Bristol Hub Impact Report 2015/16 


Bristol Hub

4th Floor, Richmond Building,

Queen’s Road, BS8 1LN www.bristollhub.org

HISTORY OF BRISTOL HUB Bristol Hub was founded in 2008 by a group of students. The vision was of a network that would connect students working across different causes so they could share insight, knowledge, and experience. Bristol Hub quickly expanded on its activities to provide training sessions, run conferences, and help students find jobs in the third sector. This year we’ve continued to grow and develop positive relationships with the university and local community, allowing us to act as a catalyst of student-led social change. This report sets out the impact of our work from July 2015 to May 2016.

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WHY STUDENT SOCIAL ACTION? 


It’s simple: for society to be successful we need individuals to participate. The students of today are the consumers, voters, workforce, leaders, disruptors and donors of tomorrow; they have the power and potential to shape a better world. Social action comes down to doing something positive for society whether volunteering, campaigning, or highlight a social or environmental issue that needs to be solved. University is a crucial time to engage young people because they can combine their academic interests with the time and energy to do something. But it is also a turning point in their lives - with the habits, interests and causes they pick up likely to become a part of their future lives.

VOLUNTEERING 


LOCAL ACTION Local Action This year, Bristol Hub has seen a huge increase in it’s number of volunteering projects from 17 to 37.

This includes projects such as: Schools Plus Schools Plus provides students with the opportunity to tackle educational disadvantage in Bristol through weekly tutoring placements. Activate Inspired by a team of Social Innovation Programme volunteers, Activate was formed. By leading an activities session, students increase the capacity of Avon Club for Young People, helping them to make a bigger impact. Way to Grow In collaboration with Bristol SU, Way to Grow gives students to get outside and garden in the local community. Forest Schools Forest Schools uses hands-on and interactive teaching sessions to teach children the importance of sustainability and give them the skills they need to act upon environmental issues. Desk to Difference Through Desk to Difference, students carry out invaluable work for charities from their own desk, in a way that suits them. Code Clubs Code Clubs engage primary school students in coding in a fun and interactive way.

248

students volunteered through Bristol Hub

20 
 students taught

53 children to code “Our children have all become 'experts' within school and have gained a lot of confidence and built positive self esteem around creating projects in coding club. They have particularly loved the projects that have taken a few sessions to complete and they have had to problem solve to complete - they get a great sense of accomplishment and are very proud.” Mez Kyte, teacher, Hannah Moore Primary School

86% of schools agreed that Schools Plus has increased the attainment and confidence of their students

99

students volunteered with Schools Plus

“It has been really rewarding. As an international student, I really feel I am involved more with the community and can be helpful to it instead of just receiving a higher education here. And helping itself is satisfying.” Schools Plus volunteer 2015/16

Find out more at http://bit.ly/bristolcodeclub

Committee 


15

Student leadership is at the heart of everything we do, and this year our dedicated committee of students have led the way in encouraging their peers to tackle social and environmental issues.

students led the Bristol Hub executive committee this year

Working as a team, the committee ran campaigns, events and fundraising activities, and three conferences.

“The Hub is an excellent platform to share anything and everything you are passionate about with a group of great people - from international development to social enterprise to sustainability. The support you get from the Student Hubs team gives you the tools to make all events and projects successful.” Sophie Payne, 3rd year Economics Student, Committee Member

“I couldn't recommend Bristol Hub enough for anyone that cares about helping others, raising awareness of the most important issues of our time and feeling like you've actually taken part in something greater than yourself!” Jack Atkinson-Willes, 5th year Engineering Student, Futures Forum Coordinator

SKILLED PLACEMENTS Social Innovation Programme This is
 an initiative for students to address challenges in the local area through research, ideas generation and project development. Student teams work alongside community partners to address challenges they’re facing while Bristol Hub provides extensive training for the student consultants. This year’s training sessions included: intro to consultancy, report writing, the business model canvas, human-centred design, public speaking and presenting. This training was delivered by staff from Bristol Hub, the national Student Hubs team, and partners such as Rob Browne from PA Consulting, Julie Ellison from Social Enterprise Works, with assistance from Bristol and Bath Regional Capital’s Edward Rowberry and Catherine Draper, and Basecamp’s Jack Farmer. This year we increased the number of student participants from 27 to 46, and partner organisations from 7 to 11. When surveyed at the end of the programme 89% of participants said their confidence in approaching challenges had increased, 92% said they had gained insight into the social impact sector and 83% said they were more likely to tackle a social challenge as a result of taking part in the SIP. 100% found working in a team to be a positive experience.

