I’m relaxing at home with a dog warming my feet – which are tired after being stood on all day. Not that I noticed the tired feet during the day; I was far too busy chatting with people at the busy Community in Harmony event. (A big thank you to Pam from John Watson Entertainments for bringing me tea through the day. :))
As well as handing out leaflets and encouraging people to spread the word and submit their good ideas, I took along an ‘ideas board’. I asked people what would you do to make your community happier..? and they drew, or wrote, their thoughts. Most of the ideas generators were young folks – who have the most splendid imaginations and who are packed full of compassionate thoughts. My favourite posts were this…
…which is about connecting different age groups through an activity that everyone can enjoy.
And this…
…because music can bring people together to have fun.
And this was my favourite of all…
…because that’s what Southend Soup is about; bringing together different people in friendship.
But we didn’t only have ideas from young people. We had things like this too…
…which is self-explanatory. A great idea that could even help reduce fly-tipping. Needless to say, people would also be welcome to take what they liked from the skips. As the generator of this idea put it ‘one person’s junk is another’s treasure‘. Quite so.
At the end of the day, the ideas board looked like this…
My hope is that, once word spreads about Southend Soup, my in-box will be full of equally imaginative suggestions – submitted via the on-line form.
Another great thing to come from my networking; more possible venues. A young woman from a local mosque liked the concept and offered to speak with the Imam about hiring out their hall. We talked about usual venues for community events – church halls are very commonly used (locally), mosques less so; and that’s exactly why we ought to use them – to mix together different people in different ways.
Even better, I had the offer of a venue from the lovely Karen of The Therapy Life Centre in central Southend. The Centre offers all manner of interesting things to help with well being – therapies, classes, events and motivational talks. Karen felt Soup connected well to her philosophy – so it looks like our October venue is sorted!
And to round the day off perfectly (well, not really the end of the day; there was still blackberry crumble to come) there was this…
His name’s Leo. He was very kissy. I do love a dog- whatever size. 🙂
If you chatted to me today, please pop a comment below to say hi! Even better, submit an idea for our first meeting!
