The Angels' Den

Four finalists in a contest based on the TV programme Dragons' Den will present ideas at the church on Sunday. Organiser Martin Morse said: "In some ways this is a contrast to Dragons' Den, in which it sometimes seems that the judges concentrate only on money making. We shall look at the social consequences of ideas, while still appreciating that ideas need to be sustainable, too. In other words they need to make money."

He added that vicar Steve Hellyer had promoted a policy of involving the congregation in several activities to make the church relevant to the 21st century. Among them is the creation of two lively youth groups for children from 11-14 and young people from 14-18. The two groups have been built up over the past ten years by youth worker Yvonne Morris.

Organisers of the project are keen that the capitalist concept of enlightened self-interest should feature in the thinking of young entrepreneurs.

For instance, among the ideas that will be pitched on Sunday are fairtrade fashion for teenagers and a green points idea, where receipts for items purchased which are deemed to be "green" can be exchanged for points and eventually qualify for prizes from participating companies.

As well as Mr Morse, a director of marketing company marketRx, the other businessmen behind the St Matthew's Church initiative are Jonathan Winter, director of Oxford-based research and technology firm Career Innovation; and William Peachey, a senior manager at Capgemini.

The final four ideas will be presented to judges on Sunday. Start-up grants of up to £1,000 will be offered to winners, possibly more than one. All are welcome at the event on Sunday at 2.30pm.

Each of the four finalists either helps to protect the environment, supports a charity, or has other social benefits. Apart from the green points and fairtrade fashion ideas, there is an idea for rickshaws in Oxford (apparently allowed even though the rickshaws were first tried here some ten years ago); and an idea, in the wake of the recent campaign to promote healthier school food, to promote fairtrade school dinners.

Mr Morse said: "The green points scheme, called Super Hero, would among other things reward people for travelling by bus. Obviously, most of the teenagers are too young to drive anyway, but they want to change adults' way of life and thinking."

Mr Morse came up with the idea for Angels' Den after hearing of an American teenager's idea to get people looking down the sides of sofas to raise money for an anti-slavery charity. The idea was an extraordinary financial success.

He said: "It got me thinking that teenagers have great ideas and that adults have something to learn from them."

Now he hopes the Angels' Den idea can be rolled out more widely, and that if the Oxford business schemes are successful, they might generate funds to support more Angels' Dens projects.

He said: "We want to give young people the opportunity to see they can make a difference. Ideally we want them to see that business isn't just about making money, but it can be about achieving good things for the world."

"Also, it's been really interesting for adults to see that young people can be this creative and reach out in ways that adults can't."

Interestingly, in the light of reports that girls are higher achievers in teenage years than boys, all the ideas came from girls.

Mr Morse said: "The numbers of boys and girls are fairly evenly matched in the youth groups, so we wonder why only girls have put forward ideas.

"We are hoping that the boys will become more involved when it comes to selling a project."

He added: "Right from the very first meetings we had, the young people were coming up with all kinds of ideas - they're really switched on to this."

Hope for the future there, then.