46 student consultants

11 charities or social enterprises

“Their ability to conduct research without needing lots of support was very much appreciated. The report was well drafted and relatively concise and focussed - good work! A very positive experience with a really great group of students.” Social Innovation Programme partner organisation, 2015/16

“Whilst completing the Social Innovation Programme, there were points at which the tasks we had undertaken felt overwhelming. We had to balance undertaking primary research, consolidating secondary research, organising our report's structure, planning a presentation, and actually writing our report. On reflection, most of the difficulty we had could have been solved by better time management! Our hard work was worth it. I believe our team achieved a lot and I learnt a lot of interesting new things along the way. Our report was on the power of art and I discovered a lot of fascinating information about the impact of art on the brain! Our team was left with the satisfaction that we had produced a document which would be really useful to the organisation we worked with.” Lily Blake, 2nd year Politics and Philosophy student, SIP participant 2015-16

Social Impact Careers 


We provide opportunities to engage with and gain experience in the third sector to encourage students to become social leaders in their future careers. Our Careers Beyond Profit Fair was a great success with over 150 students attending. The fair provided a fantastic opportunity for students wishing to find out more about working or volunteering in the third sector, social enterprise and sustainable business.

“I got involved mainly because I love being busy and wanted to get more involved with student social action. Hub seemed a great way to do that while connecting with like minded people and promoting social action among students now and after they graduate.” Mhairi Tordoff, 2nd year Politics and Sociology student, Incoming Careers

last summer we placed

27

social impact interns in third sector organisations The Social Impact Internship Scheme is a stepping stone for students to fulfil their potential in a third sector career and become the social leaders of tomorrow. Successful students are placed with host organisations that match their interests and location preferences, undertaking projects which last between 4 and 8 weeks over the summer break. We partner with a whole range of host organisations to create meaningful projects for student interns – from small social enterprises to national charities, including private sector businesses working on CSR initiatives. While taking part in the scheme, students are offered a comprehensive programme of training, enabling them to develop a broad skill set which compliments a career in the not-for-profit sector.

Sustainability The Skills for Sustainability programme is a structured framework of personal development opportunities, including training and work experience, for students interested in environmental issues. The Skills for Sustainability programme helps Bristol Hub and the University’s Sustainability Department achieve its shared objectives of increasing student engagement with sustainability issues, and fostering long-term behaviour change.

Green Impact This project involves staff teams working together to improve their environmental impact. This year 24 teams from across the university have been involved, and 23 students have worked on the project as Project Assistants and Auditors.

The structured framework allows both partners to maximise the impact of its existing activities, as well as provide a platform for new innovations and collaborations.

121

students took part in one or more Skills for Sustainability training session, workshop or volunteering activity

Certified Waste Management Training “I really enjoyed how relevant and informationdense it was. It wasn't boring at any point and there was a good level of interaction. Fantastic speaker. The hands-on approach, was just right, any longer and I would have given up - sorting through rubbish is certainly not enjoyable but it was a good experience nonetheless. It was also all perfectly organised, really enjoyable, thank you!” Lilo Roesch, Environmental Policy and Management Masters student, Skills for Sustainability participant 2015-16

Just Eat It Pop Up Cafe As a result of Skills for Sustainability, a team of students set up a food waste cafe event. Around 100 students attended the event. For the next academic year this will be run as a Bristol Hub student-led volunteering project.

Waste at Halls Working with Sustainability, Residences staff, and Bristol City Council, Bristol Hub has made several changes to improve efficiency of the waste systems at the halls of residence, including: Zero Waste Month: a behaviour change campaign at the halls of residence aimed at raising awareness about recycling and increasing recycling rates. Surveying: this included face-to-face communication with 379 students about waste issues and led to several improvements in the recycling systems at several halls.

These changes will save the university approximately £20,000 annually, and will also encourage higher rates of recycling.

Big Give Bristol Hub is the lead organised of this year’s Big Give working with UoB, Bristol SU, UWE, UWESU, Bristol City Council, British Heart Foundation and the Student Community Partnership. The scheme is expected to collect approximately 80 tonnes of waste from landfill and raise up to £200,000 for the British Heart Foundation and local charities.

