ABOUT HAPPY CITY

Bristol’s a brilliant city. As Bristolians – brand new or born and bred – we’ve a lot to be proud of. We’re creative. We’re spirited. We’re never short of energy. But if we all got a bit more involved, could our city be even better?

Whoever you are, whatever your background, Happy City is here to help you make the most of your street, your community, your neighbourhood, your city. Maybe you’ve got a bright idea and need help making it happen? Perhaps you’ve got a little time to spare or some knowledge or experience to share? You might have an established organisation, looking for inspiration, ideas and people keen to help out…

Happy City exists to spread happiness. To bring people together, making connections between communities so people like you can make the change you want to happen. We don’t promise funding or formality. But you can be sure there’ll be no fat cats, forms to fill out or hoops to jump through. Just normal people like you, working together and using what we’ve already got to make our city better, brighter and happier than ever before.

How does it work?

By shifting from bad news, fear and consumption to celebrating and spreading success and creating caring, connected communities.

It brings people, ideas and resources together so happiness flourishes in every corner of the city. Once we’re done with the corners, we’ll fill in all the middle bits, and then plant happiness all around the country…

The Happy City initiative is delivered through events, communication campaigns and an online community hub is currently being developed to replace this holding site. If you’d like to get involved, can consider funding us, or simply want us to stay in touch, please use the address below.

To subscribe to our mailing list, use the subject header ‘Subscribe – Happy City News’, or you can also sign up to our RSS feed (if that’s your bag) and brace yourself for a Happy revolution.

Best wishes, The Happy Team

Call us on: +44 (0)117 230 0128 or write to us at: INFO@HAPPYCITY.ORG.UK

Happy City is an apolitical not-for-profit initiative. It has no links to any religious, political or extremist organisation, and no hidden agenda.

We just want a happier Bristol too. Read the rest of this entry »

The First Happy City Podcast is here.

Hooray! The first Happy City podcast is up and jostling for your ears’ attention.

The ‘happycasts’ (as some of us are already calling them) are just ten minutes long so they’re easy to listen to.  There’ll be a new one every month so it’s a great way of catching up on how Bristol’s Happy City project is developing.

The first podcast features a brief introduction to the Happy City project from Mike Zeidler, a chat with the Watershed’s Oliver Humpage about our online initiative, and the first in our regular series of Bristolians’ answers to a Happy Question of the Month. The first: just what IS happiness?

So, to get listening, use the media player below. You can also visit this page to download the podcast to your mobile device or computer for listening later, or subscribe via iTunes.

WEBSITE PLANS

This simple blog is simply marking time until the fully functioning Happy City website is unleashed in the summer of 2010.  The posts below give examples of the content you’ll be able to find on the site, which include:

Inspirations - quotes, questions, audio and video clips all adding depth to our understanding of happiness, where it’s being generated in Bristol and how to achieve more of it wherever you are

Pledges – to help people encourage others with similar passions, goals and aspirations to take action together to increase happiness in the city

Events – to highlight what’s going on that’s promoting happiness in the city

Solutions – to capture the detail of what works really well to create more and more success in  building happiness. Sharing the learning from past and present projects, campaigns, events, and ideas.

Get Involved - Matching skills, strengths, resources and time with inspiring opportunities so it’s easier to make a difference.

Newsletters – supporting the events and campaigning activity that helps Bristolians be happy.

INSPIRATIONS

This section will be mainly filled with things that local people are saying and doing.  For now, here are a few inspiring thoughts for you to digest:

“A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.”  Oliver Wendell Holmes

“You can’t remake the world without remaking yourself. Each new era begins within”.  Ben Okri

“The issues that face us are not just how to survive – obviously we are doing that somehow, but how to thrive – thrive with some passion, some compassion, some humour and some style.”  Maya Angelou

“Leadership is not a formula or a program, it is a human activity that comes from the heart and considers the hearts of others. It is an attitude, not a routine”. Lance Secretan

PLEDGES

This will be an active space where people can encourage others to join them in getting things done. We’ll be basing this section on the existing Pledgebank site, and here are some examples of Bristol based pledges already made there:

I, Fiona, will Organise a Love Music Hate Racism Event in Bristol but only if 4 other people will help out.

I, Eric Booth, will give £25 to Windmill HIll City Farm for their Save Our Farm Appeal, and I will complete a gift aid form but only if 500 other people will do the same.   Target met, pledge closed.

SBDigitalMentors
I, George Ferguson, will give one hour of my time to support the South Bristol Digital Mentoring project but only if 100 other people will do the same.  Target met, pledge closed.

bristolplastics
I, Scott Jacobs-Lange, will write to my local councillor to encourage BCC to collect plastic bottles on the kerbside collection but only if 25 other local people will do the same.  Target met, pledge closed.

EVENTS

This page will show events that highlight Happiness in Bristol, with connections to other sites which list events more comprehensively around the city. For example:

12th June
Easton Arts Trail, Easton
Totterdown Music Festival, Totterdown
Festival of Nature, Harbourside
19th June
Hartcliffe Millennium Green Environment Day, Hartcliffe
Music on Troopers Hill, St George
20th June
Bristol’s Biggest Bike Ride, Millennium Sq
Friends of Horfield Common Picnic, Horfield
26th June
Fun day, Redcatch Park

SOLUTIONS

The Solutions below are examples of the kind of projects, organisations and ideas that contribute to Happiness in the city. We can’t put the details of what works on this site, so we’ve simply provided you with the links from previous newsletters.

