As part of our work to encourage local institutions to build on current activities and undertake volunteering opportunities within the week NUS and Student Hubs awarded 4 grants of £500 to projects that demonstrated the value that student volunteers contribute to the local communities.
We received over 20 applications. Below are the four projects that received funding.
Imperial College Union, London School of Economics, UCL – Talk To Me London
LSE, UCL and Imperial applied to the Student Volunteering Week Grant for their collaborative project entitled to ‘Talk To Me London’. The aim of this student-led campaign is to tackle social isolation by getting Londoners talking on and around the campuses of LSE, UCL and Imperial, as well as on the London Underground and out in the local community. By designing and distributing badges that say ‘Talk to Me London’, the team hope to build positive relationships between students and other residents of London, whilst also creating an excellent platform to discuss the power and impact of student volunteering. The campaign hopes to enable and embolden students to engage with their local community in an easy and accessible way.
Liverpool, John Moores and Liverpool Hope – The Really Big Student Volunteering Day
‘The Really Big Student Volunteering Day’ sees the Higher and Further Education Institutions of Liverpool coming together to publically celebrate the wide range of voluntary and charitable opportunities available in Merseyside. The event itself will take the form of a jam-packed day, consisting of approximately 10 one-off volunteering projects taking place consecutively across the city, from assisting in a hospital to refurbishing a charity’s head office. By being as interactive as possible and supported by follow up sessions, students currently unengaged in volunteering will hopefully be provided with an easy and accessible route into continued volunteering. The event aims to benefit local organisations, whilst also championing the role of students within wider society, working towards a greater sense of community cohesion.
Oxford and Oxford Brookes – Good Deed Day
Students from Oxford and Oxford Brookes universities come together to publically celebrate student volunteering by partaking in the ‘Good Deed Day’ and giving back to the local community. Organisations and individuals will submit requests for things they would like a student/s to help with leading up to the day. Additionally there will be good deeds allocated randomly to students, who then will go out into the city, wearing bright SVW t-shirts, to perform their good deed. Ideas so far range from anonymously washing a strangers car in a car park to litter picker in a local park. The event aims to highlight the positive impact volunteering has, both for students and the local community, whilst also being a fun day for the Oxford community as a whole.
Falmouth – Spring Clean Day
The ‘Spring Clean Day’ aims to see students out in the local community of Falmouth, helping to brighten up and revamp a number of sites around the town. Including activities such as beach cleans, litter picking and redecorating some communal spaces, the day hopes to bring together the student population of Falmouth with the local residents by encouraging them to get involved in volunteering.