Art On The Mind

Mental health in the homeless community is at crisis point. When you consider the fact that homeless people are nine times more likely to take their lives through suicide, it brings into stark reality just how serious this issue is.

Although the issue of mental health is not new to us – it is a sad inevitability that many of our Members have mental health issues to deal with on top of all of the other problems they face – as an organisation we are starting to focus on how the arts can be used to make people more aware of what they can do to help. Through our online Art auction and this campaign, we aim to raise £100k to support our work in this area.

Forum Theatre, in which Cardboard Citizens is the UK's leading practitioner, is a form of interactive theatre that empowers participants and audiences to explore relevant issues and rehearse new ways of overcoming them. This methodology is central to our programmes of work. 

Who is Cardboard Citizens?

Cardboard Citizens has been making life-changing theatre with and for homeless people for over 26 years. 

When Cardboard Citizens began working in London Waterloo’s Cardboard City in 1991 – once Europe’s largest homeless encampment for rough sleepers, now home to the IMAX Cinema – few believed theatre or the arts could have a transformative impact on the lives of vulnerable people. Now, Cardboard Citizens is widely acknowledged for its effective use of theatre and creative participation to engage those with little or no involvement in the arts; using the power of the arts to give those affected by homelessness a voice and bring about change in their lives. 

"Whether or not Art changes anything is open to debate but, as this event defiantly proved, it has the capacity to stir hearts and minds." Guardian on Cardboard Citizens’ Cathy Come Home, 2016