Fort Wayne SOUP is hosting its third of four events in 2020 on Thursday, July 16, which will take place online via Facebook Live. One event remains after the July event for 2020 on September 10.
Fort Wayne SOUP provides a space for members of the community to pitch ideas to make our region a better place to live. The organization accepted proposals throughout June for innovative ideas and selected four to present for the July 16 event. To date, Fort Wayne SOUP has donated over $17,500 to a variety of projects that have impacted our community.
The four presenters for the July 16 event are:
Aaron Robles- Heart of the Hustle Podcast
Aaron Robles is the Founder of Founders Spark, an organization committed to helping entrepreneurs thrive.
Heart of the Hustle is a new podcast by Founders Spark. Its goal is to bring the heart of Founders Spark and entrepreneurs everywhere to the masses. It covers a range of topics on entrepreneurship. From interviews of company founders to other thought leaders, they are creating a podcast where they can be honest and vulnerable about what it’s really like to be an entrepreneur and build a community that shares their experiences and expertise to benefit one another.
Jennifer Norris-Hale- Mission: Motherhood
Jennifer Norris-Hale is the Founder/CEO of The Greater Good of Northeast Indiana. By founding The Greater Good of NEI, she works to advocate, promote and engage ways for the community to get involved with the thriving work of our nonprofits. In 2019, she took the TEDx Fort Wayne stage to share her isolating experience with Postpartum Depression and how the community needs to R.A.I.S.E our mothers with Reverence Awareness Inclusion Support & Education. As a result, the development of Mission: Motherhood was born. In partnership with the Allen County Drug & Alcohol Consortium, she is working to build a maternal mental health task force with other local organizations to address opportunity gaps and condense existing services as a resource map for mothers struggling with their mental health & substance use.
Diana Hart- Poplar Village Gardens
Diana Hart is the Garden Director for Poplar Village Gardens and owner of On Broadway Daycare and has lived in the diverse Poplar neighborhood for more than 30 years. For most of that time, she’s run On Broadway Daycare out of her home. The Level 4 Daycare program centers much of its curriculum on teaching children to grow their own food. Over the last decade, she transformed her property into a permaculture food forest, and many of the meals the children eat are prepared from food they’ve grown from seeds. Over the last year, Poplar Village Gardens has started growing its first new orchard on Miner Street, with plans to create more micro-gardens throughout the neighborhood. A minimum of 50% of the food grown is gifted to residents of the neighborhood or to the food bank, providing hundreds of pounds of free produce to the community and beautifying the Poplar Neighborhood.
Jack Steffy- Migrant Farmworker Health Initiative
The Migrant Farmworker Health Initiative – MFHI – is an Indiana based non-profit. It aims to provide free primary healthcare to some of the thousands of migrant and seasonal farmworkers who come to Indiana each season in search of agricultural work. MFHI will bring medical equipment, clinical volunteers, and medical interpreters to farms throughout Indiana to provide health care to patients who may not have received it in years. The best part – MFHI will not charge patients for any services received.
Each presenter will submit a 4-minute video pitch of their idea that event attendees may review beginning May 12 on the Fort Wayne SOUP Facebook page. In order to cast a vote, community members must purchase a $5 ticket, which will grant them access to the voting form. Visit https://fortwaynesoup.org/ to purchase.
The pitch receiving the most votes will receive all the proceeds raised through ticket sales. Proceeds go towards making the winning pitch a reality.
Ticket are now on sale for the event, as well. This is the organization’s third event of 2020 and 14th since its inception in 2017. Individuals interested in casting a vote for their favorite idea may now reserve tickets on Eventbrite, which will provide ticket holders with a private voting link. Tickets are $5. All proceeds, as well as matching funds from sponsors, will be awarded to the pitch receiving the most votes.
Why SOUP Events Matter
Investing in our community is crucial for it to grow and thrive. Fort Wayne SOUP focuses on empowering those within our community who are looking to improve our city. Through crowdfunding, community support, and funds to make ideas come true, we can improve our community together.
We believe that by empowering residents to invest in their own community, we can create jobs, relationships and networks, promote action and change, foster critical dialogue, instill Fort Wayne pride, and encourage a deeper understanding of democracy.
