We love Newport. Not just because of Friar’sWalk, the Celtic Manor Resort and the Transporter Bridge – we love it because of us. The people.

Newportonians: sometimes stubborn, often cynical and always very kind. We help each other out. We care.

What is #HatsOffNewport? In a nutshell: it’s people posting videos on Facebook and Twitter, nominating the kindest person they know in Newport. The person films themselves wearing a hat, they say who they think is the kindest person in Newport and then they “take their hat off to them”.

For example: “I nominate Josephine Blogs as Newport’s kindest person, because she’s always helping people out. She dropped everything to save me when my car broke down last week and she’s always there when I need her. “Josephine – I take my hat off to you.” [Doffs hat].

The person posts this video to their Facebook profile and/or Twitter profile and then asks three friends to make their own video. People can do it any way they like: they can be emotional, silly, or even mock the whole concept. However we’ll encourage them to tag their posts with #HatsOffNewport and make their posts publicly searchable in order to be to be eligible for a prize.

We’ll be looking for eligible videos and sharing them on our blog at hatsoffnewport.com. Who we are? Newport City Homes. We provide homes in Newport, in communities where people want to live. That means, we don’t just invest in buildings and provide new homes, we work with people to make a difference to lives every day.

We want to support residents to be happy and productive. If you want to know more, have a look at our website. Sometimes people get us confused with the council. We’re not the council, but we do often work closely with people at Newport City Council. We are a registered social landlord, which means we are a separate organisation that operates in a similar way to a charity.

This blog is written by Helen, Jess and Calum in the communications team.
Why are we supporting #HatsOffNewport? This is a perfect opportunity to hear about people’s real experiences and positive contributions to their communities. We’ll be collecting these stories on our blog, and we see it as a way of showing our affection for Newport and supporting the voice of residents.

#HatsOffNewport is about people making their own videos so we didn’t spend money on making fancy videos or pricey adverts.

The prize. All people who make an eligible video will have their names drawn from a hat. Five lucky winners will each get a £50 shop local voucher which can be spent in one of Newport’s awesome independent retailers.

Make sure you’re eligible. So we can find your post, remember to post it to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Vine and tag it by typing #HatsOffNewport in the post. You’ll also need to make sure your video post is viewable to everyone. On Twitter this should be easy as long as your tweets are public (and not “protected”). On Facebook you’ll need to ensure the post is public. You’ll find an audience selector tool most places you share status updates on Facebook, on photos and other things you post. Click the tool and select who you want to share something with.