Facebook’s Good Karma Effect network: founder Amy Churchouse hopes to spread it to workplaces
Amy Churchouse’s high-pressure job drove her to the brink of a mental breakdown. But she turned that struggle into success, with the Facebook support group she founded now a national network.
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AMY Churchouse’s high-pressure job drove her to the brink of a mental breakdown. But she turned that struggle into success, with the Facebook support group she founded now with a national network.
At least 38 Good Karma Network Facebook pages are bringing Australian neighbourhoods together thanks to Kiwi expat Amy Churchouse, who now wants to take her problem-solving network into stressed-out workplaces.
The 39-year-old launched the network in April 2016 after quitting her job as at vet.
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Ms Churchouse was under no illusion that her chosen profession took a mental toll, with some of the highest rates of suicide of any job.
“After two years I was just about broken,” Ms Churchouse said.
“There was a huge part of me that wasn’t being valued in that job. I was trading all of me for $56,000 a year and wanting to drink a bottle of wine a night just to deal with it.
“There are a lot of people who feel like that with the same story, lots of people wasting themselves and what they have to offer because they’re trading their wellbeing for money.
The Kensington Good Karma network was the first of its kind, with four core principles; no selling, no advertising, no negativity and no asking without giving in return.
“I wanted to create somewhere for people in the community to ask for help from their neighbours and for us to make each other’s lives easier and to know when someone is struggling,” Ms Churchouse said.
“We are the most privileged people on the planet but life is not easy. We have to find a way to pay for everything to solve our problems and it’s a struggle.”
Ms Churchouse vehemently believes most people live in fear of not living up to the perfect expectation presented everyday on social media.
“We pretend everything is fine on social media when we are all struggling with something, and we need to be real about what we’re struggling with,” she said.
“When we open up and start being vulnerable, you’d be surprised at how many amazing people are out there. That became visible in the good karma group.”
After nine months the Kensington Good Karma Network group grew to 2500 members.
People from around Australia contacted Ms Churchouse asking how to start their own page.
There are now 38 networks across Australia with at least 35,000 members.
Kensington resident Stephanie Johnston sought the help of members on the group when the company she worked for went into liquidation four months ago.
“It was quiet a traumatic week, my anxiety peaked and I wasn’t sure how quickly I could find a job again, especially when there was 100 of us which lost work at the same time,” she said.
She woke early on a Saturday morning and wrote a message on the Kensington Good Karma Network page about her current struggle to secure work and her desire to expand her sewing skills.
Ms Johnston asked the group whether anyone had any sewing jobs.
“Within minutes I received messages from people who had sewing requirements which they were willing to send my way,” she said.
“The scale of the work is increasing which is wonderful, and I’m still happy to complete the small jobs as well.”
Ms Churchouse said Ms Johnston’s story is exactly what the page is about.
“The design of the group comes back to people taking responsibility for themselves and being authentic and honest about the challenges they are facing,” she said.
The founder now wants to start good karma networks within organisations, such as banks and financial institutions, which have been plagued by a toxic culture exposed in the banking royal commission.
“Problem solving together builds a big connection and there’s a great opportunity for us to move into organisations like banks so employees can connect with each other,” she said.
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