Earlier in November, Bristol Student Hub teamed up with the Careers Service to run our latest City Challenge.
27 student volunteers attended in order to work together and generate ideas which would help Bristol Student Hub reflect on their current methods of community engagement and recommend new ways to build sustainable communities within their network of alumni and volunteers.
Bristol Hub is part of a national network that includes student hubs in Southampton, Bristol, and Cambridge as well as individual projects that run at other institutions.
Each year the Bristol Hub network consists of over 1400 students, benefiting nearly 2000 members of the local community and working with nearly 140 individual community partners. Their aim in working directly with universities is to mainstream student social action and create active citizens for life! They believe that when students, communities and universities connect with issues in their local communities, real change can happen.
During the session, students worked in small groups to tackle the issue of sustainable community engagement and were able to build their teamwork and presentation skills by pitching their ideas to the charity. They came up with a number of great ideas for Bristol Hub to take away from the session such as; reward systems, event ideas, ambassador schemes, a mobile app, collaborations and many more!
Jasmine Sandford, one of our student volunteers, spoke with us about the session.
Why did you sign up for the session today?
I signed up for the session today because I’m currently doing the Bristol PLUS Award. I saw this opportunity in the Careers Service and thought it was a chance to do something different that I’ve never done before and actually give back to the community.
What did you get out of today’s session?
In today’s session, I got to make new friends and develop a range of skills like presenting, critical thinking, and coming up with new ideas, and I really had a good time.
Sorcha Young, Bristol Hub Manager, also talked about their experience.
What does Bristol Hub get out of doing a City Challenge?
We get so much out of doing a City Challenge. As a charity we work with students, we’re for students and we really want to engage with the student community. By doing this City Challenge we have a dedicated space where we can hear students’ voices, get your opinions on what you want to see from us and really make sure the transformational experience of volunteering that we know can happen, does happen and it’s exciting to get to see students that want to partake and share their opinions
Want to make a difference to other Bristol non-profits next term?
Sign up for our mailing list and hear about future City Challenges.
Through the City Challenges programme, you will develop skills such as group working, problem-solving, public speaking and presentation, innovative thinking and community engagement. They also count as hours towards your Bristol PLUS Award.