Here’s an interview by CC Life Magazine with Guy Insull, founder and chief architect behind the Champions Club Community movement on the question: 

“The meaning of CC Life?”

The Champions Club Community web site was initially conceived as a major personal development portal – a tool through which everyone who became involved could benefit through the mutual distribution of skills and knowledge.

However, the remit of the site was quickly expanded to encompass the Humanity Fund – now a registered UK charity, which has a group of approximately one hundred plus professional people who are volunteering skills and expertise to raise funds for good causes.

But beyond this, Guy has an even bigger vision – to build an on-line community consisting of millions of people, all involved in personal and community development.

His ultimate aim is to engage people right across the globe – to connect people with resources to those in need, and to link those who have something to give with those who need something that would make a difference to their lives.

Q. All very powerful stuff indeed, but when we caught up with Guy we wanted to know, “What does all this mean, exactly?” 

Guy: The vision for CCC is “one global family, one humanity”. Just like Microsoft’s vision is a computer on every table, our vision is one global family. We are faced with mass suffering and inequality all around us, and on an individual level no-one really knows how to make a difference. But we can start by treating everyone as though they were a member of our own family. And that’s about operating from sound values, such as integrity, love, trust, respect – all those things that you would find hopefully within a functional family.

Q. But even if we treat everyone as if they were a family member, how does this really help them?

Guy: If you imagine the globe as one home, you know, it would be unacceptable for child ‘A’ in that home to be eating and to be fulfilled and all those kind of things when child ‘B’ was starving. Which is where we then kick in because we all recognise those things as self evident truths; the truth is we are willing to share, it’s just that there is no mechanic; we don’t know how to do that, and what we’re building is an enabling platform to allow people to behave as family members and actually help one another; one global family, in essence I guess.

Q. Is this what the charitable foundation aims to do?

Guy: The charitable foundation is about immediate addressing of inequalities, you know, “child B” needs food. “Child A” has got more than he needs, and in the traditional charitable sense, we can match one with the other. But we need more than that – we need a platform that allows action on an individual level. It’s consistent with the human psyche, in that we are inherently programmed to help others, but sometimes we just don’t know how – so I’ve got two, I don’t need two, how do I give one to someone who needs one? The platforms don’t exist. So what we’re setting about to do is to create the ethos of “family” – one family; imagine the globe was one house – how would we behave with other family members?

Q. So what is this “enabling platform” in reality, and how does it work? 

Guy: One of our key projects is to develop our Global Noticeboard, designed to connect people with resources to those in need, across the planet. It does this by linking those who have something to give with those who need something that would make a difference to their lives.

The resource in question could be either a tangible item, such as money, medicine, food, blankets, computers or books, or an intangible one, such as contacts, corporate sponsorship, insight, knowledge or skills.

It won’t cost anything to use or to participate on the Global Noticeboard, which is being built and supported by Champions Club Community. Everyone creates their on-line profile, and makes a request for an item they need, or looks at what they have that might be of use to someone else. The online profile might be that of an individual, family, or team.

Q. Don’t you think this kind of initiative should come from Governments, or be championed by “Big Business” rather than left to individuals? 

Guy: We don’t think that governments and corporations are ever going to be able to address these imbalances on their own because there is often too much at stake politically or financially for this ever to happen; the only way this can ever be addressed is through a people’s movement, bottom up, hundreds of millions of people mobilising and saying, “This is not acceptable”.

There’s a disconnect between the home and the outside world, or the worlds of politics and the worlds of commerce.

And it comes back to the belief that governments, corporations are never going to solve this, and it’s only by millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people mobilising one day and saying, in our family this is no longer going to be acceptable. And it’s only when they have the platform to do something about it – the Global Noticeboard – that change can truly come.

Q. So this will all be done outside of “Big Business” then? 

Guy: We don’t see any difference. The invitation obviously is for individuals to bring what they can and corporates bring what they can. Everybody brings according to their means, if that makes sense.

Ultimately it’s just individuals – the fact that we’re talking to the guy that has a thousand employees… he is still just an individual.

You invite him to the party and what can he bring? He can bring either, something out of his own fridge, or he can bring something out of the fridge of his corporation – it doesn’t matter.

It’s bring whatever you can to the party. I’m not in favour of going for corporates or targeting corporates, I absolutely believe, talk to the individual because some individuals have got very little, others have got a lot, but if they all turn up and one’s got a wheelbarrow, one’s got a shovel and another one’s got a good back, you’ve got a team for digging a well if you need to. I don’t think there should be a difference between individuals and corporates or businesses or anything like that – I just think it’s talk to people, and what you can bring, bring.

Q. How is this different from someone putting their pound or dollar in a charity box? 

Guy: Simply that when you put a pound in a box you don’t always know where it goes… When I donate that way I have no idea who benefits or what really happened – with the Global Noticeboard you’re a stakeholder rather than donor. You choose how this is going to play out and you take direct action yourself because there is a platform for you to share what you choose to with others.

With the Global Noticeboard we do something direct where it’s not through an agency, it’s not through a charity, it’s not through some government thing – I connected with this person and I had an impact on one person’s life. Save one life, you save the world. If everybody just looked after one neighbour there would be no problem!