Images – Anna Bowkiss

Good For Nothing? Good for a lot, as it turns out. Every so often a group of people willing to offer their time, and do good – for nothing – meet in our cafes, so we asked them to let us know a little more about what they’re up to.

Here’s what they had to say:

“Good For Nothing has one simple mission – to bring communities together and make good things happen for people and planet through the power of giving. Thanks to the support of our partner Boston Tea Party, here in Bath we have been able to do exactly that.”

We’re one of 50 chapters around the world, gifting their time to curate fun, creative and lively events to help drive skills and expertise to local projects who are changing the world, but with limited resources. We’re also one of four lucky chapters who now have a permanent home at a Boston Tea Party café. We can’t thank the BTP team enough, as not only have they given us a home, they have helped us grow a community of do-ers, thinkers, tinkerers, organisers, and creators who wish to gift their skills to local projects that are changing our city for the better.

When we launched Good For Nothing in Bath we didn’t know what to expect. Well, ok, we knew Bath was one of the best places in the world and full of some truly awesome people, but we didn’t know whether our community would get as excited about Good For Nothing as we already were. We needn’t have worried, as since our first event last summer, we have grown our Good For Nothing network to over 150 people, and new members are joining us every day.

But we know there are people in Bath who haven’t yet discovered us, so if you haven’t yet had the pleasure of enjoying an evening of Good For Nothing at BTP Alfred Street, here is a snapshot of what happens at our events:

1. The Pitch Night – this is the first event that we host. Local projects are given a platform to showcase what they do, why they do it and present the challenges they need the ‘Good For Nothing’ community to help with. Guests meet, make new connections, listen, ask questions, offer ideas, help and then vote for the project they feel deserves a dose of ‘Good For Nothing.’

2. The Gig Night – following the Pitch Night, we host a Gig Night and this is where the ‘Good For Nothing’ happens. We create a fun filled evening, convene talented locals who wish to give their time/skills/expertise to the winning project, and then get everyone working together to tackle the winning project’s challenge. There are no rules, just dream big and be bold. Depending on the outcome, we host a number of Gig Nights, as time really does fly when you’re having fun!

3. Networking events – because despite Bath being quite a small city, there are amazing people who don’t always get the chance to meet. So a couple of times a year, we fill Alfred Street with the beautiful melting pot that is Bath. The BTP team serve up their usual delicious spread of locally and sustainably sourced food, and we have a jolly good time.

We hosted our first Pitch Night in September 2017, welcoming 10 amazing local projects into BTP Alfred Street, who pitched for support from the local community. Our winner was, Eat Move Glow, a local organisation offering holistic support to people affected by cancer. Through a series of Gig Nights, we have helped to bring together designers, brand strategists and skilled comms professionals, who have worked collaboratively to create a dynamic new brand for Laura and the team.

We’ll be working with Mentoring Plus next, to create a kinder community for vulnerable young people.

They say the greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members, so if our events are anything to go by, then the Bath community is truly great! We do of course recommend that you find out for yourself wherever you are based, so to join us on our Good For Nothing mission, head here to sign up.

Thank you Bath and thank you BTP!