Recent graduate Rebecca Drissi reflects on her experience as a Happy City intern.

Explaining to people exactly what Happy City does was the first and possibly the biggest challenge I faced during my internship. After many, many attempts I think I’ve finally managed to adequately summarise all the wonderful work such a sophisticated project does, from the grassroots to what goes on at a national level. Happy City is a not-for-profit organisation that campaigns for happiness to be taken seriously.  Their plan is a radically simple one: to grow happiness one city at a time by helping people live more, share more and enjoy life for less. They achieve this by campaigning & communication, managing projects, and running wellbeing training and events. They then measure all of this positive social impact by developing a better measure of prosperity, the Happy City Index, which focuses on qualitative and quantitative factors related to wellbeing rather than GDP. The result: a transportable model for happier, healthier cities of people living fulfilling lives on a flourishing planet.

As part of the Bristol Hub Social Impact Internship Scheme, I spent 4 weeks volunteering at Happy City HQ as a communications intern. I assumed responsibility for all their social media channels, managing social media updates and publishing interesting and relevant content to these pages. I also wrote event reviews and publicity posts for various local organisations in line with Happy City values. To properly raise the profile of Happy City, a comprehensive social media plan was needed so I created one, stuck to it, and logged everything. I was able to measure my impact using various Facebook and twitter analytics. I also utilised various social media channels to try and recruit more social media-minded volunteers to carry on my work after I left Happy City to go travelling. By effectively replacing myself, I ensure the online presence of Happy City will continue to cultivate its growing online community.

My main project was to implement an effective communications strategy for the Bristol Harbour Festival. This included working at the event both days, as well as writing a review afterwards. The whole experience was tiring but tremendously good fun! In the run up to the event I was responsible for raising the profile of the Happy City World Of Happiness, which was made up of ethical local organisations including BYEP, Avon Wildlife Trust, 91 Ways to build a Global City, Flexitarian Bristol, Collect Eco and others. I was even given the freedom to source some of these organisations on my own, and felt privileged to be able to network with such worthwhile organisations and support them on social media.

On the day of the event, I headed to the harbour and got stuck in with setting up. Throughout the day I maintained a live stream of updates on twitter and pushed the hashtag #WorldOfHappiness. I think I only truly realised how passionate I am about Happy City after talking to people at the event and explaining what we do, why we do it and how they could get on board. It was lovely that people who seemed unsure at first, or thought happiness was a bit ‘silly’, quickly found their reservations replaced with enthusiasm towards the Happy Index as an alternative measure of prosperity.

After the event, I wrote an article explaining the theme of the World Of Happiness, which was embracing diversity, as I thought this would provide appropriate closure and nicely wrap up the Bristol Harbour Festival for another year.

My internship at Happy City has been particularly well-suited to my ambitions and social-impact interests. I spend the majority of my time volunteering for causes that either promote environmental sustainability or social sustainability, but it’s rare to find an organisation that does both. By developing a measure of prosperity that avoids GDP, Happy City are simultaneously improving the wellbeing of people and planet, allowing both to flourish. My professional experience at Happy City fits extremely well into the set of causes I care about and I am excited to apply what I’ve learned to other organisations within Bristol as well as to my own charitable venture, Bristol Knititiative. This internship has given me plenty of opportunity to work independently and use my initiative. When designing a social media plan, I used a Social Media Manager job description from one of Happy City’s supporters, Pukka Tea, for inspiration as to how Happy City could improve their own social media presence. The social media structure I created encourages the use of web content management systems such as tweet deck or hootsuite. I also experimented with applying Google Analytics to the Happy City Facebook page.  When seeking volunteers to take on my role after I left, I used already established communications channels by contacting the existing volunteering groups at University of Bristol and UWE.

What stood out for me the most about working with Happy City was the level of trust within the organisation. I’ve learned that I work best when trust and assuming good intent in others provides the backbone of the working environment, and will use this to help me guide future employment prospects. Although I was working 9 to 5, it was never an issue when I came or went, or how long I took for lunch – I found that this flexible approach actually made me much more productive and inspired a creativeness that many office spaces seem to squelch.

Working with Happy City has provided me with a breadth of experience managing multiple social media campaigns, designing and developing communications plans and even some event management experience. However, critically reflecting upon the last four weeks I realise that I’ve gained so much more than another point for my CV. There’s something inspirational about working in an office where nearly everybody is a volunteer and the founders work at the same desks as everyone else. How often is it that the managing director is an ‘excuse me’ away? As the newest and youngest in the office, it was hugely reassuring to know that all my questions would be answered. Knowing that everyone was there because they really wanted to be is in itself a testament to the importance and relevance of the Happy City mission. As a recent graduate hoping for a social impact career, it is extremely encouraging to know that professional spaces where people share my values do exist! I also take comfort in the knowledge that thanks to Happy City, there will always be somewhere where I can do what I have always wanted and create positive change in the world.

To quote managing director Mike Zeidler; “You never really leave Happy City”. I feel welcome in their space and look forward to returning to Happy City when I’m finished travelling. I am extremely lucky to have made some excellent professional contacts. More importantly however, I feel fortunate to have met such kind, ethical, and talented individuals who share my excitement for life. Pukka tea on tap in the office was also a plus (living the dream!). I encourage everyone who cares about creating social change, and understands the ‘bigger picture’ of sustainability, to volunteer with Happy City.

For more information about how you can get involved, contact Volunteer Co-ordinator Dianne on volunteer@happycity.org.uk or join the Happy City Volunteers group on Facebook.