Network of Kindness Celebration Planning


Well folks, it has been a little over a week, and I believe I have sufficiently recovered from the last few months of event planning that culminated in the celebration last Thursday night. The event was our first Network of Kindness Celebration!

    One of my placements while I am here in Liverpool is with a charity called Together Liverpool. I am very fortunate to be working with a team of incredible individuals who recognize the need for change in our communities, and who are passionate about making those changes happen. Together Liverpool works across the Diocese of Liverpool to support churches, charities, and communities to further their social action, address the root causes of poverty, and to build community by connecting people through our Network of Kindness. This network will connect people with others who are doing similar work in the area, but also spark ideas for new projects. The next step with the Network of Kindness is our Communities of Practice, which we will be facilitating in deaneries, and these will be sessions to learn about best practices, how to run projects, and ways to advance in a church or communities’ social action journey.

The team wanted to have an evening to launch the membership of the Network of Kindness, and to also acknowledge and celebrate all the social action that is already taking place in the Diocese of Liverpool and surrounding areas. I was asked to take the lead on planning the event, and I cautiously accepted the challenge. I had never done anything like this before, and I saw it as a great learning opportunity. But wow, event planning is not for the weak-willed, and I learned this early on.

We did not have a template for planning an event, so I started by asking a lot of people a lot of questions. And I knew that quite a bit goes into event planning, but I did not realize the extent. First, you need a location and a date. After that, a theme. Then you can design the invitations. While doing that, you need to come up with an invite list, and it needs to be about double the number you actually want to show up, because not everyone will be able to attend. Somewhere in all this, you also need to be searching for catering options. It is dizzying! When choosing our location and caterer, we were very intentional about everything being local. So, the location we decided on is a church that hosts a weekly coffee morning to combat social isolation. I was fortunate enough to visit one of these mornings with Together Liverpool’s executive director, and it was incredible. We were immediately welcomed, and heard numerous stories of how important this coffee morning is to the community. It is life changing and life saving. So, hosting the event here was an easy choice. Choosing a caterer took a bit more time, but finding Michelle from Bay Tree Catering CIC was worth the effort. Michelle is doing incredible work in the community, “making cookery education fun and accessible for all.” Michelle made scouse, which is a traditional Liverpool stew, and we had pickled veggies and bread to go along with it. It was the perfect addition to the night.

Throughout the evening, we heard from a few different projects that are running. We heard from our executive director, James, about the importance of the network and how to become a member, and what that means. We also played some human bingo to get people up and talking. Thankfully, socially anxious me did not have to play because I made myself look busy checking to make sure everything was going smoothly haha. It was a wonderful night, and I am so thankful for this experience and that everything went according to plan. Incredible things are happening in Liverpool, and I feel very fortunate to be a part of and witness the social change here. 

I am not sure what my next project with Together Liverpool will be, but I look forward to the adventure, and I will keep you updated. Ta for now!


Here is the link to donate! 

https://www.stthomaswi.com/give/ 

Select "give online" and then write Cunningham YASC in the memo box.

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