SPARK:YORK will host a pop-up living room this week for people to meet, chat and have a cuppa.

It will be the first 'public living room' organised in York by the Camerados movement, which works internationally with the aim of people to "look out for each other in a human way".

The pop-up will be open at Spark in Piccadilly on Wednesday and Thursday.

The event is part of a network of public living rooms across the country, open to everyone and set up by local people who are part of the Camerados movement.

Camerados believe people can get through tough times better by looking out for each other in a more human way.

This York living room came about as part of the Systems Changers Programme, run in York by the Multiple Complex Needs Network.

Hilary Conroy, from the Systems Changers Programme, said: “We wanted to create somewhere for everyone to get together, where there were no lanyards or referrals, just people in a room, connecting. And then we came across Camerados and we knew we had found a wider connection to like-minded people all over the world!”

A spokesperson for Camerados said: "Public living rooms are human spaces for folk to be alongside each other during the good times and the tough. They are places to meet new people, have a chat and a cuppa with no agendas and Camerados is a growing movement of people from Baltimore to Blackpool who look out for each other in person and online. Anyone can be a camerado, it’s a behaviour thing. Being a camerado is about how you live on a daily basis and it’s based on six principles that help folk be alongside each other and get through tough times."

Camerados founder, Maff Potts, said: “The public realm is divided into two types of places: places that sell you stuff and places that fix you. What if there was an agenda-free, no outcomes place where you had permission to be rubbish? It’s amazing what happens when you come in without the intention of trying to fix people. People often have the answers themselves.”

The first Public Living Room was set up in Sheffield in 2016.

Since then, they have been set up in communities across the UK and the world, in hospitals and universities, from prisons to libraries and community centres to cafes.

Over this time, thousands of people have benefitted from connecting and looking out for each other.