The Grove and Ripple100 Launch Dream.Haven

DREAM.HAVEN is a collaborative experiment. Ripple100 The Storytelling App | Agencyand The Grove, A New kind of Social Space are getting together with the people of New Haven. We’re asking: What is your Dream?

Can the dreams of everyday citizens transform a city through storytelling, connecting, and collaborating? We will capture your dream, share it with others and see what happens when our storied dreams collide. 

We encourage you to go to the website www.dreamnhv.com and watch others from New Haven share their dreams, and then submit your own. We hope this organic form of storytelling leads to connection, collaboration, and an exciting movement throughout the city. 

A little more about who Ripple100 is:

Ripple100 The Storytelling App | Agency 

Like an ad agency, except we don’t do ads. We meet the same needs: brand, awareness, engagement, loyalty. Instead of ads we tell stories, mixing tech and sociology, we share with friends, they share with theirs. Like ripples we are moved in expanding circles to share, to buy, to vote, to advocate, to love and loyalty, to be communities of action, to do well and do good.

Wine’d Down Wednesdays

I wanted to post my comments on our Wine’d Down Wednesdays that have been going on for the last four weeks because there have been some fascinating conversations that have taken place. For those who are not familiar with this Wednesday event @ The Grove around 4:30pm we pop open a few bottles of wine (the number of which continues to grow) and sit around our big table and discuss the week. What are the latest projects you are working on? Any notable achievements or movement you have experienced?

What comes out of an event like this is community. Wednesday afternoon now seems to be our biggest coworking day. People are coming to connect, share their ideas, and discuss their struggles. Several of our friends from the city seem to pop in for the event as well.

So, if you are a member of The Grove or connected to one some way stop by on Wednesday afternoon and experience a space where the rivers of wine, conversation, and ideas are flowing into a sea of community.  

A Cultural Shift

In one sense The Grove is trying to bring about a cultural shift in New Haven, primarily in the way people and organizations work. Cultural shifts take time and are not easily nor quickly adopted. The Grove is providing a new kind of space to the people of New Haven. A space outside of home, outside of the coffee shop, and outside of a normal office. We are introducing a space that creates community, and inspires innovation. Members of The Grove find a launching pad for their ideas and passions in the context of others who are pursuing similar endeavors. Our hope is that the greater community would find The Grove to be a place that promotes innovation and poses creative solutions to New Haven’s issues and opportunities. 

If you are looking for a space to host an event, or find a community of like-minded individuals all working on interesting projects come stop in @ The Grove and check us out! 

Why “Social” Entrepreneur?

Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better. While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industries, a social entrepreneur comes up with new solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale.

Historical Examples of Leading Social Entrepreneurs:

• Susan B. Anthony (U.S.): Fought for Women’s Rights in the United States, including the right to control property and helped spearhead adoption of the 19th amendment.
• Vinoba Bhave (India): Founder and leader of the Land Gift Movement, he caused the redistribution of more than 7,000,000 acres of land to aid India’s untouchables and landless.
• Dr. Maria Montessori (Italy): Developed the Montessori approach to early childhood education.
• Florence Nightingale (U.K.): Founder of modern nursing, she established the first school for nurses and fought to improve hospital conditions.
• John Muir (U.S.): Naturalist and conservationist, he established the National Park System and helped found The Sierra Club.
• Jean Monnet (France): Responsible for the reconstruction of the French economy following World War II, including the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). The ECSC and the European Common Market were direct precursors of the European Union.

“A social entrepreneur is a person using entrepreneurial skills to look for new solutions to create social value, not necessarily to make money or create a new product,” The social economy usually develops because of a need to find new and innovative solutions to issues (whether they be socially, economically or environmentally based) By using social mission solutions to achieve not-for-profit aims, it is generally believed that the social economy has a distinct and valuable role to play in helping create a strong, sustainable, and prosperous society.

Successful social mission organizations can play an important role in helping deliver many key objectives by:

• enabling individuals and communities to work towards regenerating their local neighborhoods,
• showing new ways to deliver public services,
• helping to develop an inclusive society and active citizenship.