A second helping of Glasgow Soup for the East End

There’s just one month to go until Social Care Ideas Factory dish out a second helping of Glasgow Soup at the Calton Heritage & Learning Centre!

Article Source: Glasgow Soup
Last Updated: 25 February 2017 10:11

The innovative micro-granting event, which was first launched in Glasgow in November to a sell-out crowd, sees individuals, local groups and small charities pitch for projects that benefit the city’s East End. There’s also live music and soup on offer, from which the initiative takes its name.

The Soup revolution is taking Scotland by storm, as Founder and Curator of the Social Care Ideas Factory, Charlie B-Gavigan explained: “The first ‘Soup’ was held in recession stricken Detroit 5 years ago as a unique way of reviving and empowering communities from the bottom up. What started as a social movement has turned into a Soup revolution as the concept has spread across the globe. There are new ‘Soups’ popping up all across Scotland, with events in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Stirling and Inverness. People all over seem to love its simplicity, you just donate £5 or more on the door, enjoy a bowl of soup and some live music, listen to local people pitch ideas that help your community, have a chat and vote for your favourite idea. The presenter with the most votes takes home all the money collected at the door to get their project off the ground. We were blown away by the support for our first event in November, more than 100 local people turned out on the night raising £500 for the winner.”

Glasgow Soup have issued a call for applications to pitch at their next event and the criteria are simple, as Charlie explained: “Anyone can apply, you don’t need to be a charity or constituted group, and you can pitch any idea, so long as the project benefits Glasgow’s East End and is small scale enough for a donation of around £500 to make a difference. There are no complicated forms to fill out; you just need to answer 3 short questions: just tell us your idea, how it benefits the community and how you’d spend the money. Pitches on the night are limited to four minutes and there’s no technology allowed, so you don’t need to be an experienced presenter to take part. Just make sure your application reaches us by Friday 10th March.”

The project to win the public vote at the first Glasgow Soup was Re-Tune. The not-for-profit initiative helps people with post-traumatic stress disorder, from ex-servicemen to refugees, reclaim their potential, make positive life changes and gain news skills through making musical instruments from discarded wooden objects, including unusual items such as skateboards and broomsticks.

Founder and Manager of the Re-Tune Project David McHarg said: “It might not seem a lot of funding to some people, but to us it was like winning the lottery. We run our project on a shoe string and winning Glasgow Soup has thrown us a lifeline. Since our win the phone has been ringing off the hook with offers of additional support, so we can’t thank people enough for voting for us and to Glasgow Soup for allowing us to pitch and raise the profile of our project. We are looking forward to coming back to Soup in March to let people know how their money is being spent.”

Glasgow Soup is supported by the Glasgow City Health & Social Care Partnership and has attracted the praise of Councillor Matt Kerr, who said: “Glasgow Soup is a fantastic initiative, bringing ideas and people together. It’s much more than just a means of funding, it’s about mutual aid and support too – and soup can never be a bad thing either!”

Tickets for the March event can be reserved now at www.glasgowsoup.com

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