A NEW crowd-funding initiative which lets people improve the community for the price of a bowl of soup is being launched.
The Glasgow Soup initiative invites people to donate £5 or more on the door, enjoy a bowl of soup, listen to local people pitch ideas that benefit the community in the city’s East End, then vote for their favourite idea. The presenter with the most votes then takes home all the money collected at the door to get their project off the ground.
BAFTA winning actress and former River City Star Jayd Johnson is urging Glaswegians to support the initiative, which is holding its first event this month.
She said: “The criteria for pitching is also pretty straightforward, you can pitch any idea so long as it benefits the East End and is small scale enough for a donation of around £500 to make a difference.
“It might not seem a lot of funding, but the concept isn’t just about money. It is about connecting and empowering people to make positive changes to their local neighbourhoods.
“The event is inspired by a unique model that originated in Detroit, which has seen some great projects get off the ground from a coat that turns into a sleeping bag to a theatre company that puts on free performances of Shakespeare. Glasgow Soup promises to be equally amazing.”
The first Glasgow Soup event will take place at the Calton Heritage & Learning Centre on Thursday, November 17, from 6-9pm.
Glasgow Soup is being organised by the Social Care Ideas Factory, a charity that already runs a range of projects designed to help people to live “braver, fuller” lives.
Charlie B-Gavigan, Founder and Curator of the Social Care Ideas Factory, said: “We’ve all heard the phrase ‘People Make Glasgow’, well now the soup revolution has hit our city they really can.
“Just come along to Glasgow Soup and help turn ideas that make Glasgow a better place to live into a reality. The event is open to anyone: whether you need help for an idea that could benefit the East End of Glasgow or whether you just want to support local community-based projects.”
Soup for the first event will be provided by the Spoon Cafe, a social enterprise cafe and catering service run by Unity Enterprise to support adults with learning difficulties in a supported working environment.
Infrastrcture Managers Limited appoint new non-executive chairman
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here