Community Corner

SomTwestival: Social Media Supports Somerville Homeless Coalition

You can participate online or at the Local is for Lovers Market on Sunday.

SomTwestival is part of a global movement. It also hopes to help people right here in Somerville.

And if you want to join, show up at the Local is for Lovers Market on Sunday, Dec. 22, at The Center for Arts at the Armory.

So, what is SomTwesitval? In short, it's a social media campaign aimed at helping a worthy local nonprofit, in this case the Somerville Homeless Coalition.

It uses social media, mostly Facebook and Twitter, to raise money for the organization, which works to prevent people and families from becoming homeless, according to Jennifer Lawrence, one of SomTwestival's volunteer organizers.

It's also part of the international Twestival movement that's happening in 67 cities across the globe, in places like Barcelona, Kuala Lumpur and Johannesburg. In each city, volunteers have selected worthy local causes to support through social media campaigns.

Lawrence, who, with Deb McLaughlin, has helped organize SomTwestival with 3 Graces Productions, said the social media effort began shortly before Thanksgiving by soliciting nominations of local nonprofits deserving of support. They received 200 nominations, she said.

Barbara Rubel, director of community relations at Tufts University, also volunteered to organize SomTwestival.

In the end, SomTwestival, as an official Twestival event, had to chose one organization to help, and with feedback from the community, they selected the Somerville Homeless Coalition. Helping prevent homelessness also seemed like a good thing to do during the holiday season, Lawrence said.

The Somerville Homeless Coalition works with 175 at-risk people in permanent housing, and last year it helped prevent 387 people from becoming homeless, according to an email from SomTwestival.

SomTwestival hopes to raise $1,000 for the organization, said Lawrence. To put that in perspective, $250 provides emergency groceries to five families for one week, according to the event's brownpapertickets page. In other words, a donation of $50 or $100 would go a long way.

Also, "It's the perfect time of year [to give] if you want that tax credit," Lawrence noted.

If you want to donate, you can visit the brownpapertickets page, or you can show up at the Local is for Lovers Market, where the Somerville Homeless Coalition will have a table and SomTwestival will be honoring some of the other worthy nominees.


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