A year of Twitter in the City

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Thursday, 31 December 2015

The primary aim of Twitter’s community outreach efforts in San Francisco is to build bridges between the employees at HQ and the community around us. And this year has been one of learning and growing with the community at large: we strengthened relationships with our neighbors (residents, nonprofits, activists, local businesses); we opened our doors to partners and neighbors by hosting more than two dozen community events at our HQ; we significantly augmented our financial support to local community organizations; our employees increased active involvement in the neighborhood in a variety of volunteer activities.

Throughout the year, our employees also made meaningful connections with community organizations by reaching out individually and as teams to support local community needs and initiatives. A few examples: some of our colleagues have been going to Bessie Carmichael School every week to tutor kids in math; some head to Glide for a big dishwashing session after fried chicken Thursdays; and some make regular monthly visits to the Boys & Girls Club to help kids with their homework, and to Curry Senior Center to spend time helping seniors get online savvy.

The biggest accomplishment of the year, however, may have been the opening of the Twitter NeighborNest, which was developed after a six-month listening tour (to determine most critical needs) and three months of testing which programs to offer. The magic of the NeighborNest is that it’s a place where neighborhood partners — schools, youth-focused charities, homeless advocacy organizations, and others — can come together and connect with each other as well as with community-minded Twitter employees.

As promised, here are our top four “Twitter for Good” moments in San Francisco this year:

Most people who met me this year invariably heard me say, “You crawl before you can walk, run, fly and soar.” We feel we’re just at the “walk” stage, and are excited to build on all we’ve learned to have even more meaningful, and sustainable, impact in 2016 and beyond.