One of the arms of Seven Men is our Projects area. This part of the business serves the vision by starting projects for the common good ourselves, or in working extensively on other aligned projects. We’ve been beginning to get some of these moving recently and I wanted to give an update.

• Baking Project: This is a project of Kathy’s and will start in March 2012 it looks like. The aim is to provide a training programme that can get long term unemployed people back into employment, using baking as an aide. It will work with people to provide numeracy & literacy training, and will have work placements as well. It’s a very exciting venture, and is part funded by Seven Men, and will have an impact in an area where there are limited other initiatives.
• Swap.it. This is at a concept stage currently but will soon move to more detailed planning. We aim to develop an app that will facilitate groups of friends/social netwrok connections (i.e. your social graph) swapping items together. With no cash changing hands. Sort of a swapping version of Freecycle. This is interesting in that it plays to the need to offer alternatives to the cash economy. This project is led by Duncan and has its first meetup of a few people to assist with scoping on March 5th.
• Oaktree Community Interest Company. Oaktree is a brand new entity that seeks to develop more of an ecosystem of projects and people working for the common good in Edinburgh & the Lothians. We are using a combination of networking, dinners, an annual gathering, a website to tell stories and promote the positives, micro-gifting and anything else useful. It’s faith connected but not faith exclusive. We’re currently in the phase of launching this and creating the infrastructure behind it. It’s not a direct project of Seven Men, but Duncan is involved, and it very much aligns with the objectives of Seven Men. You can follow Oaktree on Twitter (@OaktreeCIC)

We’re excited about these three projects and hope to be able to provide updates in the not too distant future. Should you want to know any more about any of these then please contact us.

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