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.
Streams Learning Hub
The Streams Learning Hub is a co-working space for teenagers in central Bristol. It provides a flexible space for young people to gather, learn and connect with online providers and in-person workshops and events.
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.
City Challenges are a programme of events providing students with the opportunity to engage with charities and social enterprises.
Studentscan support worthwhile organisations whilst developing skills to improve employability. By taking part in a City Challenge, students gain experience in group working, problem solving, public speaking and presentation, innovative thinking, and community engagement.
The MoSAIC (The Museum of Science, the Arts & Interdisciplinary Collaboration) is a Bristol based business taking STEAM learning to the next level and reducing the disadvantage gap using cross-curricular education. They show young people and educators how creative the STEM subjects really are through online and downloadable teaching resources and accessibly priced in-person creative school workshops aimed at secondary school aged students. The MoSAIC came and hosted a session with us at the Careers Service on Tyndall Avenue. Students worked together and came up with ideas to support the marketing of services and diversification of revenue streams.
City Challenges went off-campus with a trip to Sparks Bristol on Wednesday 8 May.
The event started with a tour of the different departments at Sparks and a talk about what Sparks does, why it was founded, and what they stand for.
Lucy, Volunteer Coordinator, said
“Sparks Bristol is a sustainability and creativity hub. It’s a community space in the centre of Bristol where we want people to explore what a fairer and greener future looks like. And they consider the climate crisis, the cost of living crisis, and what we can do with an empty, massive building right in the middle of the city.”
At the Careers Service we work in partnership with external organisations to bring a range of experiences to our students, and we like to think our brilliant students give a lot back too!
This year we have been working closely with Tutor the Nation, who have taken part in City Challenges and run mock interviews for our students as part of becoming an endorsing organisation for the Bristol PLUS Award.
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.
In April, Bristol Walk Fest partnered with the Careers Service to run a City Challenge, with the goal of getting input from student volunteers on ways to engage younger walkers with their events.
Bristol Walk Fest is an annual walking festival, with events taking place all over the city. We chatted to Jennifer Graham, their 2023 Event Manager, about their experience.
Jen, can you tell us what Bristol Walk Fest is all about?
Bristol Walk Fest began over a decade ago and is a celebration of all things walking. The free festival, which regularly attracts over 7,500 attendees year-on-year, showcases the best of Bristol for everyone to enjoy, either individually or with others.
The festival takes place during May to coincide with Living Streets’ National Walking Month and offers a wide variety of walking activities, personal challenges, self-guided walking routes and discussion events. The (mostly free) walks and activities are for all backgrounds and levels of fitness.
For our latest City Challenge, we teamed up with local Bristol charity BristolHub, an organisation that supports University of Bristol students to tackle social challenges, learn about issues and connect with each other.
So what is a City Challenge? and why should you take part?
We caught up with Hannah (BA Politics and International Relations) and Apoorva (MA Economics and Finance) who attended the most recent City Challenge, along with Will Westgarth of Bristol Hub, to hear all about the programme and why they recommend you take part in a future one. Here are their five top reasons :
1. You can make a real difference to a local charity
During a City Challenge, you help a Bristol non-profit tackle an issue they are facing. You learn about a local cause, help improve them and have a positive impact on the local community. Our most recent challenge was with Bristol Hub. Hannah, who’s in her second year, said, “I aspire to work in the non-profit sector so insight into a small charity and the way it works was really helpful for me.”
The charity gets a lot too.
Will of Bristol Hub said, “The Challenge helped Bristol Hub further understand students’ desires when it comes to opportunities and how we can best reach out and connect with students. They came up with incredibly detailed and well thought-out presentations, with suggestions which we will take on board for the next academic year.”
Following a highly successful first year of City Challenges, Girls Are INvestors (GAIN) took part in hosting the first City Challenge of the new academic year.
GAIN City Challenge group
Students tackled the question of ‘How we can encourage women into finance and bust myths?’ in groups before presenting their ideas to GAIN, allowing the charity to use these ideas in their future work.
Students have been engaging in a variety of problem-solving activities to help local charities in the Bristol area. So far this year, students have worked with local charities including Brigstowe, Talk Club, and St Werburgh’s City Farm.
