July’s Joys
We are well and truly into summer, although this year it’s looking a little bit different. We have continued delivery of some of our core activities, such as the Social Innovation Programme, to give students additional opportunities to develop skills and make an impact in their community outside of term time. We have also been busy sharing our work at conferences across the country, speaking about best practice in youth social action and our work empowering active citizens for life.
Summer SIP Showcase
Over the past 6 weeks, 15 University of Winchester students have been working on briefs as part of the summer Social Innovation Programme (SIP). This wrapped up on 28 July with the 3 teams presenting their reports in front of a panel of experts, including Sue Murphy, Head of Business Development and Digital Marketing at Paris Smith LLP, Jenna Foster, founder of Get Up and Co, and Faustina Edward, Student Hubs’ trustee and recent LPC Masters in Law graduate.
The first brief was for the Boaz Project, a charity who support individuals with learning disabilities to engage in work, and build relationships. The student consultants were tasked with research and exploration around where in Hampshire the Boaz Project could sell wordwork pieces made by their participants.
The second brief was for the Friends of Winchester Cathedral, who are looking to recruit new members to maintain, and share the story of, the Winchester Cathedral. This team researched best practice and created materials for the recruitment of new members.
Finally, the third brief was to support Tutor the Nation to expand their research and evaluate their current volunteer recruitment and retention methods so that they can continue to tackle educational differences through free online tutoring.
Congratulations to all of the students who took part in the summer Social Innovation Programme, and to our Winchester Hub Programmes Manager, Sorcha Young.
Community Engaged Learning Conference
In Kingston, the team presented at the Community Engaged Learning Network’s first annual conference. At the event, Harry and Ewelina presented a case study of their work at Kingston University, highlighting Student Hubs’ approach to engaging more students in positive social action through alignment with their curriculum and course assignments.
Harry Hodges, our Kingston Hub Manager said:
“We were thrilled to receive feedback and recognition from practitioners and experts in the field, highlighting our best practice in scaffolding learning and skills across multiple years within the same course at Kingston”
2021/22 Webinar and Workshop Offer
This month, the national team launched our webinar and workshop offer for 2021/22. We are so excited to share our line up for the upcoming academic year. As in 2020/21 we will have a free student series, and a paid series for staff in the Higher Education and non profit sectors.
Our student series begins on the 5th October with a session on “Supporting and Managing Volunteers”, topics across the 7 webinars range from project management to resilience to preparing for the workplace. This series is free for all students, regardless of whether they are part of a Hub or not because we believe developing these core skills is essential for young people to feel empowered to become active citizens for life.
Our staff series kicks off on the 16th September with “Reaching and Engaging University Student Volunteers”. The sessions for staff are a mixture of webinars and workshops to offer our colleagues a space to learn and collaborate. Tickets cost £20-£35, and we are offering a package to attend all 8 sessions for £200.
You can get your tickets on Eventbrite – look forward to seeing you there.
In the Spotlight
This month we wanted to put our 2020/21 Hub community in the spotlight. The students and staff members at each of our five hubs have achieved incredible things in the last year, demonstrating impressive adaptability and leadership in the face of unexpected challenges.
You can read more about the impact we have had at a local level in our impact reports from Bristol, Cambridge, Kingston and Winchester.
What to Look Out For
- We are recruiting for our next Kingston Programme Manager, applications close on Sunday (1 August!) so get yours in ASAP. We are also recruiting for our next Southampton Hub Manager, applications close on 15 August
- We are also on the look out for some Trustees to join our Board. We are particularly interested in hearing from individuals with experience in fundraising, Higher Education, marketing, technology or safeguarding
- We launched our updated training offer with packages for students and staff. If you are interested in receiving training from Student Hubs get in touch with our Sales Director at fiona.walsh@studenthubs.org
- You can now register your organisation’s interest in the Worthwhile Training Programme, a six month offer for early career staff
- We shared a blog on what ‘Pride’ means to the LGBTQ+ staff at Student Hubs
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