Sophia Hubs: wisdom-based incubators for social enterprises

Sophia Hubs are a network of local, wisdom-based incubators for new businesses and social enterprises, harnessing the wisdom and resources of the faith traditions, leading to sustainable social and economic development and change.

Sophia Hubs aim to enable people of all faiths and none to participate in economic and social regeneration, inspired by shared values of justice, collaboration and sustainability.

Funding is being sought to begin a pilot Sophia Hub in Seven Kings and Newbury Park which will aim to deliver:

• entrepreneurial skills programme, offering a challenging but supportive and safe environment and testing social enterprise ideas, with active training by successful entrepreneurs, wisdom mentors, and faith leaders.
• connecting investors with new enterprises by setting up “pitch sessions” where new enterprises pitch their needs to prospective investors, or by arranging one-to-one meetings between enterprises and investors.
• people with specific forms of wisdom useful to the development of social enterprises (often from faith communities) offering their time to ground enterprise ideas in a wider context of social change, work-life balance, and community enhancement.
• ideas exchange through organising seminars and workshops exploring the connections between wisdom and work: invited speakers will come from various belief systems and a range of entrepreneurial approaches.
• reflective and applied developmental course exploring wisdom perspectives which help form the conditions for developing new projects.

The Sophia Hub will be embedded in local faith communities by use of faith buildings; entrepreneur and mentor recruitment via faith networks; and creating enterprises which meet the expressed needs of faith communities locally.

Using local business, community, faith and individual networks we will identify local business people from the faith communities in Seven Kings and Newbury Park and train them to act as mentors to new entrepreneurs. Those who train as mentors will be people of different faiths drawn together for their training and, as entrepreneurs using the Sophia Hub will be recruited via local faith communities, when these entrepreneurs are matched with their mentors we will again be bringing people of different faiths together.

We will launch this process later in 2013 with a public event at which identification of potential mentors will begin but which will also involve information about Sophia Hubs, discussion of the wisdom of the different faith traditions as it relates to work, and will enable networking to occur across members of different faiths present. Additionally, the Sophia Hub will on an on-going basis organise further events where dialogue between the wisdom of the different faith traditions can develop in the context of live projects. These events will also bring people of different faiths together for first encounters which through the development of business and networking relationships will become everyday interactions.

To date funding has been committed by Area Committees 5 & 7, the Mission Opportunities Fund in the Diocese of Chelmsford, London Over the Border and Near Neighbours. The aim, as further funding is obtained, is to begin the pilot Sophia Hub during 2013 with the aim of delivering on an annual basis: 3 developmental Sophia courses; delivery of business start-up training and mentoring plus investor connections and incubation space to 8 local people intending to set up a social enterprise/small business; and 4 new social enterprises/businesses set up, sustained and developing.

The initiative will cover Newbury and Seven Kings Wards. It will be based initially at St John’s Seven Kings but will seek to utilise faith and community facilities and networks throughout its catchment area.

A local pilot management group has been set up. Involvement is sought from all the faith and community groups in the area. For more information, contact me on 020 8599 2170 or jonathan.evens@btinternet.com.

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Peter Tosh - Fools Die aka Wisdom.

Giving thanks to God for people and places

Yesterday the Bishop of Barking visited St John's Seven Kings to commission our Ministry Leadership Team and to lead us in thanksgiving for the refurbishment of our Fellowship Room.

The Ministry Leadership Team is a group of those at St John’s who lead, encourage and build up the work of the whole Body of Christ on behalf of the PCC. The Team members are people whose were suggested by the congregation, who have a developing spiritual life of their own and are seeking to nurture and disciple others. The Ministry Leadership Team is working together with those involved in the five different areas of mission and ministry (Children & Youth; Mission; Pastoral; Peace & Justice; and Worship) to take forward their Area of Responsibility, meets regularly with the Staff Team to plan and pray together, and reports to the PCC on progress.

Before commissioning the Ministry Leadership Team, the Bishop spoke about St Paul's prayer for his ministry team from his letter to the Philippians and the way in which the Holy Spirit work to develop his characteristics (or fruit) in our lives. To illustrate this he distributed fruits to the congregation each labelled with one of the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

In commissioning the Ministry Leadership Team, Bishop David used the following prayer: Holy Spirit, guide and strengthen the members of this ministry leadership team that they may do your will in the service of Christ. Make them humble, modest, strong and constant to observe the discipline of Christ. Let their life and witness so reflect your character that through them many will be encouraged to grow in their discipleship. As Jesus came not to be served but to serve, may the members of this Team share in his service to the glory of God. Amen.

Our Fellowship Room was refurbished at the beginning of the year as a result of generous donations from the family of Philippa Page, the London over the Border Council and the AllChurches Trust. The old floor was removed and a new floor laid which now provides level access throughout the entire building, plus the room was completely redecorated. Since its refurbishment, the room is now being used regularly by a Luncheon Club, Asian Women’s Group, and Slimming World group, among other activities and events, enabling valued local services to be provided where they are needed.

As part of the act of thanksgiving, which was attended by the daughters of Philippa Page, Bishop David unveiled a plaque giving thanks to God for the generous donations and grants which enabled the work to be completed. 

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Galactic Cowboys - Fear Not.

