Our mission | RED NOSES International

Our mission statement

RED NOSES is an artistic organisation bringing humour and laughter to people in need of joy.

It’s our mission to provide psychosocial support through the art of clowning and share laughter and hope with people facing challenging circumstances.

We are, and always have been, firm believers in the positive impact of art and humour on mental health.

While our organisation has witnessed a great deal of change and growth since its foundation in 1994, our core mission has always remained the same: to share the power of humour and laughter through the art of clowning with people in need of joy.

Our core values

Boy laughing and playing with red ball with clown in the background

Joyfullness

We promote the joy in life and create a positive outlook. We believe in the beauty of human emotions and focus on what connects us instead of what divides us. We can laugh at ourselves and seek out the magical moments that nurture our optimism and positive awareness.

Creativity

We engage in creating new concepts using the art of clowning in our endeavours to develop novel ideas that are advantageous and meaningful to society. We welcome the unexpected and allow ourselves sufficient time to discover the perfect answer. We reflect passionately and think out of the box to reach innovative and transformative winning solutions. Creativity is the driving force behind our mission.

Excellence

Our stakeholders can expect the best from us as we strive for excellence. We are ambitious and professional in always going the extra mile to serve our mission and our beneficiaries.We always aspire to improve by continuously learning and challenging ourselves as a team, instead of just relying on our past achievements. We work in environments where our passion to excel is recognised and appreciated.

Accountability

We fulfil our promises towards our stakeholders, and see it as our obligation to take responsibility for all consequences of our decisions and actions. Being answerable forms the basis of our principles for good governance.

Respect

We offer respect by acknowledging the needs and feelings of our beneficiaries and stakeholders. We gain the respect of others through our commendable actions and because we are a law-abiding organisation. We listen to and engage with the communities in which we operate. We are compassionate and assist others who need our help. We welcome diversity and are inclusive in our approach.

Courage

We value courage and believe in exploring and taking bold steps to reach our goals. We inspire by example and trust our vision. In balancing risks, we do not let fear or failure overcome our desire to learn and succeed. We do not take courage for granted. We proactively cultivate it by taking ownership of challenges and problems. This empowers us to grow and develop. We are not afraid to think big and function as a role model. In embracing change, we voluntarily step outside our comfort zone.

Truthfulness

We are truthful and authentic in speaking openly and acting according to our honest beliefs and emotions. We have nothing to hide in that we are sincere with ourselves and our environment. We are not afraid to stand up for ourselves and our values.

Our theory of change

Our Framework of Change identifies the problems we see in the world and describes our goals of how we want the world to look instead.
These two poles – the WORLD AS IT IS and the WORLD AS IT CAN BE – together create the ‘why’ that drives all of our programmes.

Framework of change

Strategy Overview 2021-2025

The importance of mental health services and the need to integrate psychosocial interventions into the daily routine of medical and social institutions has been getting a lot of recognition by medical professionals for the past couple of years. It became evident that humour is a powerful and an indispensable tool for strengthening resilience in the face of stress or trauma. This in return created an even greater demand on the services of RED NOSES; not only for the various groups within the healthcare environment, but also among other vulnerable groups in other sectors.

Providing a wide range of artistic programmes and formats, RED NOSES is the biggest Healthcare Clowning organisation worldwide reaching out to hospitalised children, senior citizens, medical staff, aid workers, refugees, as well as children and youth with disabilities. With more than 430 professional healthcare clowns in the field, RED NOSES contributes on daily basis to the concept of health promotion.