It sounds like the beginning of a really bad joke, but it actually describes lunchtime at JHub on 25th April.
JHub is Pears Foundation’s operating programme. It houses nine different start-up charities that are currently supported by Pears Foundation. In addition to office space and seed funding, JHub provides these small organisations with skills training, consultancy, organisational development tools, a bit of inspiration through the JDOV video project and a monthly lunch where they can network and share ideas with each other.
This month marked a special occasion in which we welcomed some outside visitors to that lunch. They were from the Aziz Foundation’s newly-developed incubation hub. Several years ago, as the Aziz Foundation was developing its strategy, their staff came to visit JHub. We happily shared our journey of creating a positive faith-based space where Jewish values could be leveraged for wide social change. Little did we know that they would be inspired to create a similar incubation space where Muslim values could be actualised.
As they now prepare to open their Hub at the Trocadero, some of their new residents and staff returned to JHub for another visit. Again, we shared our best tactics of how we encourage positive interactions amongst our residents, and then we invited our guests to join us in one of our most effective tools: The Monthly Hub Lunch.
We were delighted to welcome these organisational “cousins” and they’ve promised to return the favour and invite us to their space as soon as it opens:
So stay tuned for the next chapter when “A Muslim and a Jew walk into a Hub at the Trocadero.”