Helping to make community ideas work in the Dudley Borough with.... Dudley Soup.

I first heard about the concept of Soup in Liverpool a few months ago when one of my fellow Business Connectors said that he was going to get involved in his local "Soup." Being a lover of food he had my attention immediately and then I listened for five minutes as he discussed the concept and never mentioned soup once until right at the very end when he said, "oh and then we eat soup."

So what is Soup in this context and why is it so important to Dudley?

Soup was created in Detroit in 2010 with the aim of promoting community-based development through crowdfunding, creativity, collaboration, democracy, trust and fun. It is in essence a public dinner where people pay a donation for a meal (this is where the soup comes in) and the chance to assist in the development of grass roots based community ideas.

For a small donation (suggest ￡5 but whatever is affordable) attendees receive soup, bread, possibly other donated food for the dinner and a soft drink. They then get to hear from four presentations with each presenter having four minutes to share their idea and answer four questions from the audience. At the event, attendees eat, talk, share resources, possibly enjoy local art, entertainment and vote on the project that they think benefits the community the most. At the end of the night, the votes are counted and the winner goes home with all of the money raised to carry out their project. Winners come back to a future Soup dinner to report on their project’s progress.

The presentations will be community based initiatives and can range from such diverse topics as  social justice, social enterprise, education, technology, community gardening, social inclusion and so many more. The key is that they must have a social impact.

Soup is not about amassing lots of cash and technically slick presentations (no tech is allowed although props and innovation are encouraged). Its about people coming together, sharing a meal, getting to know other people, having some fun and helping to potentially change communities for the better.

The Dudley Soup team got together in April after some great work publicising the idea on Social Media by Lorna Prescott of Dudley CVS. Lorna is also a council member of The RSA and has a passion for helping people and groups to find their respective community voices. She is extremely innovative and someone that has been a great influence in helping me to see the world differently.

In the main I think that our group is made up of people who want to help to facilitate change and bring some positive energy to our local communities. The experience and talents are extremely diverse and that's such a healthy mix. Some of us already knew each other but there were no cliques or clubs.

A big part of my desire to become involved centres around my Business Connector Journey. For me it is about trying to step outside of my 33 years of private sector thinking where only a minimum of 130% of target is seen as acceptable whilst wrapping an event like this in measurement, metrics and output. It is so very difficult to break and I am glad that everyone is accepting and honest with me and also with each other. 

We, as a team, went to Birmingham Soup to experience Soup first hand. Held at The Impact Hub in Birmingham it was a great night and one that made us want to bring Soup to Dudley even more. Just as I have described above the event happened and there were four pitches lasting four minutes each with four questions from the audience. All were innovative, socially inclusive and very well presented with some good innovative touches. One lady had signs that she placed around her neck. There was Soup (amazing!!), bread, cakes and other donated snacks. There was a vote (a secret ballot) and the winner received the cash.

What I loved most was that no one who was there was judged for who they were in anyway at all. Some told extremely honest stories of their personal journey to their idea, some made you laugh and others actually made you want to cry. Everyone had thought their idea through and told an honest story and yes, we had fun. There were no losers in reality although naturally someone had to win the cash. Everyone gave of their best and I believe that two of the people pitching were going to get together and collaborate on their ideas afterwards.  

The team making Soup happen did exactly that. They let it happen, guided it along, created a great atmosphere without being overbearing. Amy, our MC, was lovely, sincere and demonstrated all that is good about Soup. The only verbal order of the night was for us to wash our own plates and even that helped get people talking to each other even more. Brilliant.

So this is what we want to create in Dudley at DY1 on the 29th September starting around 7pm. It will be a first for Dudley and we are inviting people to visit the web site and submit their ideas https://dudleysoup.com/ . This will also lead you to the other Social Media platforms.

It would be great to hear from anyone who would like to attend on the night, know more about Dudley Soup or even join the team. 

Incidentally we had a taster of our Soup at the team meeting last week where two of our number made two amazing soups. The picture above shows how we managed to polish the contents of the kettles off without a problem. Thank you Jane and Paul.

That's Soup and I know that I speak for the whole team when I say that hope that Dudley Soup is a great success. What's great about Soup though is that the success doesn't have a target, it doesn't carry a metric and it has fun associated with it. Success will be that we have a great night and some people get to showcase their ideas. What a great way to make a difference.

Thank you to all of my fellow Soup team members for inspiring me by being the people that you are.