Monthly Archives: July 2016

Soup Pot Share

Whilst every soup event is special, there was definitely something in the air (sorry, Phil) at our last event. And not simply because it was our 1st birthday :).

Regular Soup attendees and recent converts know our nights are about bringing people together to listen, eat and vote for one of the groups pitching and effect change in some way for our communities.

But on Friday 1st July, Ali Ghanimi from Free University Brighton – who won the vote on the night – stood up, thanked everybody for their support and announced their intention to share the £876.25 Soup pot with their fellow pitchers from Esteem, Brighton Oasis Project and Women Over 50 Film Festival!

This truly embodies the spirit of BrightonSoup and the ethos of community partnering. Rock on!

And this happened before they knew Ahmed el Dessouki of Papa John’s Pizza Brighton had just offered £300 to be split amongst the runners up. He only dropped by with his family for some soup and a vote, but maybe that was whatever was in the air again.

So everyone who pitched not only went home with some useful new contacts but also £294 to help with their community projects!

“I’m honestly amazed at what a group of people who come together can achieve. The soup was tremendous, I’m coming back.”

Maybe it was the venue. The Revive Cafe is warm friendly space on the Emmaus grounds, and the people who live and work at Emmaus give out a beautiful helpful vibe.

This was the perfect place for soup, to sit and hear pitches delivered with passion and humour, where each had a story to bring to life what the funding would mean to their project.

And the perfect place to enjoy the delicious soups provided once again by our generous chefs – Tom, Lizzie, Sam and Matteo. Along with a few Papa John’s Pizzas and all the food guests brought along to share.

“Food (soup & pizzas) very tasty, very sociable atmosphere, everyone very friendly. Learned a lot about what good projects are going on locally.”

All that was missing was some entertainment, and it very nearly was missing. Our scheduled artist failed to appear (thanks) so we had to find an alternative at very short notice. Fortunately Charlie Anjos stepped up to provide some brilliant entertainment, giving us acoustic versions of some of his fave songs. I can’t get Perfect Skin by Peace out of my head now.

Well, he does keep playing it around the house :).

So a magic night and a great way to end our first year. Thank you all for coming along to help us celebrate. A very big thanks to Joel, Andy, Ian and all at Emmaus for providing us with a great venue and putting up with our reorganising their community cafe and kitchen for the evening! We hope it was worth it – we met a lot of lovely people who thought it was.

For full details on who pitched, contributed and helped check out the event archive.
Or check out the event photos here.

See you at the next one!

Team Soup

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Thank You , Richard!

BrightonSoup @ Emmaus 1st July 2016

The Venue

Emmaus Brighton & Hove
Drove Road
Portslade
Brighton
BN41 2PA

We were at the Revive Café – a warm intimate space and it looked great. Big thanks to Joel Lewis, Andy Hobbs, Ian Harris and all at Emmaus for their help and support.

The Projects

Thanks to all the pitchers taking part on the night, we couldn’t do it without you.

There were 4 projects on the night and though they all shared the pot, they’re all still need your help & support.

If you can help please get in touch with them directly or use our contact form.

1 – Esteem – Bad Wrap!

ESTEEM is a youth led organisation that works locally to Sussex and to Europe working as a platform for young people to help themselves. We have been running for 12years and started out as a response to supporting young people leaving the care sector. We believe in young people.

We need funds for our new environmental campaign – Bad Wrap! – to encourage country and beach users to collect their 5-a-day of rubbish which they may find on walks or way home, and to shame companies not using ecological packaging.

Pitching: Cat Vizor, Val Vizor & Lewis

Contact:
Cat Vizor
07767 431 153
hello@esteem.org.uk

Links:
www.esteem.org.uk
facebook/esteemuk
@EsteemCharity

2 – Women Over 50 Film Festival (WOFFF)

At Women Over 50 Film Festival (WOFFF) we want to create a filmmaking world where women over 50 thrive by engaging audiences, building creative communities and celebrating films with women over 50 at their heart.

