A brightly hued San Francisco bus is offering showers for the homeless. Lava Mae is a non-profit organization dedicated to giving back to homeless people via a mobile location for them to shower. The startup does this by renovating surplus City of San Francisco buses to include accessible showers.
The charitable organization recently raised $58,000 through a crowdfunding project on Indiegogo for their first prototype. While they are based in California, the idea is to provide showers for the homeless in over 25 cities by working with other community groups who have shown an interest in Lava Mae's programming. In addition to providing dignity and hygiene to those who live on the street, they also hope partnering with other like-minded organizations will result in new ways to help this marginalized group.
Why This Trend Is Growing
- Mobile Showers
- Using renovated buses to provide showers for the homeless offers an opportunity for disruptive innovation in the mobile hygiene industry.
- Charitable Crowdfunding
- Raising funds through crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo presents an opportunity for disruptive innovation in the non-profit fundraising sector.
- Collaborative Partnerships
- Working with community groups and like-minded organizations to expand shower services for the homeless creates opportunities for disruptive innovation in the social welfare sector.
Industries Being Reshaped
- Mobile Hygiene
- The use of renovated buses to provide showers for the homeless creates a disruptive innovation opportunity within the mobile hygiene industry.
- Non-profit Fundraising
- Charitable organizations utilizing crowdfunding platforms like Indiegogo can disrupt the traditional fundraising methods in the non-profit industry.
- Social Welfare
- Collaborative partnerships between organizations aiming to provide services for the homeless present an opportunity for disruptive innovation in the social welfare industry.
