“The schools you walk past, the busy roads, the clean cafes and the good and bad of local life: the drumbeat of town hall life connects with all of this and more.” So said former council chief executive Derek Myers ahead of last year’s 24-hour local government tweetathon.
The sector may be shrinking, plagued as it is by cuts, job losses and outsourcing, but its portfolio of work is still vast. And, according to the organisers of the #OurDay tweetathon, warrants celebration.
From just after midnight on Wednesday 26 November council employees and councillors will take to Twitter armed with the hashtag #OurDay to showcase the work they do. Last year’s event garnered 11,000 tweets.
This insight into the huge variety of jobs councils do is important for a sector that is often poorly understood and misrepresented. Recent graduate and council employee Wajeeha Aslam explains it well: “The stereotypical view that people have of councils is that not much goes on there, or they’re just making things worse. But it’s been nothing like that at all.”
Do you work in local public services? Show us what you do. To support the #OurDay tweetathon, which is organised by the Local Government Association and the Knowledge Hub and coincides with social media week on the Public Leaders Network, we want you to share your pictures and stories that represent a day in your life.
Afterwards we will be putting together a gallery of your images on the Guardian Public Leaders Network.
You can share your photographs or videos by clicking on the blue ‘contribute’ button on this article or you can download the free GuardianWitness app if you have a smartphone. Please use the description field to tell us more about the photo or video.
- GuardianWitness is the home of user-generated content on the Guardian. Contribute your video, pictures and stories, and browse news, reviews and creations submitted by others. Posts will be reviewed prior to publication on GuardianWitness, and the best pieces will feature on the Guardian site.
