Bringing Richmond's Stories to Light

Richmond CIC is backing a new Community Connection initiative - and it's already live.

Richmond has plenty going on. The problem is that most of it stays invisible to anyone who isn't already in the room.

That's the gap that Richmond Snippets is designed to fill. Launched by local former journalist Judy Rees, and supported by Richmond CIC, the initiative uses community-friendly social media platform Bluesky to gather short, positive updates from local groups — schools, clubs, churches, charities, businesses — and share them in a single public feed.

At the heart of it is a growing network of Community Connectors: Richmond residents who want to help make local life more visible. Some will contribute to the feed. Others will spread the word, make connections, or simply turn up to be part of something. People come to it for different reasons - and they're all welcome.

The feed is already live and can be seen on Richmondshire Today, on the richmond.org website, and at https://tinyurl.com/richmondsnippets.

Anyone can read it. Contributing takes about thirty seconds.

Judy explains the thinking: "There's loads going on in Richmond — but we often hear only the bad news. The thing is, these days there's an information gap. We don't hear about the hyperlocal stuff. People like to know what's happening around them. When they didn't know about something they would have liked to be involved in, they get annoyed. They feel excluded, whether or not they actually are."

More volunteer contributors are needed, so that the feed becomes truly “crowdsourced”. We’re looking for people who:

have things to share with Richmond people
are interested to explore what’s going on
like to be in the know
want to make new friends and deeper existing relationships.

If that sounds like you, please connect with Judy using the details below.

A Community Connectors meetup is coming soon - a chance to meet like-minded people and find out how to get involved. Watch this space.

Richmond CIC is pleased to support the project. Making Richmond life more visible to itself - that's exactly what we're here for.

You can see the feed at https://tinyurl.com/richmondsnippets. To find out more or get involved, contact Judy Rees at richmondyorksfeed@gmail.com or 07979 495509.

With thanks to Sam Reed, NCTJ Darlington