Conferences & talks

205 100% 


Conferences Our conferences allow students to discuss and debate critical issues and evolving trends with leading professionals from these areas. This year saw the continuation of our three flagship conferences; the RISE social enterprise conference, the Futures Forum on climate change and sustainability and the International Development Conference, which collectively had 205 attendees. Key speakers included Thangam Debbonaire, the MP for Bristol West, and Andrew Garrad, chair of the Bristol 2015 European Green Capital Board. Speaker Series Our Speaker Series was coordinated by members of the Bristol Hub committee which aimed to bring a broad range of subjects to a Bristol audience. From talks on environmental economics, TTIP, the laws on drugs and the role of gender equality in climate change the talks engaged with pertinent issues and sparked discussion among the student attendees.

“Helping to coordinate the Bristol International Development Coordinator was a great way of developing my own management skills whilst also meeting people from the third sector in Bristol and beyond” Abby Scarborough, 3rd year Geography student, BIDC Committee Member 2016

conference attendees

of event attendees said they would recommend the event to a friend

Incubation 


6

student-led community projects were set up with support and guidance from Bristol Hub, ranging from an environmental impact workshop to a music sharing events for students and refugees

“Being able to take part in the Music Hack enabled me to meet so many interesting people from in and around the Bristol community and engage with them in a way that I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to do” Hackthon student participant 2016

The Change Maker Challenge This year, Bristol Hub hosted its second Changemaker Challenge, in the form of the Bristol Music Hack, an idea competition that gave students and young Bristolians 3 days to develop products or social enterprise ideas which use music to bring people together and solve real issues facing young people in Bristol. Day 1: To start off the competition, the theme of youth unemployment and the music industry was introduced by speakers such as Ujima radio’s Roger Griffith. This was followed by ideas generation and team formation, and teams began to put together their ideas! Day 2: Teams were given time for market research and access to software developers from the BBC, to receive advice on their ideas. Day 3: On the final day of the hackathon, the teams pitched to a panel of judges, including representatives from the University of Bristol, Saffron Records, Ujima Radio and GL Consultancy. A winning team was announced and awarded a prize of £2,000 worth of consultancy to help put their social enterprise into action! This event was run in partnership with Basecamp, UWE Enterprise, SimpleWeb and The Fringe of the BBC Radio 6 Music Festival.

LOOKING FOWARD

We want to keep on growing and supporting at the University of Bristol. From our understanding of the student body, we know there is a strong interest in our placements, and so we hope to continue to grow this area of work following pilots of different initiatives in Southampton and Oxford. There is also a lot of potential to support educational attainment in the local Bristol community through the Schools Plus programme, responding to increased demand for the scheme among schools. The intergenerational work of Student Hubs has received national attention from philanthropists, and there may also be scope to roll out innovative interventions in this space in the future. Overall, all social action opportunities are by student leaders and their interests, and address local community need.




“Having been on the Bristol Hub committee this year has been amazing not only for improving my team building skills but also for helping me learn more about management and leadership. These skills will become hugely important in the next few months as I become President of the committee and the experiences I've had this year will directly help me to lead a more creative and productive team. I've learnt so much about supporting each other positively and, more practically, how to tackle logistics as a priority. Having the experience of being on the committee this year has definitely made me more confident about thinking bigger for Bristol Hub next year.” Margot Tudor, 3rd year History student, incoming President

HOW TO GET INVOLVED Over the past 8 years we have been working in partnership with the Sustainability Department at the University of Bristol. We are very grateful for this support and are keen to now extend our connections to other departments, given how the Bristol Hub has evolved over the past few years. We would be grateful for the support and investment that is needed to grow the Bristol Hub, allowing us to provide opportunities for more students to take part in social action in Bristol.

WITH THANKS… Martin Wiles and the Sustainability Department, Judith Squires, Chris Willmore, Lynn Powell, Simon Wilde, Caroline Court, Ellen Parkes, Hayley Shaw, Molly Bishop, Fiona Highland, Amanda WoodmanHardy, Rob Brown, Ed Rowberry, Catherine Draper, Julie Ellison, Samantha Budd, Ryan Bird, Amy Walsh, Hannah Tweddle, and the team at Bristol SU. The student committee: Abby Scarborough, Adam Peter Barnett, Beth Mullan, Bob Marns, Ellie Rogerson, Hannah Swirsky, Harry Wells, Jack AtkinsonWilles, Kris Nikov, Margot Tudor, Sarah Brodie, Sophie Payne, Tabby Hill and Tarne Fidler. The Schools Plus Committee led by Georgia Price, the Code Club Committee led by Billy Reilly, the Activate Committee led by Chris Lloyd. The International Development Conference Committee, the Futures Forum Committee, the RISE committee with Inc. Society and all of our wonderful volunteers!

For more details on our activities, or questions about our impact, please contact [email protected]