City Challenges are a programme of events providing students with the opportunity to engage with charities and social enterprises.
Students can support worthwhile organisations whilst developing skills to improve employability. By taking part in a City Challenge, students gain experience in problem solving, presentation skills, innovative thinking, and community engagement.
Changes Bristol
This month we invited Changes Bristol to host our latest City Challenge.
Changes is a user-led organisation and a unique recovery service for those in mental distress.
The aim of their service is to provide an opportunity for those suffering from mental distress to move from isolation, withdrawal, and dependency to becoming active and contributing members of their immediate and wider community.
They do this by working with volunteers to provide 21 peer support groups per week, a telephone befriending service, a weekly walk and talk session and a nature connection group, along with other ad hoc events and training sessions.
The Challenges
Changes were keen to hear from students on what is affecting their mental health, and how they can help improve it.
They posed 2 Challenges to the group:
- What needs to change to improve the mental health of the student population?
- What services are available to you if you are struggling with your mental health, where are they lacking, and what services/provisions would help you?
The answers and ideas the teams came up with will help Changes Bristol move forward in their three-year student focused project, where they are aiming to improve the mental health of the student population in Bristol.
Outcomes
Some of the ideas that the participants came up with include:
- talks for students, such as on mindfulness and wellbeing techniques
- live chat bots to help students access the support they need quickly at any time
- wellbeing check-ins through an app
- yoga sessions
- mental health walks
- animal therapy.
“Meeting new people and coming up with ideas was extremely fun. Getting to know others and their experiences was interesting.” – City Challenge participant.
Skills
Skills that the students attending thought they developed during the session included:
- teamworking
- ideas generation
- public speaking
- leadership.
Get involved
Organisations
Find more information about City Challenges, Bristol PLUS, and other ways to get involved on the Careers Service website.
Students
Find out more about City Challenges and other ways we can help you stand out to employers on the Careers Service website.
If you have any questions about developing your skills, getting work experience, or anything else relating to careers you can speak to us on live chat, or pop in to 5 Tyndall Avenue.