Bold Vision is good Big Society

I had a fantastic time on Sunday at the Big Bold Lunch Launch. The Hill Station was looking proper, the sun shone, the music was brilliant, the organisation was spot on. It's great that we were able to show off the new space at the same time as celebrating the Big Lunch. You may not know that there's a link now between the Big Lunch and the whole Big Society movement. The Big Lunch was started last year by Tim Smit who set up the Eden project, aiming to get the whole nation sharing food on one day, partly because cohesive communities are likely to be greener and more resourceful, partly to raise awareness of sustainable food. This year it launched Big Society week.

We can't escape news of Big Society at the moment as we hear about cuts to public services and how the gaps need to be filled at a more local level, with much more voluntary participation. It's extremely worrying for many of us, especially those who depend on these threatened public services for their basic wellbeing. However, there are some positive and helpful ideas coming out of the Big Society organisation (and they want our ideas to feed it too). Find out more here, including ideas such as Your Square Mile, a community-based bank that could benefit our Bold Vision.

Also, see here David Barrie's article sharing ten local schemes that are great examples of Big Society. These examples are very close in spirit to Bold Vision, and offer some ideas we could take and adapt.

Finally, one thing that really helps the spirit of Big Society is sharing your photos, videos and experiences of local community action. So do please contribute to the Telegraph Hill Visions Flickr group.