“Contribute to a happier society”

Now Hisings Backa will say hello. Are you Backabo and already saying hello? Then you can hopefully be greeted by many more greetings from your neighbors in the future – after the cultural center Possibilitas started a new greeting project!
— Backa says Hi! is a campaign we are doing that simply involves greeting those you meet in order to contribute to a happier society, says Vanessa Labañino, Operations Manager at Possibilitas.

The idea for “Back says Hello!” was hatched Kiriaki Christoforidis, sociologist, writer and storyteller who took part in a project that runs in parallel: Backa tells. Since February, at the House of Possibilitas (Gamla Backa Folkets Hus) you can take part in local stories, told by new and old Backa residents. And perhaps contribute with memories from then and now. A few times a month, storytelling cafés are organized with soup, coffee and stories worth hearing.

But what is the “Back says hello” initiative?
— Backa says Hi! is a campaign we do that simply involves greeting those you meet in order to contribute to a happier society. Saying hello is a way of affirming one’s fellow man. I say hello, so I see you. For this we will push up pins, where the idea is that if you get a Hello back, you give a pin to that person. With this, we will also start a hashtag HejBacka that can be shared on social media, says Vanessa Labañino, Business manager at Possibilitas.

Now why did this start up?
— The idea came when we were planning the Backa Berättar project. We invited Kiriaki Christoforidis to work with us on the project and she told us about the Hello campaign we could also do linked to Backa Berättar. We liked the idea. Kiriaki also works in other city districts and now there is also an idea that the Hello campaign can continue as a relay, that we pass it on to Bergsjön, etc. This is something we are talking about right now, so it is not clear.

How do you hope the project will affect the district?
— We hope that it will be one of the steps to create community, spread joy, dare to say hello to each other.

Can you tell us a little bit about House of Possibilitas for those who haven’t heard of you?
— House of Possibilitas is the new activity in Backa Folkets Hus. House of Possibilitas is Gothenburg’s new independent cultural center and meeting place where you can rent dance and meeting rooms, arrange concerts and performances, exhibit your art, have coffee and meet new people. We also do our own projects and are building activities for children and young people, families, pensioners and we arrange family shows, concerts, performances.

“This year, among other things, we have started Backa Drummers – a percussion orchestra for children and young people, are in the process of starting up Brunnsbo Unga Teater, have had concerts for children and programs for families,” says Vanessa Labañino at House of Possibilitas.

The editors
[email protected]

READ MORE: