Mission:
Stone Soup is a membership-based organization committed to three areas of focus: the arts, community, and affordable housing. Within these areas we strive for self-sustaining, economically accessible spaces and educational activities that are open to neighbors, activists, community groups, and artists. Inspired by principles of inclusion, collective participation, and universal affordability, we will be an example of how creative community development of and for the people can stimulate local economies without resorting to gentrification.
Our Vision is to collectively own a building in which artists, activists and community members can create a space that meets and honors the needs of the community. We envision office space for non-profits and small businesses, studio space for artists, venue space for musical and theatrical shows, an art gallery, a cooking space for Food Not Bombs and community dinners, a place for The Firecracker lending library, a place for groups to have meetings, affordable housing for artists and community members, as well as a home for projects such as Earn a Bike and the Worcester Free School and Worcester Independent Media Center. Another part of our vision is a community center that really belongs to and meets the needs of the neighborhood in which we are located.
Where we are in this process:
Stone Soup has been meeting and planning how to implement our vision and mission since April of 2005. Around fifty people have been actively involved in the project. A core organizing group of fifteen people has been meeting between two and four times a month to work on the planning and organizing. An events committee has been working on fundraising and outreach events. This committee has organized three events in the last few months. A community outreach committee has done outreach in the Main South neighborhood as well as in artist and activist communities in the city. The outreach committee has asked what people would like to see in a community resource center and we have built those ideas into our mission and vision. We have many commitments from people who would like to have space within the Stone Soup project who would make monthly monetary contributions to the project (see Commitments document). We are in the process of negotiating for a building that fits our needs near Main Street . We are in the final stages of working with Lawyer Burton Chandler to incorporate as a 501-c3 non-profit corporation.