twestival local - Tweet.Meet.Give. - March 24, 2011

Do you have practical building trade skills? Got some time to spare?

This year, Liverpool Twestival (24 March, date fans) is supporting local children's charity Lister Steps.

They provide family support and childcare in and around the Tuebrook area of Liverpool. They provide services for over 700 kids.

But they desperately need funds AND practical help to make sure their premises are safe and habitable.

Whilst we at Liverpool Twestival can try and raise as much money as we can, we're probably not very good at fixing roofs or doing a spot of rewiring. That's why we need you.

Lister Steps would love help from:

• Somebody to check the portakabin roofs and do some repairs
• Anyone who can help provide replacement doors
• Electricians
• Plumbers
• Landscape gardners
  

If you, or anyone you know, might be able to help, please get in touch with us at @TwestivalLiv on Twitter, contact @PaulineCoxy on Twitter or at Pauline@virtuallythesame.co.uk

Liverpool Twestival is taking place on 24 March 2011.

It will bring together the cream of the city's Twitterati for fun, frolics and fundraising (for this year's charity Lister Steps). We're expecting up to 200 people to come, meet and mingle.

But the event won't be as magical without your help.

Liverpool Twestival is looking for support from local businesses and individuals.

We would love people to help us with sponsorship, cash donations, donations of prizes for a raffle, or even to help us lay on some great entertainment on the night.

Twestival is a great way to get your company's name seen by loads of the city's most influential, talkative and tech-savvy individuals. By getting behind the event, you will get some priceless publicity and visibility both in the virtual and real world. Plus you'll be helping a good cause.

If you want to help, in any way, please either leave a comment here or get in touch with Liverpool Twestival on Twitter or Facebook.

Alternatively, contact any of the Liverpool Twestival team, whose Twitter accounts are linked on the right of this page.

Go on. You know you want to.

After a ton of nominations from all of our lovely friends and followers, Liverpool Twestival is pleased to announce we have chosen Lister Steps as our supported charity for the 2011 event.

Lister Steps is a community based organisation, founded by parents for parents back in 1997. They offer family support services and childcare to families living in and around Tuebrook. Tuebrook is in the top 1% of disadvantaged UK wards.

Lister Steps care for over 700 children aged between 6 weeks and 14 years each week.

Spokesperson Gaynor McKnight said " Its great news and just the uplift we need at the moment - The money is much needed and the publicity that comes with it 'the icing on the cake'."

Lister Steps operate from a series of 29 leaky portakabins on the site of the Old Lister Drive Primary School. Many of the children who go to Lister Steps experience disadvantage and the organisation works extremely hard to redress the balance and give the children opportunities to learn skills that will help them achieve their potential both academically and socially.

Lister Steps also enables parents to go out and find work, training or continue with their education and achieve their own potential. As well as supporting local families into work they employ 24 local people, many of whom were unskilled and unemployed before working with the charity.

During 2011 Lister Steps need to fundraise £10,000 to carry out essential repairs to their buildings and grounds to ensure that the building is safe and that the children who currently benefit from the services are able to continue to do so in the future.

To find out more about Lister Steps check out the website www.listersteps.co.uk and add them as a friend on Facebook

Like Miss Havisham's wedding cake, the Liverpool Twestival blog has sat alone and dusty for far too long. Luckily, that can now all change.

Once again, we are pleased to announce Liverpool's next Twestival do.

The event will take place on the evening of 24 March 2011.

We don't have a confirmed venue yet, but don't worry, it's all in hand.

So, what's it all about? Twestivals are annual events where Twitter users can come together, meet each other in the real world (I know, radical and scary, but trust me, it's fine), put faces to Twitter names, have a few drinks AND raise funds for a good cause.

Last year’s global event was a huge success. It raised $400,000 for Concern Worldwide, an education charity. 

This time we are focussing our attention on our own community and will be supporting a local cause.  We’re inviting nominations for a local charity, big or small, well-known or unheard of, to fundraise for at this year’s event. 

You can nominate a charity by commenting on this post with their charity name, and a paragraph telling us why we should fundraise for them. 

Deadline for nominations is 4th February, and the recipient will be chosen on 6th February by the organising team.

Guidlines for nominations can be found at the bottom of this post.

Who are this team, you ask. Well, briefly, your team this year are: Lead Organiser again this year is Pauline Cox, also known as @PaulineCoxy virtual PA type dude; Liverpool Twestival Global 2009 & Twestival Local 2009 Lead Organiser Mandy Phillips, also known as @M8nd1 and Tori Hywel-Davies, also known as @Twiverpool - creative chief at Mohawk.  On board for the second year is Nick Jones, also known as @LemurPatrol – who will be your blogger again this year.  No doubt we will put more info about this lot up in future posts.

If you're not already, keep up to date with what's happening by following @TwestivalLiv

In the mean time, know that it is coming, and watch this space. We have Great Expectations for it! (Arf!)

Charity nomination guidelines:

• A nonprofit will be selected with input from the community; nominations not voting
• Recipients must be a registered / established nonprofit, based locally and their work must have a direct impact in your community
• Nonprofit recipients should pinpoint a specific use for the Twestival Local funds
• Nonprofit recipients should have a social media and online presence
• The nonprofit selected is informed about Twestival Local and agrees to be the recipient
• Nonprofits should not be overtly religious or political in nature; or organizations whose aims do not result in a tangible, measurable impact
• 100% of funds collected through ticket sales and donations from the Twestival Local will go direct to the nonprofit.