Crying all the way to the Happiness Bank

Why does this email make me even grumpier?

Dear [contact name],

CONGRATULATIONS! [name of group] has been identified as a particularly brilliant part of Bristol Life and somewhere that develops Happiness.   We've arranged an AMAZING OPPORTUNITY for you to feature in the forthcoming Happiness Bank AND have the chance to have FREE film training resulting in a film made about what you do. 

READ ON….

Happy City has been working with communities all around Bristol asking them what are the best things in their area, and what projects, ideas, initiatives are doing great things that increase happiness in all sorts of diverse ways.   Your project has been put forward as an all round brilliant thing.

We are currently busy building the soon to be launched ‘HAPPINESS BANK’ online – which will be a place where everyone can share what works and how it’s done. This is so that others can learn from it, support it, be inspired by it, replicate solutions and develop their own ideas with the help of this shared wisdom. 

We will be featuring your work in the bank of solutions and would love it if you could enter the details on our development site so the real story can be shared and your top tips for making change happen can be made available to other people across the city.

It should only take around 5-10 minutes to make your deposit in the Happiness Bank and in return we can promise:

·         Publicity – we will be sharing the best of the stories with all our contacts in local press, radio, tv and online media outlets

·         Social Media – we’ll be tweeting, facebooking and Youtubing the best of Bristol

·         When the Happiness Bank is launched in autumn 2011 your project will be showcased to people across the city and beyond interested in supporting growing happiness by volunteering, supporting or funding the best projects around.

In addition, the TOP 5 projects (judged by members of our trustees and partners) will be offered the opportunity to have a bespoke FREE FILM MAKING WORKSHOP resulting in a short film about their inspiring work which we will be sharing extensively and you will be able to use for your own publicity, recruitment, funding bids, evaluation…  This is worth £1000s to the 5 chosen projects, as part of a pilot Community Voice project funded by Lottery Awards for All.  Plus, EVERYONE who shares their story in the Happiness Bank will be in the running for this opportunity when the full Community Voice project is launched next year (subject to further funding).  More information about Community Voice is on the website at http://www.happycity.org.uk/happy-city-community-voice.

To share what you do on the Happiness Bank and enter your project for the Community Voice film workshops please sign in athttp://www.happycity.org.uk/user/register  and create your own username and password.

Once registered click on the Happiness Bank tab and then on the ‘deposit’ button (or go straight to http://www.happycity.org.uk/node/add/solution) and fill in the online form.  The site should do the rest – and your story, your wisdom and your ideas will be available to everyone who searches for an answer to their challenge, or an idea or activity to support.

Thanks in advance for adding to the Bank and to the Happiness of communities everywhere.  We’ll let you know by the end of September if you’ve been chosen for the Film project and in the meantime we’ll keep telling people about what you do.

Best wishes

The Happy City Team
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In case you don’t already know about us, we are Happy City, a small grassroots organization, based in Bristol, aiming to:

·         Enable communities to focus on happiness, and the things that positively influence that.

·         Share pre-existing sources of happiness and support the growth of new ones, through uncovering, highlighting, celebrating, and sharing the learning from what is already working across the city and use that learning to support change to happen faster, better, with greater participation and fewer natural resources.

For more info go to www.happycity.org.uk, or call 07836 706978