St John's Seven Kings: New developments

There have been several encouraging new developments for the mission and ministry of St John's Seven Kings at the beginning of 2012.
The photos above are of our refurbished Fellowship Room. Work began before Christmas to raise and relay the floor and to redecorate this room. That work is now complete and the room back in use again. The work, which provides level access throughout our building, has been made possible by donations/grants from the family of Philippa Page, London Over the Border and the AllChurches Trust. We are exploring options for locating a new project within this space and will give thanks for the refurbishment of the room when the Bishop of Barking visits us on Sunday 15th July.

Bishop David will be visiting us on that Sunday to commission the new Ministry Leadership Team which we have formed at St John's Seven Kings to develop strategies for Children and Youth, Mission, Pastoral Care, Peace and Justice, and Worship.

Other new developments include a monthly Communion Service at a local Supported Housing complex and the opportunity to input to RE lessons at Seven Kings High School. We have also been able to announce that a new Title Post Curate will join us in July.

We are also hosting a community campaigns meeting tomorrow. Seven Kings has had a number of well organised and effective community campaigns in recent years. Some have been single issue campaigns while others have been organised by community campaigning groups like TASK and the Seven Kings & Newbury Park Resident's Association (SKNPRA). Many of these campaigns have also benefited from the support or involvement of local councillors and/or MPs.

However, some of the energy for these campaigns has dissipated more recently as, for a variety of different reasons, the founding members of TASK are no longer able to take that grouping forward. As a result, I have suggested holding tomorrow's open meeting at which anyone interested in community campaigning in future to improve facilities in the area can discuss a new way forward.

There are several options, such as: keeping TASK going; using existing groups like Resident's Associations, only doing single issue campaigns, joining a broader campaigning coalition like The East London Communities Organisation (TELCO - http://www.citizensuk.org/chapters/telco/). The idea of the meeting is to discuss the options open to us and to see whether there is a concensus able to provide a way forward.

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Evanescence - Bring Me To Life.

Community Garden Project (2)

New noticeboards

New border & cleared remembrance area

Plantlocks

Work started yesterday on the community garden at St John's Seven Kings. A small team worked exceptionally hard to clear the remembrance area, create a new border, put together and fill two plantlocks, and assemble and erect two noticeboards. We also took delivery of benches for the community garden.

Funding for the community garden has come from Area Committees 5 and 7, London Over The Border, and the Fitter for Walking project of Living Streets. As well benches and new noticeboards, we are using this funding to create areas of sensory planting and a remembrance area with a central sculpture around which minature roses will be planted in memory of loved ones. The plantlocks combine tubs for planting with secure bars to which bikes can be locked, encouragement for people to cycle to and from the building.

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Bob Dylan - In The Garden.

c4m webpage update (42)

New items on the commission4mission webpage include details of exhibitions featuring Nadiya Pavliv and Elizabeth Duncan Meyer. My most recent exhibition review questions, as a stimulus to debate, approaches taken by Christian arts organisations to the church-based exhibitions we organise and this section of my review has been posted. Additionally, there is a post about funding awarded to commission4mission from London-over-the-Border to publicise the extent to which churches in the Barking Episcopal Area of the Diocese of Chelmsford contain significant art and craft works by creating an Art Trail for the Episcopal Area and documenting this Trail in an Art Trail leaflet.

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Nickel Creek - Out Of The Woods.

Community Garden project

The interview which I gave at the Faith and Climate Change Conference for the OU/BBC's Creative Climate project is now on their website.

In part of the interview I talk about the community garden project at St John's Seven Kings, for which we have recently gained funding through London over the Border and the Area 5 & 7 Committees.

The project aims to redevelop the garden around the east end of the church as a community garden in order to encourage local people to use the garden for rest and reflection by introducing: additional seating areas; areas of sensory and remembrance planting; artworks, and community information.

Our more detailed plans are:

1. Additional seating areas - locate benches at the north and south ends of the East Wall and a companion seat at the church end of the remembrance area.

2. Areas of sensory and remembrance planting – create sensory borders around each of the East Wall benches by: use trellis behind the benches to grow climbers such as honeysuckle and winter jasmine; and borders of low growing, scented plants (such as lavender and rosemary) alongside the benches; and create a remembrance area at the far north end of the garden (in front of the Fellowship Room) using slate chips to cover the ground, a low chain link fence to delineate the area, and planting miniature roses and French lavender (in memory of loved ones) within the area.

3. Artworks – introduce a community mosaic or mural along the middle of the East Wall. An artist would be commissioned to design and make the mosaic/mural through community art workshops involving local people (i.e. school, community groups etc.); commission a sculpture for the centre of the remembrance area; and display art posters and/or paintings on the reverse of the noticeboards.

4. Community information – replace the existing noticeboards with new noticeboards in the same or similar locations, one of which would be for community information.

5. Additional plans – remove the border along the Aldborough Road South wall and replace with grass; create a circular border around the holly tree, add a bird bath and feeders, and plant with grasses; plant choisya, hebes, dogwood, ceanothus, spirea, and osteopermum in the East Wall border below the mosaic/mural; narrow and thin the border along the St John’s Road wall and plant a Judas Tree at the corner of St John’s Road and Aldborough Road South; locate an outside tap close to the Fellowship Room porch.

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Creed - Rain.