Community Resolve runs weekly workshops to help young mothers with relationship building and conflict resolution.
Carbon Makover helps people discover how to be more eco friendly
Grofun is a project where neighbours can help each other to produce healthy, fresh, low cost,  local food
Bristol Ecoshow uses artists to mobilize  communities in reducing Bristol’s environmental impact whilst having fun
Bristol Green Doors celebrates people who have ‘greened’ their homes and will be sharing their learning with the public
Streets Alive helps with organising your own street party event
Avon Youth Association takes converted busses to areas where facilities and support for young people is scarce
The Vassall Centre showcases barrier-free workplace design, offering work and conference space for all
The Invisible Circus puts on fantastic shows, brings derelict buildings to life, provides creative opportunities AND raises money for humanitarian aid.

GET INVOLVED

Advertised as ‘Hit The Spot’ in our newsletters, these are opportunities to get a chunk of the Happiness Action.   The new site will highlight opportunities all over the city with links to places like Volunteering Bristol. If you can gather a group together, we’ll happily come and visit you for an hour or so to talk about happiness and the initiative, or we can arrange a learning session to help you explore ways of increasing happiness where you live.  We’re also keen to build our group of volunteers to help out in a range of ways…details are on the other page of this Blog

NEWSLETTERS

Here’s the latest edition of our weekly newsletter ‘Spot Happiness’.  We’ve divvied up all the previous editions by their section headings in the posts below to make it easier for you to browse.

24^th August – UPDATE

‘Frequent Flyers’ of Happiness weekly update from the Happy City Initiative…

Happy New Year (ish)! We’re with the academics on this one – everyone’s got so much more energy for new starts after the Dog Days* of August, and Happy City is raring to go…

It’s new term time for us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/happycitybristol) and Twitter (http://twitter.com/happybristol) – so we’re looking for new friends! If you’re a bit of an on-line socialite and would be interested in helping manage/provide the content, we’d love to hear from you.

The ‘Happiest piece of Art in Bristol’ is now being fashioned from all the images of people, places and things that make people so happy to be in Bristol.  You can still add your own on our facebook page at http://fb.me/FghI7wbj or by emailing us.    The finished article will be on public display in the PORTENTS exhibition (18-26 Sept, College Green, organised by the ever inspirational Pierian Centre).

To share ideas and get involved with Happy City, join us in the evening of 9^th September in Bush House. We’ll offer a quick update on progress at the Happy City Initiative, a heads up on the brilliant ideas and opportunities for increasing happiness that have come flooding in, and an opportunity to explore the things that interest you most alongside others who want to get involved.  You’ll leave feeling happy, well fed and excited about the prospect of either getting involved in something fulfilling, and/or getting a boost for your own project by joining in.  If you’d like to come along PLEASE register by e-mail to mike@happycity.org.uk.  The event will be 6pm-9pm (arrival from 5.40pm) in the workshop space of the 3^rd Floor, Bush House, 72 Prince St, BS1 4QD

Our bid for Big Lottery grant funding was politely declined at the first stage so we’ve decided to write an open tender for fundraisers.  Please let us know if you can help us with either the fundraising itself, or with writing a good tender document.

Finally – we’ve got hold of some fascinating books on Happiness, and would love to have them reviewed by others.  If you’d like to borrow one in return for a few paragraphs of feedback/opinion, please let us know. We’ve got most of the books listed on our facebook page at http://tinyurl.com/3aary8b – please feel free to recommend others

Blame the Romans for the expression Dog Days…

Spot Happiness at

Here are the links to stories from around the world which look at what happiness means, and how to achieve it.

John de Graaf wants to make Seattle into America’s first Gross National Happiness City

Gretchen Rubin has written a book called The Happiness Project, which says the best way to be happy is to make other people happy

The Human Thriving Foundation claim to have cracked the DNA code for happiness

‘Be Happy Now’ writes Deborah Day in her new book

Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the American Federal Reserve says Happiness should be at the centre of thinking on economics.

Ross McDonald of Auckland’s Business School spots an international sea change is in attitudes to measurement of progress – move over GDP

washing your hands apparently has a real effect on the way you feel after having made a difficult decision

The links between meditation and Happiness are being explored with the help of The Dalai Lama at the Centre for Investigating Healthy Minds

A new book about Law and Happiness hopes to have a ‘profound effect on public policy’ – great to get lawyers on-side!

Todd Kashdan writes that it’s how you spend your money, rather than the money itself that makes you happy.

The Boston Globe offers tips on how to have a happy holiday courtesy of a range of behavioural scientists.

Srikumar Rao, says we shouldn’t mentally label things ‘good’ or ‘bad’ as they happen in his book called ‘Happiness at Work’

Researchers at the Framington Heart Study have found out something interesting about contagiousness of emotions