Tag: City Challenges

City Challenges – Building Communities with Bristol Hub

Posted on by Careers Service

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.​

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Students rise to the City Challenge!

Posted on by Careers Service

This academic year we have run some amazing City Challenges, boosting students’ skills and helping local community organisations to increase their profile and impact.

More than 90 students from across all years and a range of disciplines have given an afternoon of their time to help eight non-profits solve a real dilemma they were facing.  

In February this year, we welcomed student organisation Bristol Hub, who wanted ideas on how to recruit more student volunteers and raise their profile and reach with students.

Students presenting their ideas at the Cider Project City Challenge

Bristol Walk Fest joined us in April, looking for ideas to attract a younger crowd to their annual event and brainstorm fundraising ideas.

Last month we hosted Bristol Cider Project, a University of Bristol initiative, which needed ideas to source windfall and waste apples from Bristol residents to make into a community cider. 

“Overall, the City Challenges Programme was instrumental in providing me with valuable insights into how community-focused initiatives can create a positive impact on society.” City Challenge student 

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How a City Challenge helped Bristol Walk Fest make strides

Posted on by Careers Service

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?  

Decolonising Bristol walk

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.  

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Five reasons why you should take part in a City Challenge

Posted on by Careers Service

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?

Table of students at the careers service working on the most recent City Challenge with BristolHub

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.” 

Will, from BristolHub, smiling

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.”  

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GAIN City Challenge – kicking off a new year of the City Challenge programme!

Posted on by Careers Service

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.

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City Challenge: Student volunteers help to launch Hartcliffe City Farm cut flower farm.

Posted on by Careers Service

A group of smiling students outdoors at Hartcliffe cut flower farm
The student volunteers and Careers Service Community Engagement Team

For the most recent City Challenge, University of Bristol students helped local organisation Heart of BS13 to come up with ideas to promote the opening of a new cut flower farm, focusing on sustainable growth, soil health, and biodiversity. 

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City Challenges – Your opportunity to create lasting change in the community!

Posted on by Careers Service

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.

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City Challenges: Students Provide Solutions to Real-life Problems

Posted on by Careers Service

 

The City Challenges are an exclusive programme of events which provides you with the opportunity to engage with Bristol’s charity sector, gain informal work experience, and develop your skills through working on real life challenges posed by local community organisations. 

The first City Challenge involved piloting a problem-solving session focusing on reducing HIV stigma within the medical community, which was supported by the Brigstowe charity and the Careers Service Community Engagement team. 

A total of 10 students took part, developing their teamwork, communication, and decision-making skills to create presentations in which they gave details of how Brigstowe could approach raising awareness in the medical community of unfair and untrue beliefs around people living with HIV.  

This City Challenge allowed students to explore their interest in community outreach as well as learn about how they can be aware of and actively combat their own biases around their attitudes to people who are living with HIV. They explored issues such as how General Practitioners and students can destigmatise their work when dealing with people living with HIV. Brigstowe will now be able to use these ideas for possible future funding bids, marketing campaigns and training sessions. 

The next City Challenge will be based ask the question ‘How can we encourage male university students to talk about their mental health?’ and students will be working with Talk Club and the Community Engagement team. This challenge will be eligible for the Bristol PLUS Award and held on Wednesday 27 October from 11.30am to 5pm and you can sign up on myopportunities.