What a year: 2020 in review

 

This year we brought arts, culture & creative happenings to Liverpool City Region... in ways we hadn’t quite anticipated.

We started the year with the Story Box, bringing stories to life in Kensington Library, Walton Life Rooms, Stanley Park, Toxteth Library and Kitty’s Launderette.

We spent the first few months of 2020 supporting fellow social enterprise Inclusive Economy Liverpool, working with them on their celebration night, spring workshops and climate change conversations.

In March we celebrated World Book Day in Walton Life Rooms with our friends The Bookworm Players

As the UK went in to lockdown we launched Writing for the Soul, asking writers to share their stories, poems and musings from our collective isolation. We brought it together with the help of Ronnie Hughes of A Sense of Place, local artist Louis Tuckman and dozens of local writers. Later in the year it was featured in Museum of Liverpool’s Covid-19 display.

In April we began to create activity packs for children, hoping to provide a little creative entertainment throughout lockdown and summer - we’ve now created over 1000 packs

In June we reaped the rewards of our joint flower sowing with Scouse Flowerhouse and All Saints Primary School. It was lovely to see the wildflowers in Thirlmere Park that are helping to brighten up this hidden gem in Everton.

In August we launched Imagine That! A creative writing competition for 5 to 13 year olds. Encouraging children to write, for the pleasure of writing. You can watch the winning stories and poems, performed by The Bookworm Players

At the end of summer we launched our virtual book club, bringing people together over zoom with a cuppa and a good book

Book Club Books.JPG

In September we supported Granby Street Market with their crowdfunder, helping them get back on their feet after a fire destroyed all their market equipment.

And finally, one of the biggest projects we ran this year was The Story Box at Home; as we couldn’t hold our usual reading events in libraries and community venues, we moved online and gifted hundreds of free books with activity packs to families over October half-term and the festive season.

It’s been a tough year for so many of us but we hope in our small way, we’ve made things a little brighter.

If you like the work we do and want to see us do more good stuff across Liverpool City Region in 2021, you can support us here

 

Celebrating Social Enterprise Day, who knew?

So, did you know today was social enterprise day?

A big part of the annual event is the #WhoKnew digital campaign, established in 2016 it gives social enterprises the platform to tell their stories and share the impact of their work. All day organisations across the UK and beyond have been sharing the impact of their work; a great tonic for such a tough year.

And it has been a tough year, there’s no doubt many of us have struggled as we take on the challenge of the new normal and building back better. So, today has been great to reflect on all the good we’ve been able to do; making 2020 that little bit brighter.

Here’s what we’ve got up this year; all with the support of our key partners; OrstedUK, Onward Homes, The National Lottery Community Fund and The Torus Foundation…

  • Hosted 6 Story Box events in libraries, community centres and a launderette

  • Created 730 children’s activity packs

  • Brought the Story Box at Home to 101 families

  • Published two lockdown zines

  • Created a brand new children’s creative writing competition

  • Supported Granby Street Market’s crowdfunder campaign

  • Planted wildflower seeds with All Saints Primary School part of the Scouse Flowerhouse

  • And hosted three book clubs for adults

And there’s still time in the year left…

Good Times at Thirlmere Park

Over the next year we’ll be spending time on Thirlmere Park, planting wildflowers with the Scouse Flowerhouse, hosting clean-ups and bringing more Good Times to a great pocket park in Everton; we’ll be working with local residents and fellow community organisations to make it happen.

This is off the back of our first Good Times event over the summer, full of games, yoga, storytelling, screen-printing and bubbles in a great hidden space.

Since then we’ve worked with local residents and young people from Catch 22’s National Citizens Service project to litter pick, helping to make a great park even better; so kids can play, neighbours can meet and we can all enjoy spending time outdoors.

Our next couple of community clean-up events will be on Sunday 6 October and on Sunday 3 November at 11am followed by hot drinks and light refreshments at Kitty’s Launderette, we hope you can make it!

Source: Thirlmere Park