CHE fellow Claire Carpenter has been celebrating a £20,000 award from Scotland Unltd for her Melting Pot project to assist progressive initiatives. 

Later this year 3,000+ square feet of space in central Edinburgh will be transformed into a new kind of work and social space. Claire’s vision for The Melting Pot is as an incubator for progressive initiatives and a space that will inspire and support agents of social change working on imaginative and radical projects.

Claire, who graduated from CHE with an MSc is 2003, said: “The Melting Pot offers atmospheric spaces and 'just in time' resources to enable social change agents to connect, learn, work, play and make unusual things happen; ensuring their place of work and dreaming is accessible, attractive and affordable, whatever stage of idea and business development they're in.

“In physical terms it will be an ecologically and aesthetically sensitive open-plan cluster office, workshop and meeting space that offers affordable, serviced and well-equipped resources in a flexible, supportive way.”

She sees it being of interest to people carrying out work that enhances or contributes to social transformation in some way. Possible users might include people who want to launch an idea such as a community café or recycling scheme and who want to hire The Melting Pot’s resources on cost-effective time and services used basis.

Other users might include people running their own small or medium sized consultancy business who are tired of working in isolation and seek the energy and added-value for business that comes from being with people with similar ideals but with different skills and knowledge.

It might also prove useful for folk who live out of Edinburgh but want or need to work and meet in Edinburgh occasionally, especially those international festival visitors.

The £20,000 award offers a firm foundation on which to build but Claire is well-aware of the challenges ahead for her plans to assist what she calls the “more than profit” sector, with a large amount of funding for the project still being sought for front-ended capital costs.

Visit www.creatingconnections.org to read more information and fill in the on-line registration document. Claire said: “It is still very important for potential users of The Melting Pot to register, because I can use expressions of interest as a fundraising tool and to act as a waiting list for the hottest place to work from in this funky town.”