Films shown at WOFFF have to have:

a woman over 50 as the central character or
a woman over 50 in the core creative team (writer, director or producer)

This means we’re a really open and inclusive film festival because we welcome work from filmmakers of any age, race, sexuality or gender. As long as the film celebrates women over 50, it’s welcome at WOFFF.

Our audience is mainly, but not exclusively older and female. Recent research shows how invisible many women feel once they reach 50. WOFFF helps older women feel valued, appreciated, seen and listened to – whether as women watching films, women on screen or women working behind the camera.

Pitching: Nuala O’Sullivan

Contact:
Nuala O’Sullivan
info@wofff.co.uk

Links:
wofff.co.uk
facebook/wo50ff
@WO50FF

3 – Free University Brighton (Winner)

Free University Brighton organizes and promotes free educational events in and around Brighton & Hove. Our aim is to create an alternative education system that benefits us all, whatever our financial means.  We ask local people to share their knowledge and skills and we create accessible learning events by turning public spaces into ‘classrooms’.

Since 2015 we have been providing a free degree-level course in Social Science and Humanities. Anyone can apply to study this course, regardless of their educational background or financial means.

Pitching: Ali Ghanimi & Julian Saurin

Contact:
Ali Ghanimi
07958 667 927
contact@freeuniversitybrighton.org

Links:
www.freeuniversitybrighton.org
facebook.com/free-university-brighton
@FreeUniBrighton

4 – Brighton Oasis Project – Holiday Arts Adventure

Brighton Oasis Project (BOP) supports local women and children affected by substance misuse. Summer holidays are a particularly tough time for the kids we work with as find themselves without the structure and safety of the school day. Often they can feel isolated without their school friends to play, learn and socialise with.

We’d like to utilise our vast experience supporting these vulnerable children and give them a treat this summer. BOP’s Holiday Arts Adventure is designed to provide 10 children with a structured day of creative and educational outdoor play. It will give them the opportunity to get some exercise whilst interacting and engaging with other kids.

We’ll head to a beautiful National Trust site for butterfly catching and bug hunting followed by lunch and an afternoon of creative play. We’ll capture our memories in a photobook and exhibit the artwork we make afterwards at our centre here in Brighton.

Pitching: Laura Ward

Contact:
Laura Ward
07835 164 911
Laura.ward@brightonoasisproject.co.uk

Links:
www.oasisproject.org.uk
Facebook.com/brighton-oasis-project
@Brighton_Oasis

Contributors

Soup & Food

These souper-stars provided 4 delicious soups (with vegan, vegetarian and 4 gluten free options) to all of our guests.

Tom Chadd @ The Soup Dept
Sweet Potato & Lentil Soup

Lizzie Batten
Clam Chowder

Sam Redfern – Pop-Up Events & TRJFP Volunteer
Watercress, Spinach & Rocket Soup

Matteo Watkins
Moroccan Spiced Red Lentil Soup

Thanks again to Simon from Stoneham Bakehouse for dropping off some delicious bread, Papa John’s Pizza Brighton for the tasty pizzas, and everyone that brought food to share.

Music

Sadly the scheduled musical entertainment didn’t appear.Luckily for us we have a talented musician as part of Team Soup and he agreed to play instead.

So a big thanks to Charlie Anjos for stepping in at very short notice to play us all a few of his fave songs.

Decorations, Donations & Raffle Prizes

These are the local (and some national) businesses that supported us with donations and some amazing raffle prizes. Without these contributions we couldn’t afford to cover the cost of hosting the event so that all the ticket donations can go to the winner.

So a HUGE thank you!

The Volunteers

A big thanks to Olivia from Community Base for her support and help on the project committee.

Thank you to Zena Bresnan for all her help setting up, Judy Sweeney who again spent the evening helping Peter and Lizzie in the kitchen.And of course everyone that helped us to clear up afterwards.

Thanks for making our 1st Birthday a great one.

Check out the photos

Team Soup

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