who did! Major thank you to Jie Zheng for helping me create this series by being producer and editor- a woman of many talents! I’m planning a roundtable discussion on business involvement in alleviating homelessness, so do get in touch if you or your company is interested in participating. |
Homeless-Crypto
Probably the wildest thing I’ve said was that I wanted to launch a new cryptocurrency to help homeless people and basically just save the world. Still want to do this, but the more I’ve learned, the more my plans have adapted to the challenge I’ve set myself. Without getting too technical in the economics, nor the cryptography elements, I want to share 2 things. Firstly; that after reading, planning, courses, videos, experimenting, and watching others, I now know the help I need. Luckily I have an ambitious software developer friend in my network who wants to get on board and help out, provided a new SSL security system he’s installing at his work places goes smoothly so he’ll have the time. Secondly; after learning from the Venezuelan crypto launch of an asset-backed cryptocurrency, we will be taking that approach so as not to have price volatility down the road. Hopefully more to report back later in the year. I will be condensing some info to share on cryptocurrencies when work dies down for me- perhaps in the form of a short course. Meanwhile, I’m offering help to companies with important provenance claims in supply chains (agriculture especially) understand blockchain tech to time-stamp and verify information. I’ve got great links to the Blockchain Labs team in Milan who do incredible work in this area. Message me if you want to learn more and arrange a call.
Papa can be reached at hello@papabaiden.com.
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